There’s more to Chicago than 25 or 6 to 4

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 08/09/2018 (2950 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Since their inception in 1967, American rock band Chicago, who perform live at Bell MTS Place on Saturday, has released 36 albums.

We know this because ever since the group’s third record, Chicago III, hit store shelves in 1971, almost every one of Chicago’s subsequent releases has carried the band’s name followed by a Roman numeral indicating its succession in their vast discography.

It’s only fitting Chicago chose to go that route, album title-wise, given how much numbers help tell the tale of the legendary octet: 51 years together as a touring and recording act, worldwide album sales of more than 100 million units, 21 top-10 singles including three hits, If You Leave Me Now, Hard to Say I’m Sorry and Look Away, which topped the charts.

Heck, even the title of two of Chicago’s best-known tunes carry a numerical reference. Questions 67 and 68, the band’s debut single, is reportedly based on an intimate relationship founding member Robert Lamm experienced in the years 1967 and ’68. And 25 or 6 to 4, also penned by Lamm, is a nod to the time of day — either 3:35 a.m. or 3:54 a.m., he’s still unsure — when he wrote the horn-driven anthem.

To ready concert-goers for the band’s expected near-three-hour performance, which will mark the second time Chicago has graced the downtown venue in the past two years, we offer a by-the-numbers look back at their storied history.

Three: According to the band’s official website (chicagotheband.com), Chicago has employed 25 different members, three of whom, Robert Lamm (vocals, keyboards), Lee Loughnane (trumpet, flugelhorn) and James Pankow (trombone), have been part of the mix since Day 1. In 1967, Lamm, Loughnane and Pankow hooked up with Walter Parazaider, Terry Kath and Danny Seraphine to form the Big Thing, a project they dubbed “a rock and roll band with horns.” In late 1967, by which time Peter Cetera (bass guitar, vocals) had joined the fold, they departed the Windy City for Los Angeles, where they quickly landed a recording contract with Columbia Records.

40: Cost in cents in 1969 to ride the Chicago Transit Authority, Chicago’s 24-hour public transit system. Originally, Chicago was billed as Chicago Transit Authority, a moniker they shortened after being threatened with legal action by the actual CTA.

The group’s 1969 debut, Chicago Transit Authority, which included the 7:54 opus Beginnings, is the lone Chicago album cited in the 960-page tome 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

440 million: Number of watches sold worldwide in 2014, an almost 50 per cent drop from the amount sold 20 years earlier. In the 1970 hit Does Anybody Really Know What Time it Is, lead singer Lamm spends the first two verses talking to strangers, people who ask him “what the time was that was on my watch.” OK, that query doesn’t quite work the same way in 2018. According to a recent survey, 75 per cent of people between the age of 16 and 34 rely on their cellphone to tell time. Also, a separate study found that almost 80 per cent of teens have never worn a watch.

220,000: Average number of people who pay a visit to New York City’s Central Park on July 4, on an annual basis.

In a 2015 interview, Parazaider recalled how Lamm came up with the idea for Saturday in the Park, one of Chicago’s signature tunes. “Robert came back to the hotel from Central Park very excited after seeing the steel drum players, singers, dancers and jugglers. I said, ‘Man, it’s time to put music to this.’”

By the way, if you’re of Italian descent and want to drone along this Saturday night when Lamm sings “a man selling ice cream, singing Italian songs,” don’t get too worked up if your mother tongue fails you during the next line, when Lamm breaks into the “Eh cumpari, ici nari” part-of-things.Lamm improvised it on the spot. The official lyrics for Saturday in the Park, a top-5 hit in 1972, list “fake Italian words” for that section of the tune.

22: Number of times we Canadians utter sorry on a daily basis. Hard to Say I’m Sorry, the first single from the album Chicago XVI, spent two weeks at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 in September 1982.

In the chorus, songwriter Peter Cetera croons, “Hold me now, it’s hard for me to say I’m sorry,” a line that no doubt fell on deaf ears in the Great White North.

According to a survey, the average Canuck says sorry 22 times a day, for everything from paying for their double-double with change (“Sorry, I’ve only got dimes and quarters”) to asking a restaurant server for assistance (“Sorry, could you bring us some ketchup for our fries?”)

US$115.1 million: box office earnings for the film Karate Kid II. Cetera, Chicago’s lead vocalist, left the band in 1985. Glory of Love, a tune he co-wrote with Canadian producer David Foster in 1986, was featured on the Karate Kid II soundtrack (1986) and spent two weeks at the top of the Billboard charts.

In 2015, Cetera was asked about a long-rumoured Chicago reunion, to which he replied, “You know there might be a lot of money in that but I just can’t perform that emotional surgery. I’m having too much fun out there right now with my band doing what I’m doing.”

20 million: Elvis’ Christmas Album, recorded by Elvis Presley in 1957, is the top-selling Christmas record of all time, with worldwide sales topping 20 million.

Chicago didn’t get around to recording a Christmas release of their own until 1998, when they added Chicago XXV: The Christmas Album to their canon. The album, produced by the E Street Band’s Roy Bittan, encompassed chestnuts such as White Christmas, Silent Night and Feliz Navidad along with an original composition, Child’s Prayer.

5,000: Before his death in 2015 at the age of 83, John Berg was responsible for more than 5,000 album-cover designs. Berg was also the brains behind Chicago’s distinctive logo, which he used on multiple covers including Chicago X, the 1976 Grammy Award winner for best package design (on that one, the Chicago logo was made to resemble an unwrapped chocolate bar).

In 2012, an exhibition of Berg’s work was staged in Hampton, N.Y. On display were covers for albums such as Bruce Springsteen’s Born to Run, Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits, Simon and Garfunkel’s Bookends, as well as seven titles by Chicago, including ones where their logo appeared engraved in wood (Chicago V), embossed in leather (Chicago VII) and in the middle of a thumbprint (Chicago XIV).

35: In June, right in time for wedding season, the website popsugar.com compiled a list of the top-50 songs a bride and father of the bride could waltz to during the post-ceremony reception.

Checking in at No. 35 was You’re the Inspiration, the bazillion-selling, saccharine-heavy single from 1984’s Chicago 17. Strange but true: for some reason, snippets of You’re the Inspiration can be heard during a pivotal battle scene in the 2016 superhero flick Deadpool, a choice John Hugar, a contributor to entertainment website Uproxx, described as “one of the many subversive moments” in that movie.

55: Price in U.S. dollars for a Sept. 8 ticket to Beginnings — The Ultimate Tribute to Chicago at Seneca Niagara Resort & Casino Bears Den, Niagara Falls, N.Y. Compare that to C$63.25 — about US$48 — the lowest priced ticket for An Evening with Chicago at Bell MTS Place that same night. During Saturday’s show, Chicago is expected to play their second album Chicago (commonly referred to as Chicago II) in its entirety, along with a greatest hits set that looks to include mega-hits such as Call On Me, Feelin’ Stronger Every Day and If You Leave Me Now.

Here’s one more number to consider: you know how If You Leave Me Now includes the line, “if you leave me now, you’ll take away the biggest part of me?” Well, the largest organ in the human body is the skin — each of us has approximately 10 kilograms of skin — which means lead singer Cetera wouldn’t be looking his best if the gal he’s referencing does indeed take away the biggest part of him.

david.sanderson@freepress.mb.ca