Review for The Very Best of Chicago

Comments about CD THE VERY BEST OF CHICAGO:

Chicago has been setting the standard in modern music for 40 years. This collection just scratches the surface of their contribution to pop music and is a good start for enjoying one of the most successful groups in the history of music. Buy this cd and you won't be sorry!

Comments about CD THE VERY BEST OF CHICAGO:

Have fun with it.

Comments about CD THE VERY BEST OF CHICAGO:

I have a very bad habit that many Chicago fans have, buying Chicago Best of Packages with songs I already own. With that said lets take a look at this package. This CD was designed to be sold in stores that don't really have a huge selection of CDs like Brookstone and it is a single disk collection as opposed to the many 2 disk compilations out there for the band.

The Music
The purpose of this CD as stated on the cover is to compile some of Chicago's greatest hits from the last 40 years on one CD. Chicago has had many hits packages but none of them have been able to (including this one) please everybody. With such a rich history someone's favorite tracks will be missing. I would argue though looking strictly at Chicago's radio hits the tracks chosen on this collection are the songs that have had the most staying power on the radio for the last few decades. Here is the track list:

1. Just You 'N' Me
2. Saturday In the Park
3. You're The Inspiration
4. Baby, What a Big Suprise
5. Hard to Say I'm Sorry/Get Away
6. Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?
7. 25 or 6 to 4
8. If You Leave Me Now
9. Hard Habit to Break
10. Old Days
11. Beginnings
12. Call On Me
13. Make Me Smile
14. Love Will Come Back (w/ Rascal Flats)
15. Feel (w/Horns)

The good part
These are really great songs featured and perfect for taking on a road trip. With the exception of Beginnings and Make Me Smile these are all the album versions. (Beginnings is the version with the percussion ending removed and clocks in a little over 6 minutes and Make Me Smile was the special version created for the 2002 hits collection). I think the inclusion of Feel from their 2006 album, even though it wasn't a big hit, brings their radio history full circle.

The Bad
I think they should have left off "Love Will Come Back" and replaced it with Look Away (which was the song of the year in 1989) and with the album length only being 63 minutes they could have added Here In My Heart (to represent Chicago in the 90s) and Will You Still Love Me. To me that would have made this Chicago's most comprehensive single disk collection.

WIth that said for a casual fan or someone who wants a decent collection of Chicago hits probably could care less about what is missing, this is the one to get. This really is a great enjoyable sampler of Chicago's timeless radio hits.