aking their name from the day of Caesar's assassination, the members of The Ides of March found the perfect vehicle for their brand of jazz-driven rock with a #2 hit called "Vehicle."

The group consisted of singer Jim Peterik, guitarist Ray Herr, organist Larry Millas, bassist Bob Bergland, trumpeter John Larson, drummer Michael Borch, and horn-player Chuck Somar. All of them were students at Morton West High School when they teamed up to form their own group. In an exclusive interview Jim Peterik explained, "We took our name from Julius Caesar, which we were all studying.

Debuting in the Billboard Top 40 on March 11, 1970, "Vehicle" was the second The Ides of March song released by Warner Brothers Records after the group's debut single for the label, "High on a Hillside," failed to chart. It was the lead track from the Chicago-based band's album of the same name, which first charted on June 27, 1970, peaking at #55 and remaining on the charts for 12 weeks.

We started playing sock hops after the high school basketball games and developed a following. The '45 we pressed ourselves and sold locally, 'No Two Ways About It,' caught the attention of Parrot Records and they signed the group."

The group was offered a chance to play at the Cellar, a local club, but only if they'd appear as Batman & The Boy Wonders. The group members chose to stick to their guns. Their first hit single, "You Wouldn't Listen," just missed the Billboard Top 40, peaking at #42. The most notable aspect of the single was that the group's name was misspelled on the credit as The I'des Of March. By the time of the act's second second single, the #92 "Roller Coaster," the confusion was cleared up, but the band's rollercoaster chart rides let to some dissatisfaction with Parrot Records.

Warner Brothers Records showed an interest in the group and signed it in 1969. However, when the band's label debut failed to chart, they turned to a song Jim Peterik had written about a variety of shady characters. Peterik recalled, "'Vehicle' was a song which I wrote and we had been performing at all our local shows. It was getting a really strong response. So when our first single for Warner Brothers didn't make it, the company asked us for a tape of our latest songs. We put 'Vehicle' fourth on the tape, thinking it was mainly a live song. When they received it they flipped over 'Vehicle' and, with the addition of the answer-vocal parts, it became one of the fastest breaking singles in Warner Brothers history." Perhaps because of the success of similarly styled bands like Blood, Sweat & Tears and Chicago, "Vehicle" enjoyed a smooth ride up the chart. Debuting at #98, the single cruised into the #2 spot in its ninth chart week.

Unfortunately it was The Ides of March's only Top 40 hit. "Superman" faced a chart of kryptonite, stalling at #64. After 1971's #73 hit "L.A. Goodbye," the group failed to chart again. Peterik went solo for several years before teaming up with Dave Bickler and Frankie Sullivan to form the group Survivor, which reached #2 with the single "Burning Heart." In the 1990s, The Ides of March reformed, with much of the initial core intact, to return to the touring circuit.

One postscript about "Vehicle": in 1988, Sylvester Stallone chose the jazzy song, which recalled "Gonna Fly Now" from his smash movie Rocky, as background music in his action film Lock Up, as he and his fellow prison inmates restored a Ford Mustang in the prison garage.

- Christopher G. Feldman, The Billboard Book of No. 2 Singles, Billboard, 2000.

 

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