The Box
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Chicago
The Box
[ Rhino Records / 6 CD/DVD Box Set ]
Release Date: Sunday 13 January 2008
Beginning with its double-LP debut in 1969, Chicago has always done things in a big way, so it's no surprise that the band's career-spanning box set (Group Portrait, an earlier box, covered only their first decade) is lengthy. There are five CDs, containing 94 tracks clocking in at more than six and a half hours, plus a DVD running another 40 minutes. In that time, Chicago's story is told, from the band's ambitious, eclectic beginnings through its two extended hitmaking periods and on into still popular work 30 years on. All but one of the band's 48 Billboard Hot 100 hits, 1969-1991, are included, the sole exception being the 1986 re-recording of the 1970 hit "25 or 6 to 4," which, of course, is featured in its original version. Also included are extended suites from the early albums, key LP tracks, songs from soundtrack and charity albums, and three songs previously unreleased in the U.S. that were intended for an album Chicago's then-record label rejected in the 1990s. As the two sets of liner notes suggest, there are really two main phases to the Chicago saga. The first, from the group's beginnings up to 1980, takes the group to a peak of popular success with five consecutive number one albums, followed by a decline that includes business travails and the accidental death of singer/guitarist Terry Kath. The second, from the early '80s through the end of that decade, finds the band reborn largely as a vehicle for adult contemporary power ballads sung by bassist Peter Cetera and his sound-alike successor, Jason Scheff. Actually, there is also a third act to the story, finally assembled here in the second half of the fifth disc, during which the band regains its early promise in isolated recordings from the unreleased album (particularly Scheff's tribute to his father, bassist Jerry Scheff, "Bigger Than Elvis") and tracks used on hits compilations such as "Here in My Heart" (which topped the AC charts in 1997). It is, thus, a story with a happy ending. And it is that story Chicago is interested in telling here. This is not a box set full of alternate takes and unreleased material; it is an attempt to chronicle all the significant recordings in one package, and at that it succeeds. The DVD material consists of a 24-and-a-half-minute film of Chicago performing at the Arie Crown Theater in the band's hometown in November 1972 and a 16-and-a-half-minute promotional film concerning the 1979 album Chicago 13, which was one of the group's weaker efforts. Of the two, the first is more impressive, particularly because of an early performance of the jazz fusion tune "Devil's Sweet," while the latter is slight but amusing. ~ William Ruhlmann, Rovi
Tracks:
Disc 1
1 Introduction - 6:36
2 Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is? [Special Edit] - 3:20
3 Beginnings [Special Edit] - 6:27
4 Questions 67 and 68 - 5:01
5 Listen - 3:24
6 South California Purples - 6:11
7 I'm a Man [Special Edit] - 5:43
8 Movin' In - 4:08
9 Wake Up Sunshine - 2:32
10 Ballet for a Girl in Buchannon: Make Me Smile/So Much to Say, So ... - 7:02
11 Ballet for a Girl in Buchannon: Colour My World - 3:02
12 Ballet for a Girl in Buchannon: To Be Free/Now More Than Ever - 2:43
13 Fancy Colours - 5:11
14 25 or 6 to 4 - 4:51
15 Poem for the People - 5:31
16 It Better End Soon: 1st Movement/3rd Movement/4th Movement [Special Ed] - 6:37
Disc 2
1 Loneliness Is Just a Word - 2:37
2 Travel Suite: Flight 602 [Excerpt] - 2:48
3 Travel Suite: Free [Excerpt] - 2:18
4 Mother - 4:31
5 Lowdown - 3:35
6 An Hour in the Shower: A Hard Risin' Morning Without Breakfast/Off to ... - 5:30
7 A Hit by Varèse - 4:55
8 All Is Well - 3:50
9 Saturday in the Park - 3:55
10 Dialogue, Pts. 1 & 2 - 7:12
11 Just You 'N' Me - 3:43
12 Something in This City Changes People - 3:43
13 In Terms of Two - 3:30
14 Feelin' Stronger Every Day - 4:14
15 (I've Been) Searchin' So Long - 4:30
16 Mongonucleosis - 3:27
17 Wishing You Were Here - 4:38
18 Call on Me - 4:02
19 Happy Man [Special Edit] - 3:14
Disc 3
1 Harry Truman - 3:01
2 Old Days - 3:31
3 Brand New Love Affair, Pts. 1 & 2 - 4:27
4 Never Been in Love Before - 4:10
5 You Are on My Mind - 3:12
6 Mama Mama - 3:30
7 Hope for Love - 3:03
8 Another Rainy Day in New York City - 3:01
9 Gently I'll Wake You - 3:33
10 If You Leave Me Now - 3:56
11 Mississippi Delta City Blues - 4:40
12 Baby, What a Big Surprise - 3:04
13 Take Me Back to Chicago - 5:15
14 Prelude (Little One)/Little One - 6:35
15 Gone Long Gone - 4:00
16 No Tell Lover [Single Version][Edit] - 3:49
17 Alive Again [Single Version][Edit] - 3:29
18 The Greatest Love on Earth - 3:18
19 Little Miss Lovin' - 4:36
20 Hot Streets - 5:14
Disc 4
1 Street Player [Single Version][Edit] - 4:24
2 Must Have Been Crazy - 3:23
3 Manipulation - 3:29
4 Thunder and Lightning - 3:32
5 Song for You - 3:42
6 The American Dream - 3:17
7 Love Me Tomorrow - 4:59
8 Chains - 3:22
9 What You're Missing [Single Version][Edit] - 3:31
10 Hard to Say I'm Sorry/Get Away - 5:06
11 Stay the Night - 3:48
12 We Can Stop the Hurtin' - 4:11
13 Hard Habit to Break - 4:43
14 Along Comes a Woman [Single Version] - 3:46
15 You're the Inspiration - 3:48
16 Good for Nothing - 3:38
17 If She Would Have Been Faithful - 3:53
18 Forever - 5:20
19 Will You Still Love Me? [Single Version] - 4:11
20 Niagara Falls - 3:42
Disc 5
1 Heart in Pieces - 5:05
2 Look Away - 3:59
3 What Kind of Man Would I Be? - 4:19
4 I Don't Wanna Live Without Your Love - 3:56
5 We Can Last Forever - 3:45
6 You're Not Alone [Single Version][Mix] - 3:59
7 Hearts in Trouble [Single Version][Edit] - 4:01
8 Only Time Can Heal the Wounded - 4:39
9 You Come to My Senses - 3:48
10 God Save the Queen - 4:19
11 Chasin' the Wind - 4:18
12 All the Years [#] - 4:16
13 Stone of Sisyphus [#] - 4:12
14 Bigger Than Elvis [#] - 4:31
15 Caravan - 3:24
16 Here in My Heart - 4:14
17 The Only One [Promo Single Edit] - 4:38
18 All Roads Lead to You - 4:17
19 Show Me a Sign - 3:35
Disc 6 (DVD)
1 Backstage & Buildup [DVD][#][*]
2 Now That You've Gone [DVD][Live][#][*]
3 Devil's Sweet [DVD][Live][#][*]
4 Saturday in the Park [DVD][Live][#][*]
5 Dialogue [DVD][Live][#][*]
6 End Credits [DVD][#][*]
7 Intro [DVD][#][*]
8 Must Have Been Crazy [DVD][#][*]
9 Cat Pranks [DVD][#][*]
10 Run Away [DVD][#][*]
11 Street Player [DVD][#][*]
