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View Full Compilation of Greatest Chicago Music Artists of All-Time. From Rock Bands like Chicago to R&B from Earth, Wind, & Fire to Rap
Jan 30, 2020 · Fifty-seven critics ranked their ten favorite Chicago albums from the past decade, and we compiled the results in an ordered list that wound up 338 albums long. A first-place pick earned ten...
May 12, 2014 · From Curtis to Kanye, from Screeching Weasel to Pelican, these are our favorite records made by Chicago artists ever. Read the complete list.
- “Bad, Bad, Leroy Brown” by Jim Croce
- “My Kind of Town” by Frank Sinatra
- “Back to Chicago” by Styx
- “Chicago” by Michael Jackson
- “Chicago (That Toddlin’ Town)” by Frank Sinatra
- “The Night Chicago Died” by Paper Lace
- “Southside” by Common Ft. Kanye West
- “Leader of The Band” by Dan Fogelberg
- “Dancing in The Street” by Martha and The Vandellas
- “All That Jazz” from The Musical Chicago
The first entry is a classic by folk singer-songwriter Jim Croce. His story is of a barroom fight between a gambling shark and bartender over one of the barmaids on “the southside of Chicago.” You’ll have to listen to find out who wins. Croce, who was from Philadelphia, wrote several hit songs between 1966 and 1973. His life ended tragically when a...
Let the smooth voice of Frank Sinatracroon you to the Windy City with his 1964 song “My Kind of Town.” If you love Chicago as much as the narrator, this song would be the perfect tribute. As you listen, the narrator will take you on a journey through the city as he tells you why it is his “kind of town.” For him, the city is full of friendly people...
American band Styxwas the rock-and-roll brainchild of Dennis DeYoung, whose high baritone voice led a string of hit power ballads in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The band hailed from Chicago, and one of their more successful albums Paradise Theaterwas built around a fading movie house in the city’s inner core. In 1990, a reformulated Styx droppe...
Five years after Michael Jackson’s death, an album called Xscape was released with previously unreleased tracks the singer had made between 1983 and 2001. In 2014, it debuted at #2 on the Billboard Hot 200 album chart. “Chicago” was one of several songs Jackson recorded in 1999 but which the pop star decided against including on his hit album Invin...
Originally published in 1922, it took about 35 years before Old Blue Eyes made “Chicago (That Toddlin’ Town),” the song by Fred Fisher, famous. While toddling is a casual way of walking, in this case, the word refers to a style of jazz dance popular when the song was written. Over the years, the song’s lyrics have been updated to reflect the city’s...
The next song on our list is a bit different. It’s by the British pop-rock band Paper Lacewho wrote “The Night Chicago Died,” a song about a fictional shootout between Al Capone’s gang in the 1920s and the Chicago Police Department. The song’s narrator is the son of a Chicago policeman who recounts the nervousness of his mother awaiting word of her...
Common is the stage name for rapper and actor Lonnie Rashid Lynn. Underground for most of the 1990s, Commonearned his first Grammy award in 2007 for “Southside.” The song is about the working-class section of Chicago, and it mixes urban themes with the hopes of future wealth. A live version was performed with Kanye West just hours before the Chicag...
Multi-instrumentalist singer-songwriter Dan Fogelbergwrote this simple and beautiful storytelling song as a tribute to his father, whose life as an itinerant musician left an indelible mark on him and his siblings. Chicago isn’t the main theme, but it gets referenced when the singer wonders how one of his brothers moved there after college. Fogelbe...
This song is simply a great Motown classic. Marvin Gaye wrote it, and the Vandellas—a female trio led by Martha Reeves—took it to #2 on the BillboardHot 100 list in 1964. Numerous artists have covered it over the years, including the Mamas and the Papas, Van Halen, and a Mick Jagger/David Bowie duet. Among many cities to be mentioned, Chicago is on...
The opening scene of one of Broadway’s most successful musicals of all time—and the Oscar-winning movie rendition—is the piano bar song that sets the stage for murder and mayhem. “All That Jazz” starts nice and soft but then gets into the rhythm-and-blues section. Before you know it, the song is alive and kicking with great lyrics and a belter’s vo...
- Fall Out Boy. As one of the most successful bands in the alternative rock category, Fall Out Boy began their journey in 2001 in Wilmette, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago.
- Styx. Our next band is Styx, a rock band officially founded in 1972 but had begun when the Panozzo twin brothers played music with a neighbor 11 years prior.
- Chicago. With their name the biggest indicator, the band Chicago hails from the same-named city. They’ve made a name for themselves as one of the most successful and longest-running rock bands from the 60s.
- Earth, Wind & Fire. Before assuming the name Earth, Wind & Fire, the band was known as The Salty Peppers. They had their beginnings in 1969 with songs that weren’t a commercial success.
Second only to The Beach Boys in Billboard singles and albums chart success among American bands, Chicago is one of the longest-running and most successful rock groups, and one of the world's best-selling groups of all time, having sold more than 100 million records.
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Dec 11, 2020 · Best Chicago albums of 2020. 1. Sen Morimoto, ‘Sen Morimoto’. Courtesy Sooper Records. Using an old taped-up keyboard, an MPC, a saxophone and layers upon layers of vocals, Sen Morimoto is a...
