''Chicago VI'' is the fifth studio album (sixth overall) by

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

rock band

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

and was released on June 25, 1973. It was the band's second in a string of five consecutive albums to make it to No. 1 in the US, was certified

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile ...

less than a month after its release, and has been certified two-times

platinum Platinum is a chemical element with the symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a dense, malleable, ductile, highly unreactive, precious, silverish-white transition metal. Its name originates from Spanish , a diminutive of "silver". Pla ...

since. It is the first album to feature percussionist

Laudir de Oliveira Laudir Soares de Oliveira (6 January 1940 – 17 September 2017) was a Brazilian musician and producer mostly renowned for his time as percussionist with the band Chicago. Oliveira grew up in Rio de Janeiro, and started working professionally in ...

, who would become a full-fledged member of the band for ''

Chicago VIII ''Chicago VIII'' is the seventh studio album, and eighth album overall, by American rock band Chicago, released in 1975. Following the experimental jazz/ pop stylings of ''Chicago VII'', the band returned to a more streamlined rock-based sound ...

''. ''VI'' is the first studio album (the other being 1975's compilation '' Chicago IX'') to feature the original band members on the cover before the death of leader and co-founder

Terry Kath Terry Alan Kath (January 31, 1946 – January 23, 1978) was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter, best known as a founding member of the rock band Chicago. He played guitar and sang lead vocals on many of the band's early hit singl ...

Background

After having recorded all of Chicago's first five albums in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

(except for parts of the second album recorded at CBS in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...

), producer James William Guercio had his own Caribou Studios built in Nederland, Colorado during 1972. It was finished in time for the band to record their sixth album the following February, and would remain their recording base for the next four years.

Robert Lamm Robert William Lamm (born October 13, 1944) is an American keyboardist, guitarist, singer and songwriter best known as a founding member of the rock band Chicago. He wrote many of the band's biggest hits, including " Questions 67 & 68", "Does ...

authored half of the album's tracks, including his response to some of Chicago's negative reviewers in "Critics' Choice". James Pankow wrote the album's two hits, " Just You 'n' Me", which peaked at No. 4 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart, and " Feelin' Stronger Every Day", which peaked at No. 10. The latter was co-composed with

Peter Cetera Peter Paul Cetera ( ; born September 13, 1944) is an American retired musician best known for being a lead vocalist and the bassist of the rock band Chicago from 1967 until his departure in 1985, before launching a successful solo career. His ...

, who also wrote "In Terms of Two", and sang lead vocal on all three songs. Released in June 1973, ''Chicago VI'' was another commercial success, spending five non-consecutive weeks at No. 1 on the ''Billboard'' 200 chart in the US, and was certified gold by the

Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...

less than a month after its release. It was certified two-times platinum in 1986, the first year the RIAA awarded platinum certification to albums released before 1976. The album did not chart in the UK, although the band's first three studio albums had charted in the top ten there. The album was mixed and released in both stereo and

quadraphonic Quadraphonic (or quadrophonic and sometimes quadrasonic) sound – equivalent to what is now called 4.0 surround sound – uses four audio channels in which speakers are positioned at the four corners of a listening space. The system allows for t ...

. The original US CD release (Columbia CK #32400) was mastered for CD by

Joe Gastwirt Joe Gastwirt is an American audio engineer, known for digitally remastering hundreds of CDs and LPs for famous artists, including the Grateful Dead, Tom Petty, Helen Reddy, Electric Light Orchestra, Jimi Hendrix, Crosby, Stills, and Nash, The Blue ...

. ''Chicago VI'' was remastered and reissued by

Rhino Records A rhinoceros (; ; ), commonly abbreviated to rhino, is a member of any of the five extant species (or numerous extinct species) of odd-toed ungulates in the family Rhinocerotidae. (It can also refer to a member of any of the extinct species ...

in 2002, with two bonus tracks: a Terry Kath demo called "Beyond All Our Sorrows", and a recording of

Al Green Albert Leornes Greene (born April 13, 1946), better known as Al Green, is an American singer, songwriter, pastor and record producer best known for recording a series of soul hit singles in the early 1970s, including " Take Me to the River", ...

