Post by erik on Jan 29, 2023 0:27:54 GMT -5
The third Top Ten hit for Chicago, the band that fused the brass sections of big-band jazz into FM rock beginning in 1969, is in this week's Pop Music Hits Spotlight.
DOES ANYBODY REALLY KNOW WHAT TIME IT IS? (Chicago; CBS; 1970)—Perhaps no other rock band in history has been as renowned by their fans (or equally as often reviled by their harshest critics) for having re-integrated jazz elements and brass sections into their sound. The band, featuring Robert Lamm, Terry Kath, Walter Parazaider, James Pankow, and Peter Cetera, was formed in 1967 in the Windy City as the Chicago Transit Authority; but when the city’s ultra-controversial mayor Richard Dailey took offense, they shortened it to just Chicago. Like many a band that got started during the turbulent years of the late 1960’s, Chicago were walking a tightrope between FM rock respectability and the need to have hit singles for Top 40 AM radio. They had already managed to do that in 1970, when their second album, Chicago II yielded hits in their original “25 Or 6 To 4” and their cover of the 1966 Spencer Davis Group hit “I’m A Man”. Both of those songs got into the Top 10. Their third big hit, however, was a holdover from their 1969 debut album, when they were still calling themselves the Chicago Transit Authority. “Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?” was written by Lamm, and, according to him, was the very first thing to be recorded by the band. An ironic thing is that, given that it was the actual Chicago Transit Authority that sued to get the group’s name shortened, the CTA was then almost sued by the group for using this song in their advertising for TV and radio in Chicago. The song got its official release as a single, shortened for AM Top 40 radio consumption, in late October 1970 and eventually became one of the band’s signature hits, peaking at #7 on the Hot 100 in mid-January 1971. For this and many other reasons, Chicago got themselves inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2016, and were awarded a Lifetime Achievement Grammy by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS) in 2020.
DOES ANYBODY REALLY KNOW WHAT TIME IT IS? (Chicago; CBS; 1970)—Perhaps no other rock band in history has been as renowned by their fans (or equally as often reviled by their harshest critics) for having re-integrated jazz elements and brass sections into their sound. The band, featuring Robert Lamm, Terry Kath, Walter Parazaider, James Pankow, and Peter Cetera, was formed in 1967 in the Windy City as the Chicago Transit Authority; but when the city’s ultra-controversial mayor Richard Dailey took offense, they shortened it to just Chicago. Like many a band that got started during the turbulent years of the late 1960’s, Chicago were walking a tightrope between FM rock respectability and the need to have hit singles for Top 40 AM radio. They had already managed to do that in 1970, when their second album, Chicago II yielded hits in their original “25 Or 6 To 4” and their cover of the 1966 Spencer Davis Group hit “I’m A Man”. Both of those songs got into the Top 10. Their third big hit, however, was a holdover from their 1969 debut album, when they were still calling themselves the Chicago Transit Authority. “Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?” was written by Lamm, and, according to him, was the very first thing to be recorded by the band. An ironic thing is that, given that it was the actual Chicago Transit Authority that sued to get the group’s name shortened, the CTA was then almost sued by the group for using this song in their advertising for TV and radio in Chicago. The song got its official release as a single, shortened for AM Top 40 radio consumption, in late October 1970 and eventually became one of the band’s signature hits, peaking at #7 on the Hot 100 in mid-January 1971. For this and many other reasons, Chicago got themselves inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2016, and were awarded a Lifetime Achievement Grammy by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS) in 2020.