Artist · chart history · #171 in indie & aaa artist polls
Chicago
Band Chicago United States Formed 1967 American pop rock/jazz fusion band
Chicago formed in 1967 in Chicago, United States. Chicago has 104 chart appearances on 48 radio countdowns from 22 stations on RockLists, spanning 1991–2026. The most successful song on radio countdowns is “25 or 6 to 4”, which appears on 38 lists with a best position of #10. The station that charted Chicago most often is WMGK (Philadelphia, PA), with 26 appearances.
Chicago started life in 1967 as the Big Thing, became the Chicago Transit Authority a year later, and trimmed the name down to its hometown in 1969: a rock band that brought a horn section along as full partners rather than hired hands. Peter Cetera played bass, Terry Kath played guitar, Robert Lamm played keyboards, and all three sang lead; Lee Loughnane on trumpet, James Pankow on trombone and Walter Parazaider on woodwinds made up the brass and reeds; Danny Seraphine drummed.
Chicago Transit Authority, the 1969 debut, is a sprawling, restless thing that pulls in jazz, R&B, classical flourishes and pop, with "Beginnings", "Questions 67 & 68", "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is" and the charging "I'm A Man". The second album, simply Chicago, in 1970, gave them "25 or 6 to 4", all blaring horns and Kath's guitar clawing at the ceiling, plus the jaunty "Make Me Smile". By 1971 they had filled Carnegie Hall for a full week's run, something no rock band had managed before, and the numbered albums rolled on, V bringing the sunny "Saturday In The Park", VI "Feelin Stronger Every Day", VII "Call On Me".
Kath died in 1978, Cetera left in 1985, and the lineup kept turning over, but Lamm, Loughnane and Pankow have stayed the course. The original lineup went into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2016.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs by Chicago on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 25 or 6 to 4 | 38 | #10 | – | – | |
| 2 | Beginnings | 14 | #87 | – | – | |
| 3 | Saturday In The Park | 12 | #138 | – | – | |
| 4 | Questions 67 & 68 | 6 | #101 | – | – | |
| 5 | Feelin Stronger Every Day | 9 | #137 | – | – | |
| 6 | Make Me Smile | 7 | #162 | – | – | |
| 7 | I'm A Man | 4 | #164 | – | – | |
| 8 | Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is | 6 | #445 | – | – | |
| 9 | Dialogue (Parts 1 & 2) | 1 | #67 | – | – | |
| 10 | Does Anybody Know What Time It Is? | 1 | #404 | – | – | |
| 11 | Twenty Five or 6 to 4 (25 0R 6 to 4) | 1 | #231 | – | – | |
| 12 | Hard to Say I'm Sorry | 1 | #154 | – | – | |
| 13 | Look Away | 1 | #283 | – | – | |
| 14 | Old Days | 1 | #859 | – | – | |
| 15 | Call On Me | 1 | #841 | – | – |
Albums with charting songs
Where each song was first released, from MusicBrainz.
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