's " Tired of Being Alone", taken from the 1973 TV special ''Chicago in the Rockies''. In 2013, the audiophile reissue company Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab remastered ''Chicago VI'' and released it on Hybrid SACD, which can be played on both CD players and SACD players.

Track listing

Personnel

Chicago

– bass, lead vocals, backing vocals,

harmonica The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock. The many types of harmonica in ...

on "In Terms of Two" *

– electric guitar, acoustic guitar,

slide guitar Slide guitar is a technique for playing the guitar that is often used in blues music. It involves playing a guitar while holding a hard object (a slide) against the strings, creating the opportunity for glissando effects and deep vibratos t ...

, lead vocals, backing vocals *

– acoustic piano,

Hammond organ The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert and first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, Hammond organs generated ...

clavinet The Clavinet is an electrically amplified clavichord invented by Ernst Zacharias and manufactured by the Hohner company of Trossingen, West Germany, from 1964 to 1982. The instrument produces sounds by a rubber pad striking a point on a tens ...

Wurlitzer electric piano The Wurlitzer electronic piano is an electric piano manufactured and marketed by Wurlitzer from the mid-1950s to mid-1980s. Sound is generated by striking a metal reed with a hammer, which induces an electric current in a pickup. It is concept ...

Fender Rhodes The Rhodes piano (also known as the Fender Rhodes piano) is an electric piano invented by Harold Rhodes, which became popular in the 1970s. Like a conventional piano, the Rhodes generates sound with keys and hammers, but instead of strings, t ...

ARP synthesizer ARP Instruments, Inc. was a Lexington, Massachusetts manufacturer of electronic musical instruments, founded by Alan Robert Pearlman in 1969. It created a popular and commercially successful range of synthesizers throughout the 1970s before de ...

, Hohner Pianet, lead vocals, backing vocals *

Lee Loughnane Lee David Loughnane (pronounced LOCK-nain; born October 21, 1946) is an American trumpeter, flugelhorn player, vocalist, and songwriter, best known for being a founding member of the rock band Chicago. Early life and education Lee David Loughna ...

– trumpet, backing vocals, percussion, co-lead vocals on “Something In This City Changes People” * James Pankow – trombone, brass arrangements *

Walter Parazaider Walter Parazaider (born March 14, 1945) is an American woodwind musician best known for being a founding member of the rock band Chicago. He plays a wide variety of wind instruments, including saxophone, flute, and clarinet. He also occasionall ...

– saxophones,

flute The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedles ...

Danny Seraphine Daniel Peter Seraphine (born August 28, 1948) is an American drummer, record producer, theatrical producer and film producer. He is best known as the original drummer and a founding member of the rock band Chicago, a tenure which lasted from ...

– drums, percussion

Additional personnel

–

congas The conga, also known as tumbadora, is a tall, narrow, single-headed drum from Cuba. Congas are staved like barrels and classified into three types: quinto (lead drum, highest), tres dos or tres golpes (middle), and tumba or salidor (lowest). ...

Joe Lala Joseph Anthony Lala (November 3, 1947 – March 18, 2014) was an American musician and actor. In 1966, he co-founded the rock band Blues Image. Life and career Lala was born in Ybor City, Tampa, Florida, to parents from Contessa Entellina (an ...

– congas * J. G. O'Rafferty –

pedal steel guitar The pedal steel guitar is a console-type of steel guitar with pedals and knee levers that change the pitch of certain strings to enable playing more varied and complex music than any previous steel guitar design. Like all steel guitars, it can ...

Production

* Produced by James William Guercio * Engineered by Wayne Tarnowski * Assistant Engineer – Jeff Guercio * Mixed by

Phil Ramone Philip Ramone (né Rabinowitz, January 5, 1934March 30, 2013) was a South African-born American recording engineer, record producer, violinist and composer, who in 1958 co-founded A & R Recording, Inc., a recording studio with business ...

* Mix Assistant – Richard Blakin * Cover Design – John Berg and Nick Fasciano * Photography by Barry Feinstein

Charts

Certifications

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chicago 06 Chicago (band) albums 1973 albums Albums produced by James William Guercio Columbia Records albums