The Very Best of Chicago: Only the Beginning

Chicago - The Very Best of Chicago: Only the Beginning

The Very Best of Chicago: Only the Beginning
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Music CD Cover

Artist: Chicago
Edition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2002-07-02
Music Label: Rhino
Soundtracks:
Music CD 1
  1. Make Me Smile
  2. 25 Or 6 To 4
  3. Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?
  4. Beginnings
  5. Questions 67 And 68
  6. I'm A Man
  7. Colour Of My World
  8. Free
  9. Lowdown
  10. Saturday In The Park
  11. Dialogue (Part I & II)
  12. Just You 'N' Me
  13. Feelin' Stronger Every Day
  14. (I've Been) Searchin' For So Long
  15. Wishing You Were Here
  16. Call On Me
  17. Happy Man
  18. Another Rainy Day In New York City
  19. If You Leave Me Now
Music CD 2
  1. Old Days
  2. Baby, What A Big Surprise
  3. Take Me Back To Chicago
  4. Alive Again
  5. No Tell Lover
  6. Love Me Tomorrow
  7. Hard To Say I'm Sorry/Get Away
  8. Stay The Night
  9. Hard Habit To Break
  10. You're The Inspiration
  11. Along Comes A Woman
  12. Will You Still Love Me?
  13. If She Would Have Been Faithful...
  14. Look Away
  15. What Kind Of Man Would I Be?
  16. I Don't Wanna Live Without Your Love
  17. We Can Last Forever
  18. You're Not Alone
  19. Chasin' The Wind
  20. Sing, Sing, Sing (w/ The Gipsy Kings)

Free Music Notes for The Very Best of Chicago: Only the Beginning

Free Music Review: Great Songs, Great Sound, Great Title
Hit: 5 Stars

While not as influential as The Beatles and The Beach Boys or as notorious as The Rolling Stones, Chicago still managed to sell millions of records and become on the best known rock and roll bands of all time. And when you reach the level of success that Chicago has reached, countless unnecessary and incomplete hits collections are bound to pop up every so often. Fans were angry over these shoddy, single - disc sets but not angry enough to fork over the pricey boxed set. Rhino Records solved that problem in 2002 with "The Very Best Of Chicago: Only The Beginning", a 2 - cd set with nearly all their top 40 singles plus some nice obscurities.

Disc 1 contains all the big hits from their early years, 1970 - 1976. Chicago was a 7 - piece group of talented singers (most notably Peter Cetera), musicians (Danny Seraphine and Cetera are underrated; their rhythm work is excellent) and songwriters. Their blend of jazz, blues and rock was unique at the time but people took to it immediately, enabling the group to fire off a string of radio - friendly pop hits that were always fresh and different. Chicago alwasy opeened up themselves up to new sounds; their music ranged from hard rockers ("25 Or 6 To 4"), midtempo, poppish numbers ("Make Me Smile", "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is", "Beginnings", "Saturday In The Park") and tender love songs and ballads ("Wishing You Were Here", "Colour My World", their first number one "If You Leave Me Now"). Believe it or not, these were just a few of the songs that launched Chicago into the pop music stratosphere.

Disc 2 begins with "Old Days", a 1974 song that should've been on disc one but makes for a nice opener. This is followed by the gorgeous 1977 smash ballad "Baby, What A Big Surprise". This song effectively ended Chicago's first hit streak. "Take Me Back To Chicago" featured Chaka Khan and was a nice song, but missed the top 60. Group member Terry Kath accidently accidently shot and killed himself in 1978. Though badly shaken by his passing, the group pressed on. 1978's "Hot Streets" was a commercial disappointment. The top 20 singles, the disco - tinged "Alive Again" and the gorgeous "No Tell Lover", were hits but not big ones. It seemed Chicago was quickly going downhill. Then in 1982, Peter Cetera wrote the lovely ballad "Hard To Say I'm Sorry". Whymost didnt care for it, it was insisted that they record it and song went all the way to number one. With their fame bck to its old status, Chicago was criticized their old jazz/rock sound for more romantic, commercial ballads (I wouldn't call them power ballads, they more soft rock with a bit of an edge). And some people must have liked "Hard Habit To Break", "You're The Inspiration", "Will You Still Love Me", "I Don't Wanna Live Withut Your Love", "Look Away" (another number one single), "You're Not Alone" and "What Kind Of Man Would I Be", since they all became top 10 hits. This set closes with a nice, contemporary update of the Louis Prima song "Sing, Sing, Sing", a collaboration with the Gypsy Kings.

Some fans may complain tht, even though it's a high - quality compilation, that many tracks are missing. I personally would have liked to have seen the lone top 40 hit (Billboard # 13) missing, the odd tribute "Harry Truman". Other fans may have wanted to seen minor hits like "Brand New Love Affair", "Thunder And Lightning", "What You're Missing", "Niagra Falls" and "Hearts In Trouble". But in the end, if I may quote a line from "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is", "does anybody really care"?
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The Very Best of Chicago: Only the Beginning Poster

Subtitled - Only The Beginning. Double disc with 39 hit singles spanning Chicago's complete 35-year history. Including the #1 singles 'If You Leave Me Now,' 'Hard To Say I'm Sorry' and 'Look Away'. Booklet features detailed liner notes by Bill DeYoung. Rhino Records. Slipcase. 2002.
From the perspective of 15 subsequent platinum albums and 20 top-10 hits, it's hard to imagine that Chicago began their career as a bona fide prog-fusion act, an early FM radio favorite whose jazz-tinged, album-length suites found them a hip cult following even as they confounded label execs. Ironically, when the pioneering horn band (a contemporary of Blood, Sweat & Tears and inspiration for one-hit wonders like Lighthouse, Ides of March, and Ten Wheel Drive) relented and allowed their music to be edited down to single length, their success was explosive. Most of the "single edits" on disc 1 of this 39-track anthology provide ample evidence of that de facto formula: a catchy riff ("25 or 6 to 4," "Saturday in the Park," "Color My World") develops into a hook-filled, pop-savvy production rife with the band's trademark horn perfection. One could argue that that sensibility--and a midcareer tilt toward producer David Foster, songwriter Diane Warren, and the MOR ballads that became some of their biggest successes--degenerated into formula. Indeed, there's much on the second disc to support that notion. This set spans it all, showcasing newly refocused edits of some their biggest early hits and lesser-known tracks like their lively '95 cross-cultural collaboration with the Gipsy Kings on a cover of Louis Prima's swing classic "Sing, Sing, Sing." --Jerry McCulley

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