POLL: Chicago IX - Chicago's Greatest Hits

I don't know if there is any band that has benefited more from their singles being severely edited down (or "butchered", as the Chicago fans have complained). My love for "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?" is directly inverse to its length: the longer the version, the less I like it. Especially the album version that overlays the v.o. over the last verse. Give me the ultra-short version that just kicks right into it.

I do think that song is a prime candidate for the "Songs where the singer/protagonist comes off as a serious dick without meaning to" thread, hippie division, if it has not already been listed there. (see also: "Signs", by Five Man Electrical Band, the ultimate example of this theme).

The Spinners song has more of an emotional kick to it, for me, especially the proto-"Fool in the Rain" part where she turns out to have been waiting for him after all (I guess both songs are riffing on the old doo-wop song "Silhouettes" by The Rays or The Diamonds).

"Beginnings" is another example. An affecting love song in its chopped-down single version, but interminable at full-length. As a friend once said of it, "She could have slipped off to have a quickie and come back by the time he's done pontificating".

I once listened to the complete suite that originally contained "Color My World" (lugubrious, short, weird) and "Make Me Smile" (rockin') and all I recall is some extra, useless guitar noodling.

It took me years to realize that there was a call-and-response in "Saturday in the Park" between two different singers ("can you dig it?"/"yes I can").

I assume this came out before "If You Leave Me Now"? Their best ballad. "Woo hoo hoo hoo baby please don't go!". Even there, they had to stick a silly little flute solo at the end. They never learned.

I only know the single version of "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?" There's a bit of what I assume you're talking about at the beginning, and I actually love that part.

I have a slight preference for the Spinners song, but they do strike me as similar. Thought of a poll, but it'd be 93-0 for the Spinners. (Listening today, I caught some spoken-word buried in the mix of "Does Anybody..."--not sure if I ever noticed that before. Voices in his head.)