Maps of Music

Chicago X (1976)

Where the lyrics of Chicago X take you, and where it was really made.

The band's first platinum album earned a 25-pound bar of pure platinum from Columbia Records.

Key places

Chicago X recorded at Caribou Ranch (1976)

Recording site Caribou Ranch — The album was recorded at Caribou Ranch, the studio named in the source as its recording location. The point marks the studio building, not a specific room. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Strings recorded at Sound Labs in Hollywood (1976)

Recording site Sound Labs — The string parts for the album were recorded at Sound Labs in Hollywood, according to the production credits. The point marks the studio building. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Chicago X, nicknamed "the Chocolate Album"
• Eighth studio album and tenth overall by the American rock band Chicago
• Recorded at Caribou Ranch and released by Columbia Records on June 14, 1976
• Lead single "If You Leave Me Now" became the band's first US number one
• Described as the group's most pop-oriented effort up to that point

Background

• Band returned to the studio in spring 1976 after exhausting work on Chicago VIII and a long break
• Every song on the album starts at the 3-minute mark, unlike the longer and more complex compositions of earlier albums
• Robert Lamm's "Another Rainy Day in New York City" peaked at number 32 after a brief run in August 1976
• Peter Cetera's "If You Leave Me Now" became the band's first number one in October 1976
• The song was one of the last to be completed, originally written alongside "Wishing You Were Here" from Chicago VII
• Album marks the lead vocal debut of trombonist James Pankow on "You Are On My Mind"
• Band members who were not normally vocalists received vocal credits

Recording

• Recorded at Caribou Ranch
• Strings recorded by Armin Steiner at Sound Labs in Hollywood, California
• Mastered by Doug Sax at The Mastering Lab in Los Angeles
• Produced by James William Guercio, engineered by Wayne Tarnowski with assistant Tom Likes
• The brief vocal section of "You Get It Up" was sung by the whole band in unison

Cover

• Designed by John Berg, art director of Columbia/CBS Records
• Shows a partially unwrapped chocolate bar with the Chicago logo, resembling a Hershey's bar as it was packaged at the time
• The cover won a Grammy Award for Best Album Package for Berg
• The cover art is now in the permanent collection of The Museum of Modern Art in New York City

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · fr.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Chicago is an American rock band formed in Chicago, Illinois, in 1967.
• The band described itself as a "rock and roll band with horns" and blended classical music, jazz, R&B, and pop.
• The group first called itself the Big Thing, became Chicago Transit Authority in 1968, and shortened its name to Chicago in 1969.

Members

• The original line-up was Peter Cetera (bass), Terry Kath (guitar), Robert Lamm (keyboards), Lee Loughnane (trumpet), James Pankow (trombone), Walter Parazaider (woodwinds), and Danny Seraphine (drums).
• Lamm, Loughnane, and Pankow have remained constant members since 2009.
• Terry Kath died in 1978 after an accidental gunshot wound.

Career

• The band's debut double album, Chicago Transit Authority (1969), was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2014.
• In 1971 Chicago became the first rock act to sell out a week at Carnegie Hall.
• "If You Leave Me Now" (1976) became the group's first number-one single and won its only Grammy.
• Billboard placed the band among the most successful chart acts in its history, and it has sold more than 100 million records.
• The original line-up was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2016.
• Chicago received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award on October 16, 2020.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Album reached number three on the Billboard 200 and was certified gold a week after its release
• Chicago X drew a receptive audience at release, mainly on the strength of "If You Leave Me Now"
• Cash Box described "You Are On My Mind" as keeping the same mellow vocal blend, with a velvety horn texture and a rhythm section sped into a quick samba

Reappraisal

• Zachary Houle, writing for PopMatters in 2010, called the album an album of pop perfection
• Jeff Giles, writing for Ultimate Classic Rock in 2016, called it essentially a pop album, not a bad one, but one that lacked the compositional depth and musical muscle of the band's earlier work
• Giles singled out the lyrically weak "Skin Tight" and "You Get It Up" and said the album felt light beside the double-LP sets of earlier years

Records

• Billboard 200 peak at number three; UK chart peak at number 21
• "Another Rainy Day in New York City" reached number 32 on the Billboard Hot 100; "You Are On My Mind" reached number 49
• RIAA gold certification on June 21, 1976; platinum on September 14, 1976, the band's first platinum album, later certified multi-platinum
• Columbia Records gave the band a 25-pound bar of pure platinum made by Cartier (Billboard reported it as 30 pounds)
• Grammy nominations: Album of the Year (lost to Songs in the Key of Life by Stevie Wonder) and Best Album Package (won)
• "If You Leave Me Now" won two Grammy Awards and was nominated for Record of the Year

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · ko.wikipedia.org · es.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• Walter Parazaider reportedly heard "If You Leave Me Now" on the radio while cleaning his pool and at first thought it sounded like McCartney, not realizing it was his own band's work
• Several band members who were not normally vocalists received vocal credits on this album
• Other singers tried "You Are On My Mind" first, but producer James William Guercio asked Pankow to sing it, and that take ended up on the album
• The cover's chocolate bar was designed to resemble the Hershey's bar of the period
• Reports say "If You Leave Me Now" was very nearly left off the final album

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · ko.wikipedia.org

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