Worst Chicago song

Wow, the vocal is pitchy as heck, and those horns are so poorly shoehorned in to give the players something to do...All in the service of a crap song.

Still, not 1/20 as s**tty as Free Form Guitar.

 

Never say never. He still speaks to some of the other guys, as does Danny. At the time of the HoF I remember reading something about that. It seems unlikely at this time, just not absolute zero.

 

The ONLY way Chicago could have a hit single now would be if they managed to get just the right song placed in just the right place in just the right movie.

But they aren't going to have another hit song otherwise.

 

Mark my words. I'm absolutely saying "never". The whole "HOF" debacle pretty much reminded each party why the love left. There's no way Peter comes back. I think we have to put that dream to rest now. I'm happy to eat my words at some point but if it was ever going to happen, it would have at the "HOF".

Ed

 

I've also gotta add (as I just noticed you typed this) that Bill had two Grammy's for songwriting and his success in that department speaks for itself. His replacement, Lou Pardini, has written and co-written songs for dozens of artists throughout the course of his career. His co-written tune, "Just to See Her" was Grammy-nominated and got Smokey Robinson a Grammy for "Best Male R&B Vocal". He also played the incredible synth solo on that song. Not too shabby, no?

Ed

 

Exactly. I've only managed to listen to this from start to finish once.

 

I'm not saying those 'newer' guys have no talent. It's true that they have talents and skills in their own rights but they are not enough to resurrect Chicago and their talents are 'not a good fit' for a jazz rock outfit like Chicago. Maybe I'm just being a Chicago purist.

 

I just miss the old Chicago I grew up with whose members had the freedom to play and contribute their musical input and not being restricted by more senior members to tell them what to play and what not to play. Chicago, as we knew it from the beginning, started as a faceless band with no leader and their members had equal rights to contribute their ideas and talents to the band's collective effort. Also, Chicago's jazz root is not West Coast jazz (e.g., Toto). Their jazz root is based on mainstream and avant-garde jazz. If those 'newer' guys were in Chicago from the beginning and no matter how talented they are, I don't think they would have attained the success the original band had during the Guercio/ Kath-era Chicago. The chemistry of the original lineup is just irreplaceable. I am more drawn to the drummers with feel and swing like Danny Seraphine and less thrilled by "technical" drummers like Imboden. I am more thrilled by Cetera's melodic bass lines than "technical" bass player like (Jason) Scheff. Kath was simply a monster in guitar. One of the most distinctive sound of Chicago aside from the brassy rock sound with Hendrixy guitar was the three distinctive voices of Kath, Cetera and Lamm.

 

Hmm, so many to choose...

 

14 pages later....................

 

Not really.
The worst material follows Kath's death, the LPs of the late 70s and early 80s, after Hot Streets.
There's some cheesy stuff in the David Foster era & after.

While some may not like Free Form Guitar, or Hour In the Shower, or It Better End Soon, I honestly don't think there's much-- if at all -- bad from before Hot Streets.

 

Ah. Foster is the devil. Got it.

Ed

 

Color My World...horrid tune, about as bad as The Year 2525

 

I can't honestly answer this question because, although I was a major fan of the original band, the last album I bought (not counting reissues and box sets of the original stuff), was Hot Streets. After that, I heard the singles and got depressed. So much so that I stopped listening to the early albums for years.

Fortunately enough time passed that I was able to separate the band into two entities in my mind and have returned to the albums I originally loved.

Long road to get to my point... I haven't heard all of their songs so I can't possibly pick "the worst"...

 

You love the original band. More power to you.

Ed

 

Agreed. It’s every bit as bad as “You Come to My Senses”.

Ed

 

You're The Inspiration is a classic, one of my favourite songs by Chicago.

 

I picked up 'Chicago 18' this week, and I can't imagine their other songs being worse than 'If She Would Have Been Faithful...'

 

I didn't say THAT.
All I said was there was some cheesy stuff then, primarily after Foster.

This we know: Foster is an absolute ass, the way he mocks Chicago when talking about them today.
"...Oh... did I tell you about my 16 Grammies ??"
Really classless.

 

No argument there. It's worth remembering though that his original idea was to turn Chicago into a harder R&B band-- The entire 16th album was like that, except the two ballads which became the hits and the new direction. I actually liked the tough R&B on 16 (What You're Missing, Chains, Bad Advice) and there wasn't any more of that afterward.

 

Oh, he's a jerk of the highest order for sure. The good news is he's a fantastic player. Bad news is he knows it. Still, there are some great moments on the Chicago albums he produced.

Ed

 

What? I never heard that. 'Course, I don't know everything but if that was his intention, he completely missed. There are some slightly bluesy things on "16" but no real R&B anywhere - the Pop-iest of R&B maybe. Bill had an R&B-ish voice.

Ed

 

I like the singles in the late '70s (in the time immediately after Kath's death) -- particularly "No Tell Lover" and "Alive Again".
I don't mind "Hard to Say I'm Sorry" either, but I like it less than anything earlier.
But that's as far as my self-made compilation goes.
After that the singles become practically unlistenable to me.

Remember that the Beach Boys "Kokomo" benefited from a tie-in to the movie Cocktail (also, as others have mentioned, being in what I consider to be a generally lousy music period).
Something similar to that is the ONLY way Chicago smells pop success again.
And - I don't know what they (Chicago, as a group) really want at this point.
In retrospect, I'm sure the Beach Boys were glad for the success of "Kokomo" but they were a mess in 1988.

 

I agree Chains was okay, and Bad Advice and Get Away were pretty good.

 

Probably quite a few in contention on the albums from 1978 to 1991.