Chicago VII

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Chicago VII
Chicago VII cover
Studio album by Chicago
Released 11 March 1974
Recorded August-December 1973, Caribou Ranch, Nederland, CO
Genre Rock
Length 72:15
Label Columbia Records
Producer(s) James William Guercio
Professional reviews
Chicago chronology
Chicago VI
(1973)		 Chicago VII
(1974)		 Chicago VIII
(1975)


Chicago VII is the seventh album by American rock band Chicago and was released in 1974. It is notable for being their first double album of new material since 1971's Chicago III, and remains their final studio release in that format.

While touring in support of Chicago VI in 1973, the band began getting restless and started integrating some lengthy jazz instrumentals into their sets. While audiences were somewhat mixed in their reaction, Chicago greatly enjoyed the experience and decided, after years of talking about it, to record a pure jazz-influenced album, and headed straight to producer James William Guercio's Caribou Ranch studios to cut their ambitious new album.

While the sessions started off well, there was soon dissension within the group about the jazz project, with, reportedly, Peter Cetera and Guercio both leery at the commercial risk of such an undertaking. While the band reasoned that some of the jazzy material was too good to throw away, the others finally relented to including the more pop and rock-oriented songs that the band had composed in the meantime. Almost by accident, Chicago had another double album on their hands.

Of the more conventional material, Chicago once again turned in a varied set of songs, with Terry Kath's "Byblos", named after a club in Osaka, Japan that Chicago had played, ranking among his best efforts. Robert Lamm, who was presently recording a solo album entitled Skinny Boy, turned in several new songs, even donating his solo album's title track, featuring The Pointer Sisters on backing vocals. While James Pankow came through with another success, "(I've Been) Searchin' So Long" (#9), and trumpeter Lee Loughnane got lucky on his first try at songwriting in the hit "Call On Me" (#6), it was Peter Cetera who made the biggest strides on Chicago VII, composing his two most impressive songs thus far, "Happy Man" and "Wishing You Were Here" (#11), a romantic ballad (signs of the future) that features three of The Beach Boys on backing vocals and which became a big hit in late 1974.

Chicago VII is also notable for featuring Lee Loughnane's lead vocal debut ("Song of the Evergreens"), and for having writing contributions from all (and only) the members of the band.

Released in March 1974, Chicago VII - despite its first disc being almost exclusively jazz instrumentals - shot to #1 anyway in the US becoming another big success for Chicago.

In 2002, Chicago VII was remastered and reissued on one CD by Rhino Records with one bonus track.

Contents

[edit] Track listing

  1. "Prelude to Aire" (Danny Seraphine) – 2:47
  2. "Aire" (James Pankow/Walter Parazaider/Seraphine) – 6:27
  3. "Devil's Sweet" (Parazaider/Seraphine) – 10:07
  4. "Italian From New York" (Robert Lamm) – 4:14
  5. "Hanky Panky" (Lamm) – 1:53
  6. "Life Saver" (Lamm) – 5:18
  7. "Happy Man" (Peter Cetera) – 3:34 On the original LP & CD this song begins with about 20 seconds of studio chat/noise. This is omitted on the remaster.
  8. "(I've Been) Searchin' So Long" (Pankow) – 4:29
  9. "Mongonucleosis" (Pankow) – 3:26
  10. "Song of the Evergreens" (Terry Kath) – 5:20
  11. "Byblos" (Kath) – 6:18
  12. "Wishing You Were Here" (Cetera) – 4:37
  13. "Call on Me" (Lee Loughnane) – 4:02
  14. "Woman Don't Want to Love Me" (Lamm) – 4:35
  15. "Skinny Boy" (Lamm) – 5:12 The same track appears on Robert Lamm's 1974 solo album Skinny Boy, but without horns and a fade-out at 4:30.

[edit] Bonus track (2002 re-issue)

  1. "Byblos (Rehearsal)" (Kath) – 5:40

[edit] Personnel

[edit] Additional personnel

[edit] Charts

Album

Year Chart Position
1974 Billboard Pop Albums 1

Single

Year Single Chart Position
1974 "(I've Been) Searchin' So Long" Billboard Pop Singles 9
1974 "Call on Me" Billboard Adult Contemporary 1
1974 "Call on Me" Billboard Pop Singles 6
1974 "Wishing You Were Here" Billboard Adult Contemporary 1
1974 "Wishing You Were Here" Billboard Pop Singles 11

[edit] Certifications

Organization Level Date
RIAA – USA Gold March 18, 1974
RIAA – USA Platinum November 21, 1986
Chicago
Robert Lamm | James Pankow | Lee Loughnane | Walter Parazaider | Bill Champlin
Jason Scheff | Tris Imboden | Keith Howland
Terry Kath | Peter Cetera | Danny Seraphine | Laudir DeOliveira | Donnie Dacus | Chris Pinnick | Dawayne Bailey
Discography
Studio albums: The Chicago Transit Authority | Chicago | Chicago III | Chicago V | Chicago VI |Chicago VII | Chicago VIII | Chicago X | Chicago XI | Hot Streets
Chicago 13 | Chicago XIV | Chicago 16 | Chicago 17 | Chicago 18 | Chicago 19 | Twenty 1 | Night & Day Big Band | Chicago XXX
Live albums: Chicago at Carnegie Hall | Chicago XXVI: Live in Concert
Compilations: Chicago IX - Chicago's Greatest Hits | Greatest Hits, Volume II | Greatest Hits 1982-1989
The Heart of Chicago 1967-1997 | The Heart of Chicago 1967-1998 Volume II | The Very Best of: Only the Beginning | Love Songs
Christmas albums: Chicago XXV: The Christmas Album | What's It Gonna Be, Santa?
Unreleased album: Stone of Sisyphus
Box sets: The Box
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