Saturday in the Park (song)
| "Saturday in the Park" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single by Chicago | ||||
| from the album Chicago V | ||||
| B-side | "Alma Mater" | |||
| Released | July 1972 | |||
| Format | 7" | |||
| Recorded | September 1971 | |||
| Genre | Rock, Jazz fusion | |||
| Length | 3:56 | |||
| Label | Columbia | |||
| Writer(s) | Robert William Lamm | |||
| Producer(s) | James William Guercio | |||
| Chicago singles chronology | ||||
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"Saturday in the Park" is a song written by Robert Lamm and recorded by the group Chicago for their 1972 album Chicago V.
Background
"Saturday in the Park" was very successful upon release, reaching #3 on the Billboard Hot 100,[1] becoming the band's highest-charting single to date, helping lift the album to #1.[2] Billboard ranked it as the No. 76 song for 1972.[3] The single was certified Gold by the RIAA, selling over 1,000,000 units in the US alone.[4]
According to fellow Chicago member Walter Parazaider, Lamm was inspired to write the song during the recording of V in New York City on July 4, 1971 (actually a Sunday):
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![5]
The line "singing Italian songs" is followed by "Eh Cumpari" and then Italian-sounding nonsense words, in the studio version of the song, rendered in the printed lyrics as "?". Piano, guitar, and vocal sheet music arrangements have often read "improvised Italian lyrics" in parentheses after this line. However, in a film of Chicago performing "Saturday in the Park," at the Arie Crown Theater in Chicago, in 1972, Robert Lamm clearly sings, "Eh Cumpari, ci vo sunari," the first line of a song known as "Eh, Cumpari!", which was made famous by Julius La Rosa in 1953.
"Saturday in the Park" has been used in a popular commercial in Japan, advertising a marketing campaign known as "Parkhouse".
The song is played at Saturday afternoon baseball games at Wrigley Field in Chicago (as Terry Kath grew up on the North Side of Chicago), Yankee Stadium in New York, and Coors Field in Denver.
The opening piano riff was sampled by Jill Sobule for her song "Cinnamon Park" on the 2004 release, Underdog Victorious.
Personnel
- Robert Lamm – lead vocals, piano
- Peter Cetera – lead vocals (chorus), backing vocals, bass
- Terry Kath – electric guitar, backing vocals
- Lee Loughnane – trumpet
- James Pankow – trombone
- Walter Parazaider – alto saxophone
- Danny Seraphine – drums, congas
Covers
A number of covers have been made of this song including:
- Australian band The Nissan Cedrics on their album Going for a Song (1997)
- American a capella band Xtension Chords on their album The Best of X (2003)
See also
References
- ↑ "Billboard Singles". All Media Guide / Billboard. Retrieved 2010-03-01.
- ↑ "Billboard Albums". All Media Guide / Billboard. Retrieved 2010-03-01.
- ↑ Billboard Year-End Hot 100 singles of 1972
- ↑ "RIAA searchable certification database". Recording Industry Association of America. Retrieved 2010-03-01.
- ↑ "A Chicago Story". Chicago Records II. Retrieved January 31, 2015.
External links
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