Chicago: The Box [Bonus DVD]

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
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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
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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
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Disc 4
1	Street Player Single Edit / Version 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
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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
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Disc 6
1	Backstage & Buildup previously unreleased / Bonus Track / DVD
2	Now That You've Gone Live / previously unreleased / Bonus Track / DVD
3	Devil's Sweet Live / previously unreleased / Bonus Track / DVD
4	Saturday in the Park Live / previously unreleased / Bonus Track / DVD
5	Dialogue Live / previously unreleased / Bonus Track / DVD
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Barnes & Noble

They're not name-checked as often as the Beach Boys or the Dead, but Chicago rank as one of the most popular American rock bands of all time. Beginning with their 1969 debut LP, Chicago amassed 5 consecutive No. 1 albums, 21 Top 10 singles, and 35 Top 40 singles, drawing fans with their free-flowing rock style, which took cues from jazz, R&B, blues, and more. This lavish six-disc set spans the band's impressive -- and ongoing -- career, from their beginnings as a septet called the Chicago Transit Authority dabbling in ambitious compositions like the four-movement "Ballet for a Girl in Buchannon" to purveyors of familiar songs like the driving classic rock nugget "25 or 6 to 4." The Box also highlights Chicago's reign as soft-rock stalwarts with hits such as "Saturday in the Park" and "Hard Habit to Break" before coming full circle with a splashy reading of Duke Ellington's "Caravan" and the 1999 collaboration with Lenny Kravitz, "The Only One." The set's first three discs span Chicago's achievements through the late '70s, setting familiar hits such as "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?" and "Baby, What a Big Surprise" alongside more offbeat fare, such as the Cream-like dirge "South California Purples," the percussion-driven Latin instrumental "Mongonucleosis," and the lushly arranged "Brand New Love Affair -- Parts I & II," in which late guitarist Terry Kath comes off sounding like Ray Charles. Discs 4 and 5 track Chicago's move from disco-soaked tunes like "Street Player" to their collaborations with production Svengali David Foster on a string of smash ballads, from "You're the Inspiration" to the early-'90s Stone of Sisyphus album, which was rejected by Warner Bros. but is represented here by three previously unreleased tracks. The sixth disc, a bonus DVD, features live performances from a 1972 concert, along with a promotional film made for the release of Chicago 13. The icing on the cake, the set's deluxe booklet, collects detailed track notes, essays by Phil Gallo and A. Scott Galloway, and numerous archival photos, making The Box as appealing to casual fans as it is imperative for diehards. Dave Gil de Rubio

All Music Guide

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