Chicago Transit Authority (album): Difference between revisions

| artist = [[Chicago (band)|Chicago Transit Authority]]

| caption = Back cover of LP releasereleases and front cover of CD reissues.

| studio = [[CBS 30th Street Studio|CBS 30th Street]], ([[New York City]])

| genre = {{hlist|[[Jazz fusion#Jazz rock|Jazz rock]]|[[progressive rock]]<ref name="Hoffmann2004">{{cite book |author=Frank Hoffmann |title=Encyclopedia of Recorded Sound |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-FOSAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA374 |date=12 November 2004 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-135-94950-1 |pages=374– }}</ref>|[[blues rock]]}}

| label = [[Columbia Records|Columbia]], [[CBS]]

'''''Chicago Transit Authority''''' is the debut studio album by the American [[rock music|rock]] band [[Chicago (band)|Chicago]], known at the time of release as Chicago Transit Authority. ItThis wasdouble recordedalbum andwas released inon April 28, 1969 and became a [[sleeper hit]], reaching number 17 on the [[Billboard 200|''Billboard'' 200]] by 1971. ''Chicago Transit Authority'' spawned several successful singles, including "[[Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?]]", "[[Questions 67 and 68]]" and "[[Beginnings (Chicago song)|Beginnings]]". The album stayed on the ''Billboard'' chart for 171 weeks,<ref name=<ref name= "BB200 Jun75" /> beating the previous record for a rock album's longevity of 155 weeks<ref name=Whitburn /> and has been certified double [[Music recording certification|platinum]] by the [[Recording Industry Association of America|Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)]].<ref name=RIAA /> A politically-charged album, it is often synonymous the [[counterculture of the 1960s]]. For this inaugural recording effort, the group was nominated for a [[Grammy Award]] for 1969 [[Grammy Award for Best New Artist|Best New Artist of the Year]].<ref name=Grammy1969>{{cite web |url=https://www.grammy.com/grammys/artists/chicago |title=Grammy Awards: Chicago |date=March 17, 2014 |website=GRAMMY.com |language=en |access-date=January 17, 2019 |archive-date=March 20, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190320024210/https://www.grammy.com/grammys/artists/chicago |url-status=live }}</ref> The album was inducted into the [[Grammy Hall of Fame]] in 2014.<ref name=GHOF>{{cite web |title=2014 GRAMMY HALL OF FAME® INDUCTEES |url=https://www.grammy.org/recording-academy/press-release/the-recording-academy-announces-2014-grammy-hall-of-fame-inductees |website=www.grammy.org |access-date=2017-01-03 |archive-date=2017-01-31 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170131193846/https://www.grammy.org/recording-academy/press-release/the-recording-academy-announces-2014-grammy-hall-of-fame-inductees |url-status=live }}</ref>

Keyboardist [[Robert Lamm]], guitarist [[Terry Kath]] and bassist [[Peter Cetera]] shared lead vocals, while [[James Pankow]], [[Lee Loughnane]] and [[Walter Parazaider]] handled all brass and woodwinds ([[trombone]], [[trumpet]] and [[saxophone]], [[clarinet]] and [[flute]] respectively) and [[Danny Seraphine]] played drums. (Parazaider is pictured in the album package playing flute, but doesn't actually play it on the album.) Band members added percussion during sections of a song when they weren't playing their main instrument. For example, on "I'm a Man", Pankow was on cowbell, Parazaider on tambourine, and Loughnane on claves.<ref name="Seraphine 2011 86"/> Lamm, Kath and Pankow were the band's main composers at this time. According to the band's producer, James William Guercio, [[Jimi Hendrix]] was an avowed fan of Kath's playing.<ref name=Ruhlmannp8>{{cite AV media notes |title=Chicago Group Portrait (Box Set) |year=1991 |url=http://aln3.albumlinernotes.com/Chicago_Box_Set_-_Page_8.html |page=8 |access-date=January 18, 2019 |first=William James |last=Ruhlmann |format=CD booklet archived online |publisher=Columbia Records |location=New York City |url-status=live |archive-url=http://archive.wikiwix.com/cache/20171112155002/http://aln3.albumlinernotes.com/Chicago_Box_Set_-_Page_4.html |archive-date=November 12, 2017 |df=mdy-all}}</ref><ref name="Chicago Story" /> According to the album's original liner notes, the solo performance of Kath on "Free Form Guitar" was created without the use of any pedals.<ref name=":1">{{cite web|url=http://aln2.albumlinernotes.com/Chicago_Transit.html|title=Chicago Transit|website=aln2.albumlinernotes|access-date=January 19, 2019|archive-date=January 19, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190119230810/http://aln2.albumlinernotes.com/Chicago_Transit.html|url-status=live}}</ref> In a nod to Hendrix's guitar expressionism (Hendrix most notably used wah and fuzz pedals),{{citation needed|date=January 2019}} Kath instead plugged directly into his studio amplifier and improvised the entire track in one take for the purpose of pure tone.<ref name=":1" /> "Free Form Guitar" was an influence on the genre of [[noise music]].{{Citation needed|date=January 2019}}

According to band member WaltWalter Parazaider, when the group went into the studio to record the album, they " 'found out we knew very little about what we were doing. ... The first song was “Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?” We tried to record it as a band, live, all of us in the studio at once.' "<ref name=Ruhlmannp2 /><ref name="Chicago Story" /> Finally it was decided that drums, bass, keyboard, and guitars would be recorded first, and then the horns and vocals.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Street Player: My Chicago Story|last=Seraphine|first=Danny|publisher=John Wiley & Sons Inc.|year=2011|isbn=9780470416839|page=86}}</ref>

| headline = Side Oneone

| headline = Side Twotwo

| headline = Side Threethree

| extra1 = none—

| headline = Side Fourfour

| extra1 = none—

| extra3 = Kath <small>(briefly{{efn|Briefly near the end: “Oh"Oh, thank you people”)</small>people"}}

=== Production ===

'''==== 2002 [[reissue]]''' ====

! scope="col"| Chart (1969-1971)

{{album chart|NetherlandsCanada|610|artist=Chicago|album=Chicago Transit Authority|chartid=6040|rowheader=true|access-date=MarchJune 2420, 20212024}}

{{album chart|NorwayNetherlands|86|artist=Chicago|album=Chicago Transit Authority|rowheader=true|access-date=MarchJune 2420, 20212024}}

{{album chart|UKNorway|98|artist=Chicago|album=Chicago Transit Authority|rowheader=true|access-date=MarchJune 2420, 20212024}}

{{album chart|Billboard200UK2|179|artistdate=Chicago19700201|rowheader=true|access-date=MarchJune 2420, 20212024}}

! scope="row"| US ''[[Billboard'' 200]]''<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.billboard.com/charts/year-end/1970/top-billboard-200-albums|title=Top Billboard 200 Albums – Year-End 1970|magazine=Billboard|date=2 January 2013|access-date=March 24, 2021|archive-date=June 3, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210603003348/https://www.billboard.com/charts/year-end/1970/top-billboard-200-albums|url-status=live}}</ref>

! scope="row"| US ''[[Billboard'' 200]]''<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.billboard.com/charts/year-end/1971/top-billboard-200-albums|title=Top Billboard 200 Albums – Year-End 1971|magazine=Billboard|date=2 January 2013|access-date=March 24, 2021|archive-date=June 4, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210604052252/https://www.billboard.com/charts/year-end/1971/top-billboard-200-albums|url-status=live}}</ref>