March 24 – Chicago Thought 8 Was A Cardinal Number?

People like things they can depend on. And in the 1970’s, you could depend on the jazz-rock combo Chicago for a couple of things – putting out an album per year and being able to know which album it was in their discography, since each was titled for the number of release it was. So, predictably on this day in 1975, a year and two weeks after their VII album, they were back with Chicago VIII. Some have suggested maybe being less predictable might have helped…as might a little more time, since as allmusic put it, on this one they sounded “road-weary and running low on steam.”

While the previous album was somewhat daring, being a double album with much of the first disc being instrumental jazz, for this one they decided to put out a much more straight-forward set. Ten songs, just under 40 minutes, pretty much consistently pop/soft rock tunes. The most surprising thing about it may have been the packaging. The cover had the usual band logo, but set against an “embroidered” bird image, which looks a great deal like the symbol for the St. Louis Cardinals (the arch-rival team of Chicago’s favorite sons, the Cubs). As well, the original LP included a poster and T-shirt iron-on of the band for added value.

The added value might have been needed as VIII is seldom noted as being one of the band’s better works, despite having one of their best and most-enduring singles in “Old Days.”

Almost everyone likes that nostalgic look back at things like Howdy Doody and drive-in movies written by their trumpeter James Pankow (although Pankow wasn’t a primary writer for Chicago, he did manage to write a good percentage of their best-loved songs including “Color My World” and “Searching So Long”). The rest of the songs were not as memorable. The first single, “Harry Truman”, was described as “depression-era jazz” like “Old Days” looking back nostalgically. On this single though they were pining for a president they could get behind, like Truman, rather than “lies from men who’d sell us out.” The frustration is understandable given that the album was recorded in summer ’74, with a backdrop of Watergate and Nixon’s resignation. The recording was done at Caribou Ranch again, with their favorite producer of the era, James Guercio being helped out by another famous producer, Phil Ramone, doing the mixing.

Guercio and Ramone combined couldn’t help make the material sound terribly exciting though. Allmusic later rated it only 2-stars,lowest of the band’s first dozen albums and suggesting that only “Old Days” and the mildly-adventurous, 7-minute “Thank You Great Spirit” were notable, suggesting too that Peter Cetera, singer on six of the tracks seemed “lazy.”

The public may have agreed. Although the album did hit #1 in the U.S. – their fourth straight – and #3 in Canada, and again went platinum in the States, it spent fewer weeks on the chart than any of the predecessors had, facilitating Chicago IX , a greatest hits compilation, only six months later. Remarkably, given how seldom it gets played on oldies radio, “Harry Truman” was a top 20 hit for them and “Old Days” made it to #5. That made it their 14th top 20 hit of the decade, a number at the time equaling another famous utilizer of Caribou Ranch… Elton John.