Hard Habit to Break:A Look At Chicago’s Best Songs
Hard Habit to Break:A Look At Chicago’s Best SongsBy Kevin Christian L.Santos
Since forming in 1967, Chicago has come a long way. They started as a politically charged rock band with a badass horn section and would sometimes go the experimental route with face-melting live performances. Soon, the band evolved to a softer sound and churned out numerous hits with their power ballads. This proved to be a smart move since the band became one of the world’s best-selling groups of all time, having sold more than a whopping 100 million records.
They’ve had 20 Top 10 singles, 23 gold albums, 18 platinum, and 8 multi-platinum albums throughout their career. What’s more, they’ll be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2016. So imagine the look on your favorite titos, titas and baby-boomers’ faces when it was announced that the group will be performing in Manila on January 20, 2016 at the Araneta Coliseum.
More than 30 years on, Chicago’s songs prove to be timeless classics. Given their extensive discography, it’s hard to narrow down their best tracks. Let’s take a look at some of their best songs, in no particular order, to whet your excitement for their concert.
8. Saturday in the Park
Saturday in the Park pretty much captured the essence of summer with this radio-friendly track. It’s a fun, mellow, and merry song that will have you tapping your feet and bobbing your head. It’s the band’s highest-charting single ever, and sold over a million copies in the US alone.
7. Free
Taken from Chicago III, Free is an explosion filled with brash funk and soul that’s guaranteed to get you dancing. Chicago’s horn section gets ample air time in this energetic rock and roll number.
6. Questions 67 and 68
Chicago’s first album The Chicago Transit Authority prominently featured the influences that jazz and progressive rock have on their music. Questions 67 and 68 was the band’s debut single and showcased how they effortlessly weaved jazz into their own brand of rock and roll. That horn section and Danny Seraphine also pounding away at the drums is such a treat to hear and watch.
5. A Hit By Varese
Released in 1972, the album Chicago V contained the pop-friendly Saturday in the Park, which was the band’s biggest hit at the time. The album opened with A Hit By Varese, which was a tribute to French American composer and Father of Electronic Music Edgard Varèse. The track featured how polished and tight the band can be by melding different genres into one explosive song. A Hit By Varese sounds like an experimental song that blends jazz and rock perfectly.
4. Make Me Smile
Their self-titled album was considered by many as the band’s breakthrough record. It produced a number of Top 40 hits, one of which was Make Me Smile. This was the band’s first single to hit the Top Ten, reaching number nine in the Billboard Hot 100 in 1970. The song was actually the first part of the album’s centerpiece, a 13-minute track called Ballet for A Girl in Buchannon.
3. Hard to Say I’m Sorry
The Chicago 16 album, which was released in 1982, featured a different sound from the band. They ditched their more jazz-influenced and horn-driven sound in the 70s and instead opted for more distorted electric guitars as what was popular in the 80s. The 80s were a weird time and here we see Chicago journeying towards powerballad territory. The band was considered past their commercial prime at this point. Along with You’re The Inspiration, this was one of the tracks that helped revitalize Chicago’s career. And with that, the song became a pop classic, becoming a mainstay in classic rock radios and in the many taxis that you’ve ridden.
2. Love Me Tomorrow
Love Me Tomorrow once again sees Chicago in ballad form. It’s sad proof that they’ve done away with the eclectic sound which made them in the 70s. However, this track is undeniably powerful. Peter Cetera’s vocals are a thing to behold here and are paired perfectly with a soft rock melody.
1. 25 or 6 to 4
With their transition to powerballads, most people forget how Chicago used to be a kickass rock and roll band. 25 or 6 to 4 serves as the exclamation point to this statement. It featured a powerful and aggressive blaring horn section, and also showed one of the greatest guitar riffs of all time–further defining Terry Kath as an underrated guitar player, if not a bonafide guitar hero/god. He was more than capable of shredding some face-melting and mind-blowing licks, as shown in the video above. This track shows how much Chicago is still a force to be reckoned with.
What are your favorite Chicago songs of all time? Sound off in the comments section!
