This blog will eventually turn into Part 1 of Duran Duran's Greatest 80's Era Bands. This blog will encompass seven CDs, from 1981's self-titled CD all the way through 1993's "Duran Duran" (aka The Wedding Album) and four singles. These songs may or may not be on the final Duran Duran countdown blogs.
When working on these blogs I rate each good song on a scale from 3 to 5, with 5 being the best. Out of all the Chicago songs I listened to these 14 songs were the songs rated with a 5. When you think of the amazing Chicago 80's and late 70's hits, these are the songs you think of. Enjoy!!
14) "I Don't Wanna Live Without Your Love":
13) "We Can Last Forever":
"There's no doubt about it, this is where I want to be". 12) "If She Would Have Been Faithful":
I like to post live videos, but many of the live videos for Chicago are of very poor quality. The sound is terrible, the video is terrible and a lot of the videos are dark and grainy. This is the best live video of Chicago I've found yet. 11) "Look Away":
A solo Peter Cetera singing the song he originally sang for Chicago. 10) "You're The Inspiration":
9) "What Kind of Man Would I Be":
I know this song and others like it feel like they might come from another era, but all these songs were released in a few years of each other. 8) "Gone Long Gone":
This song currently resides on my iPod. 7) "Along Comes A Woman":
6) "Love Me Tomorrow":
5) "Hard Habit To Break":
4) "Hard To Say I'm Sorry":
3) "Stay The Night":
This has to be one of the most joyous songs ever. 2) "Alive Again":
1) "Baby What A Big Surprise":
The studio version of Chicago's best 80's era song:
Chicago is a band that started in 1967, originally their name was Chicago Transit Authority. They've sold over 100 million CDs and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2016. Chicago is the so-called "rock and roll band with horns". They do have a very distinctive sound from any other band that has been a huge success. You can recognize most Chicago songs in just a few notes. They rely heavily on horns and other jazz instruments. However they also have a rock side and they mix the jazz and rock sides together for a whole new sound. It sounds awkward, but it works well. I have 71 Chicago songs on my iTunes.
This series of blogs covers 1977's "Chicago XI" all the way through 1991's "Twenty 1". It also covers any singles, at least all of those I'm aware of it, that were on greatest hits discs and other places. The most prolific CDs for this countdown were "Chicago 16" and "Chicago 17" as they have 20 of the 48 songs. "Chicago 19" has 9 songs and "Twenty 1" has 6 songs on this countdown. 32 of the 48 songs come on the CDs from 16 to 19.
According to Billboard "Chicago is second only to the Beach Boys as the most successful American rock band of all time, in terms of both albums and singles. (Thanks to allmusic.com).
This is a fairly mediocre song, I'm including it because it was one of the songs on U.S.A. for Africa's "We Are The World" CD. Besides "We Are The World", bands like Chicago, Prince, Huey Lewis and the News, The Pointer Sisters, Tina Turner and Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Bands had songs on this disc. 48) "Good For Nothing":
47) "Runaround":
46) "Come In From The Night":
45) "One From The Heart":
44) "Reruns":
43) "American Dream":
42) "Sonny Think Twice":
41) "We Can Stop The Hurtin'":
40) "Explain It To My Heart":
This song shows Chicago's flexibility as a band, this song definitely has some Disco in it. As Chicago is a multi genre band, this song fits right in with their other songs. 39) "Street Player":
I'm finally getting around to resuming my Greatest 80's Era Bands. Before I took a hiatus from this blog series my last 80's Era Countdown blog was published on June 6th. The topic of that blog was Chicago's best non-80's era songs. I also wrote up three 80's Era Countdown blogs for Night Ranger. Those subjects respectively were "The Best Songs of 'Dawn Patrol'", a concert preview of their June 30th show (which was amazing) and their best non-80's era songs. The last one of those blogs was published July 1st of this year.
Anyway I got a wild hair to resume these blogs, I continued listening to their 10 80's era cds. I have listened to the first three CDs. Tonight I listened to 1980's "XIV" and their near classic CD "Chicago 16".
Chicago's first 4 CDs honestly aren't very good, 1977's "Chicago XI" to "Chicago XIV". If you were a pop music fan in 1980 and thought Chicago's career was over, I wouldn't have blamed you. "Chicago XIV" is a very average CD. The best song on the whole CD is the little known "Hold On". The only classic songs they had over those four CDs were "Baby, What A Big Surprise", "Take Me Back To Chicago", "Alive Again" and "Gone Long Gone".
Thankfully for them "Chicago 16" was a comeback CD, from the opening notes of the first track it would seem one would get the feeling that Chicago was back. This CD isn't the greatest CD ever, I'm not saying that, but what it is is a CD by a band moving forward again. Chicago continued their momentum on "17", a CD that has four classic songs on it. That's as many classic songs as they had on their first four CDs in the 80's era. Obviously the two best songs on this CD are "Hard To Say I'm Sorry" and "Love Me Tomorrow". But all the songs on this CD would be good listening for many hundreds of listens.
I will publish this blog and then continue to listen to the 5 CDS that are left to be considered for their countdown blogs and then post those.
This song has that classic Chicago sound on it. 1) "What You're Missing":
Metallica is one of my 50 favorite bands and I love a lot of their music. However several years ago I went to see them in concert and wasn't impressed. Thus I haven't had the burning desire to see them since them. That includes last night when they were in town. I follow Metallica on Instagram, where they featured a few clips from last night show. I loved their stage setup, which I hope I can find video of. I thought I would post live performances as much as I could from this year. I wonder if I'll be kicking myself if I don't go, although I doubt it. They played 18 songs, which is a bit disappointing. Although their songs are a bit longer than typical songs and they played over two hours in their Boise show, which was the previous concert.
Played on tape Ennio Morricone's "The Ecstasy of Gold"/ "Hardwired" Intro/ "Hardwired":
