Blogcritics: Comments on 40 Million Copies

Comment by Eric Olsen

Wed, 12 Nov 2003 18:20:59 EST

I'd go with the recent Best of: Only the Beginning. It's a bargain double-CD and covers the whole career. I probably like the very first one - Chicago Transit Authority - best if I had to pick one studio album.

Comment by Rodney Welch

Wed, 12 Nov 2003 16:37:28 EST

Just my opinion, but if memory serves, the first three are the best of the lot and Chicago II is the cream. If you must own one Chicago record, that's the one to get.

Comment by Craig Lyndall

Wed, 12 Nov 2003 16:27:22 EST

Having been born too late for Chicago really, would you consider 25 or 6 to 4 one of their better songs? I just wonder exactly which albums are the best and least cheesy. I did this same exercise with Genesis when someone told me that Phil Collins hadn't always been writing their songs and making them bad.

Comment by Eric Olsen

Wed, 12 Nov 2003 16:24:29 EST

In general, Chicago was best when they rocked hardest, and Kath was a great hard rock guitarist. Hey, he should be on the list.

Comment by Craig Lyndall

Wed, 12 Nov 2003 16:20:32 EST

Then Peter Cetera's name became synonymous with Ralph Macchio and the Karate Kid movies. It makes me miss classics like 25 or 6 to 4.

Comment by Eric Olsen

Wed, 12 Nov 2003 16:10:27 EST

I sat in the studio for about a week of the recording of Chicago 17 - most of it the horn parts of "Hard Habit to Break." It was both fascinating and excruciatingly dull at the same time. Olivia Newton John came down to the studio to say hello to Peter Cetera, who by then was totally the "rock star" of the band. We also went to Bill Champlin's house for an interview - pretty cool week.

Comment by Tim Hall

Wed, 12 Nov 2003 15:49:28 EST

"Alpha" sucked I totally agree. Album-wise, Asia were very much a one hit wonder.

Comment by Eric Olsen

Wed, 12 Nov 2003 15:31:07 EST

I can basically agree with that, although there is some Blur I like a lot.

Comment by JR

Wed, 12 Nov 2003 15:30:20 EST

Excepting the greatest hits package, I bought all these AND "Chicago XVII". "Alpha" sucked.

Comment by Tim Hall

Wed, 12 Nov 2003 15:19:17 EST

OK, so which recent big acts will have long come and gone in 20 years time? My guess is all the 'Britpop' bands like Oasis. They were as ubiquitous in Britain of the late 90s as Journey were to America of the early 80s.

Comment by Eric Olsen

Wed, 12 Nov 2003 14:45:14 EST

Tim, somehow I ended up with most of them too - still not sure how that happened, I imagine I needed them for DJing. My point wasn't to knock these as bad, just to marvel at their ubiquity in the "heat of the moment," a moment that has long come and gone.

Comment by Tim Hall

Wed, 12 Nov 2003 14:41:15 EST

Hey, I bought all of those albums (except for the April Wine one), and loved the Asia one when it came out. I don't think bands like Journey were ever as loathed by 'fashionable music fans' in Britain as they were in the US, because their kind of corporate rock was never big in Britain at the time; our charts were much more dominated by new wave acts. Only hard rock fans really knew Journey existed, and we bought their albums for the rockers like 'Edge of the Blade' rather than the power ballads. I admit Mike Stone's very 80s overproduction sounds rather dated now. But so does Trevor Horn on Yes' 90125. In 2010, I bet grunge will sound just as dated.