POLL: Chicago IX - Chicago's Greatest Hits

25 or 6 to 4 will probably walk this, but Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is? should get some rep in a just world.

"Street Player"

( ... despite being four years off in the future)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onF1shg2now

^^^ embedding disabled, sry!

(It's too bad there was no room for Terry Kath's "Free Form Guitar" on here, ha!)

"Wishing You Were Here" because of the great vocals by the Wilson brothers. But there are lots of other great songs here too.

Only tangentially related, and probably not worthy of creating a thread over, but I just found out Peter Cetera's first solo album actually came out in 1981 and was by every definition a flop. It must be true, because it was unknown to me until just now. Downloading it at the moment for crucial examination!

Okay I recant abt '2525,' "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?" is the stupidest song ever. I heard it when I was first learning to drive and I temporarily lost my steering with all my 'wtf.'

How's it stupid?

It's got such a self-important vibe, like the kind of person who tells you to not take things so SERIOUSLY man and just GO with the FLOW. Like I expect him to just poke you in the arm until you lie & agree that he just blew your mind. It sounds like Paul Anka melting in a smug, smug sun.

I seriously asked the guy at the record store the day I heard it if it was Paul Anka's attempt at writing a flower-children cash-in.

Tho that he harangues even the guy randomly selling his watch is kind of funny.

With this thread, we dedicate ourselves, our futures and our energies to the people of the revolution...and the revolution in all its forms!

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

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Didn't see that coming.

Hmmm.. My two favourite Chicago singles on top? Not quite what I expected, to say the least...

I bought a CD of this today so I'd have something to play for an hour-long drive home. I already have it on vinyl. I do that sometimes.

They're one of my three favourite clunky Top 40 bands from the early '70s, along with the Guess Who and Three Dog Night. I'm fine with the latter two; my residual love of a few Chicago songs makes me a little more queasy.

A quick "Last x Chicago songs I heard" primer.

"Just You 'N' Me," "Wishing You Were Here," "(I've Been) Searchin' So Long" - 3.0 each. Starting with the first of those, they were just insipid ever after. Disliked all three then, still do.

"Call on Me" - 5.0. Marginally less insipid.

"Color My World" - 6.0. I think I liked this when I was 10. Okay, if I'm not listening too closely.

"Make Me Smile" - 6.5. Catchy, but the worst DCTS--David Clayton-Thomas Syndrome--offender on the album.

"25 or 6 to 4," "Saturday in the Park," "Beginnings" - 7.0 for each. The first skirts DCTS; generous rating. As I've written before, my nostalgic attachment to "25 or 6 to 4" is 100% rooted in going to Toronto's CNE as a kid. It was one of the key songs that would blast out as you rode the Polar Bear or some other midway ride. "Saturday in the Park" I didn't really like at the time, but I've warmed to it over time; it's not "Hello It's Me" or "Let's Stay Together" or "Stay with Me," but it is the summer of 1972. "Beginnings" is the only unabridged song on here, so there's a superfluous minute of noodling at the end, but it holds up well.

"Feelin' Stronger Every Day," - 8.0. I think I liked it at the time, but more so over time. As comical as this might sound, I think the last minute or so--the guitars, after it revs up--is about the glammiest they ever got. I mean, you know, in context--it's Chicago.

"Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?" - 9.0. Definitely one of my favourite singles from 1970, used really well in American Hustle. Listening today, I was thinking it's more or less the same song as the Spinners' great "They Just Can't Stop It the (Games People Play)" (most mysterious placement of an opening bracket ever): walking around in a daze, immersed in a crowd, taking it all in but mind drifting elsewhere.

"Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?" - 9.0.

What do you think of the album version, with a minute of piano improvisation and a long instrumental intro? (It's a cute musical pun - "does anybody know what the time (signature) is?)

The two I like on here are "Wishing You Were Here" and "Saturday in the Park". The former has a lightness of touch that's more ethereal than wimpy or sentimental like too many of their other ballads.

how the fuck did "Make Me Smile" get zero votes. maybe because it's just one piece of Chicago II, but what a piece it is!

idk that it beats "25 or 6 to 4", no, but no votes?

I actually like all of these songs a lot. "Colour My World" is a mood.

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.)