Happy 45th: Chicago, Chicago III

45 years ago today, Chicago released their third album, a four-sided affair which has often been underrated by casual fans due to the absence of any massive hit singles when, in fact, it's actually one of the band's most musically inventive albums.

Having toured their hearts out for way more of 1970 than was probably healthy, the members of Chicago were more than a little bit exhausted, but the extended period of time spent in the tour bus led the band's predominant composers - Terry Kath, Robert Lamm, and James Pankow - to really contemplate the material they wanted to include on Chicago III. The resulting songs may not have found the band at their most playful, but it was some of the most outside-the-box material of the band's early career.

“That third album scared us,” said Chicago saxophonist Walter Parazaider, in “A Chicago Story,” the official history on the band's website. “Because we basically had run out of the surplus of material that we had, and we were still working a lot on the road. We were afraid that we were getting ready to record a little under the gun. But I don't think it shows.”

“That whole album was more adventurous in terms of instrumental exploration than the first two albums,” added Pankow. “Robert wrote a lot of in-depth stuff.”

The earlier remark about how there weren't any massive hit singles on Chicago III was not intended to indicate that the singles from Chicago III were failures: the album ultimately delivered two top-40 hits with “Free” and “Lowdown.” Better yet, it was the band's most successful album up to that point, hitting #2 on the Billboard Top 200.

The weird thing, though, was that the band's first two albums were still riding high in the characters as a result of their constant touring, so the decision was made to release a few more singles from them, which is how “Beginnings,” “Colour My World,” and “Questions 67 and 68” all became hits. As you might imagine, though, it also likely left new fans a little uncertain about which songs came from which albums, so if you've somehow managed to never delve into Chicago III, today's a great day to do it.