Tag: Chicago the Band

Two anniversaries today in 1965: The Beatles’ “Beatles VI” reached number I, where it stayed for VI weeks …

… while the Rolling Stones’ “Satisfaction” was their first number one single:

Today in 1975, Chicago released its fifth album:

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We begin with a song that was set on this date (listen to the first line):

The number one song today in 1955 was probably played around the clock by the first top 40 radio stations:

Anniversary greetings to David Bowie and Iman, married today in 1992:

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One strange anniversary in rock music: Today in 1968, Paul McCartney and Jane Asher attended a concert of … Andy Williams:

Eleven years later, not McCartney, but Elton John became the first Western artist to perform in the Soviet Union.

Four years later, David Bowie’s suggestion reached number one:

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Readers know how I feel about the band Chicago.

I mentioned here last week while compiling my own list of Chicago favorites that Chicago had two concerts next week, in Madison Sunday and in Appleton Tuesday.

I have three tickets to Sunday night’s show. I will be going for the fourth time, after the Dane County Coliseum in Madison in 1987, the Fond du Lac County Fairgrounds in 1997, and the EAA in Oshkosh in 2010. The house trumpet and trombone player will be going for their first time.

As you can imagine, I’m pretty amped about this. So maybe some concert music is appropriate here:

Over the last year between the 50th anniversary of Chicago’s forming and its first album, “Chicago Transit Authority,” various music publications have come out with their definition of the top songs in Chicago history.

Between that and Chicago’s upcoming appearances in Madison May 12 and Appleton May 14, I figured I’d create my own list, based only on my own musical preferences (so note the paucity of ballads, even though some people mistakenly believe Chicago does nothing but ballads) and nothing else. (Which, you might notice, are generally based on how the song sounds, not the words or whatever message the song is intended to have.)

First, the less-than-top-10, not necessarily in order of enjoyment:

Number 10 is arguably Chicago’s first song — the first track from their first album:

Number nine is from the ’80s:

Number eight is from their first album, CTA for short:

Number seven is the first Chicago song I remember being a Chicago song:

Number six is from “Hot Streets”:

Number five comes from “Chicago III”:

Number four …

… and number three come from CTA:

Number two, from “Chicago II,” is a song about writing a song:

And number one …

… and, well, number 1A …

… since “Make Me Smile” and “Now More Than Ever” are the first and last movements of “Ballet for a Girl from Buchannon.” (“Colour My World” was in our wedding.)

The number one album today in 1975 was “Chicago VIII”:

The number one single that day:

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The number one British single today in 1963:

The number one single today in 1970:

The number one British single today in 1976 replaced a single that had the title of the new number one in its lyrics:

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Today’s first item comes from the Stupid Laws File: Today in 1956, Ohio youths younger than 18 were banned from dancing in public unless accompanied by an adult, the result of enforcing a law that dated back to 1931.

The number one single today in 1965:

The number one British single today in 1971 was the first number one by a singer from his previous group:

Today in 1977, Patti Smith broke a vertebra after falling off the stage at her concert in Tampa, Fla.

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Today in 1963, the London Times’ music critics named John Lennon and Paul McCartney Outstanding Composers of 1963. Two days later, Sunday Times music critic Richard Buckle named Lennon and McCartney “the greatest composers since Beethoven.”

The number one album today in 1969 was “Led Zeppelin II” …

… the same day that the number one single was this group’s last:

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