''Chicago at Carnegie Hall'' (also known as ''Chicago IV'') is the first live

album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...

, and fourth album overall, by American band

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

. It was initially released on October 25, 1971 by

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American reco ...

as a four- LP vinyl

box set A boxed set or (its US name) box set is a set of items (for example, a compilation of books, musical recordings, films or television programs) traditionally packaged in a box, hence 'boxed', and offered for sale as a single unit. Music Artists ...

, and was also available for a time as two separate two-record sets. A

quadraphonic Quadraphonic (or quadrophonic, also called quadrasonic or by the neologism quadio ortmanteau, formed by analogy with "stereo" sound – equivalent to what is now called 4.0 surround sound – uses four audio channels in which speakers are po ...

mix of the album was proposed, but was never made, possibly due to the band's objection to the album being released in the first place. This is the only Chicago album of the group's first ten releases not to have a quadraphonic release in any format. The album reached No. 3 on the

Billboard 200 The ''Billboard'' 200 is a record chart ranking the 200 most popular music albums and EPs in the United States. It is published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists. Sometimes, a rec ...

. It was certified gold by the

Recording Industry Association of America 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 ...

(RIAA) two weeks after its release, and was certified platinum in 1986.

Background

While touring in support of '' Chicago III'', Chicago played

Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhattan), 57t ...

for a week in April 1971 and recorded all of their shows. A four-LP

for release as Chicago's fourth album (that distinction being responsible for the album's nickname of ''Chicago IV'') was the result.

Walter Parazaider Walter Parazaider (born March 14, 1945) is an American woodwind musician who is a founding member of the rock band Chicago. He is best known for being one-third of Chicago's brass/woodwind section alongside Lee Loughnane and James Pankow. Para ...

told writer William James Ruhlmann that "The reason behind the live record for Carnegie Hall is, we were the first rock 'n' roll group to sell out a week at Carnegie Hall, and that was worth rolling up the trucks for, putting the mikes up there, and really chronicling what happened in 1971." Columbia were very skeptical on the risk the extended set posed, and with a decrease in royalties to counter that fear (a similar situation befell their 1969 debut, ''

Chicago Transit Authority The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) is the operator of public transport, mass transit in Chicago, Illinois, United States, and some of its suburbs, including the trains of the Chicago "L" and List of Chicago Transit Authority bus routes, CTA bu ...

''), Chicago released ''Chicago at Carnegie Hall'' that October to a mixed reaction. While the set sold very well, reaching No. 3 in the US (but failing to chart in the UK), the critics found the album too long—and even indulgent with its inclusions of tune-ups. The band themselves have remained divided through the years over the merits of the album.

Robert Lamm Robert William Lamm (born October 13, 1944) is an American musician and a founding member of the rock band Chicago. He is best known for his songwriting, vocals, and keyboard melodies, most significantly on the band's debut studio album, ''Chic ...

and Walter Parazaider defended the album to William James Ruhlmann, while

James Pankow James Carter Pankow (born August 20, 1947) is an American trombone player, songwriter, and brass instrument arranger who is a founding member of the rock band Chicago. He is best known for his brass arrangements, and for being one-third of Chi ...

and

Peter Cetera Peter Paul Cetera Jr. ( ; born September 13, 1944) is a retired American musician best known for being a frontman, vocalist, and bassist for the American rock band Chicago from 1967 until his departure in 1985. His career as a recording artist ...

were not happy with the result. Pankow told Ruhlmann, "I hate it. ... The acoustics of Carnegie Hall were never meant for amplified music, ...the brass after being miked came out sounding like

kazoo The kazoo is a musical instrument that adds a ''buzzing'' timbral quality to a player's voice when the player vocalizes into it. It is a type of '' mirliton'' (itself a membranophone), one of a class of instruments that modify the player's v ...

s."Chicagotheband.com: "History, Section VII"

Lee Loughnane Lee David Loughnane (pronounced LOCK-nain; born October 21, 1946) is an American trumpeter, flugelhorn player, vocalist, and songwriter who is a founding member of the rock band Chicago. He is best known for being one-third of Chicago's brass/wo ...

said that although he thinks the album is good, there were many things he didn't like about it and that he didn't think the album should have been released. In recognition of setting Carnegie Hall records and the ensuing four LP live recordings, the group was awarded a ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

'' 1972 Trendsetter Award. Despite poor sound quality, ''Chicago at Carnegie Hall'', according to William James Ruhlmann, went on to become "perhaps" the best-selling box set by a rock act until the release of the '' Live/1975-85'' five-LP live box set by

Bruce Springsteen Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen (born September 23, 1949) is an American Rock music, rock singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Nicknamed "the Boss", Springsteen has released 21 studio albums spanning six decades; most of his albums feature th ...

& the

E Street Band The E Street Band is an American rock band that has been the primary backing band for rock musician Bruce Springsteen since 1972. In 2014, the E Street Band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. For the bulk of Springsteen's recordin ...

in 1986. It is still the best-selling four-LP set. In 2005, ''Chicago at Carnegie Hall'' was remastered and re-issued on three CDs by

Rhino Records A rhinoceros ( ; ; ; : rhinoceros or rhinoceroses), commonly abbreviated to rhino, is a member of any of the five extant taxon, extant species (or numerous extinct species) of odd-toed ungulates (perissodactyls) in the family (biology), famil ...

with improved sound quality, a bonus disc of eight tracks of alternate takes and songs not on the 1971 edition, and recreations of nearly all the original posters and packaging. On Monday April 5, 2021, 50 years to the day of their first Carnegie Hall show, Rhino Records announced a 50th Anniversary 16-CD box set called ''Chicago Live At Carnegie Hall Complete''. The collection includes all six shows in their entirety which were performed from April 5 through April 10, 1971, plus two matinee performances. The set was produced by engineer Tim Jessup along with band member Lee Loughnane, and was released on September 10, 2021.

Artwork and packaging

The original LP release of this set contained two giant posters of the band, a poster of Carnegie Hall's exterior, an insert about voting information, and a 20-page softcover booklet; this last contained photos of the band members playing during the concert, and on the back bore a full touring schedule from their first tour through their 1971 US tour. The band's official web site labels the cover design "white tile".

Reception

Lester Bangs Leslie Conway "Lester" Bangs (December 14, 1948 – April 30, 1982) was an American music journalist and critic. He wrote for ''Creem'' and ''Rolling Stone'' magazines and was also a performing musician. The music critic Jim DeRogatis called ...

, writing for ''

Creem ''Creem'' (often stylized in all caps) is an American rock music magazine and entertainment company, founded in Detroit, whose initial print run lasted from 1969 to 1989. It was first published in March 1969 by Barry Kramer and founding editor ...

'' in February 1972, considered the musicianship on ''Chicago at Carnegie Hall'' "technically competent" but "there are just too many times when you can hear all the parts better than the whole." He also considered the arrangements "sodden" carbon copies of the studio versions augmented with "directionless solos," and called the album the band's worst. In a retrospective review, Lindsay Planer of

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

praised the "muscular" performances of several songs, but considered the reeds and the brass thin-sounding, and Carnegie Hall to be acoustically poor for amplified rock.

Track listing

Personnel

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

– guitar and vocals *

– bass and vocals *

– keyboards and vocals *

– trumpet, background vocals, percussion, guitar on "Flight 602" and "Where Do We Go From Here?" *

– woodwinds, percussion, background vocals *

– trombone, percussion *

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

Production

* Produced by James William Guercio * Engineers – Don Puluse, Bud Graham, Hank Altman, Aaron Baron and Larry Dahlstrom * Recorded at

, New York, NY (by Location Recorders) * Mixed at Columbia Recording Studios, New York, NY * Art Direction – John Berg/Virginia Team * Artwork – Fuding Cheng * Poster Design – Ron Coro * Photography – Allen Goldblatt and Fred Lombardi * Poster Photo – Frank Laffire * Lettering – Beverly Scott

Charts

Certifications

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chicago At Carnegie Hall Albums produced by James William Guercio Albums recorded at Carnegie Hall Chicago (band) live albums 1971 live albums Columbia Records live albums