https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/ Copyright (c) 2006-2013 Web Wiz Forums - All Rights Reserved. Tue, 05 May 2026 07:01:13 +0000 Fri, 02 Apr 2021 16:18:16 +0000 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Web Wiz Forums 12.07 360 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/RSS_post_feed.asp?TID=418 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum//images/Top-40-Music-on-CD-Forum-Logo.png https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/ https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=418&PID=57840&title=chicago-beginnings-questions-45s#57840 Author: AdvprosD
Subject: 418
Posted: 02 April 2021 at 4:18pm

KentT wrote: "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?". First single release on the old style label has the jazz vamp intro on it and the talking in the break. The re-released single had the jazz vamp edited out and no talking in the break. Version 1 was a fair seller, version 2 was a big hit.

Not sure where I was when "Does Anybody Know..." was a two version release. The Jazz intro was introduced to me when the the Group Portrait set was in my hands. I don't
think I've ever heard any version that didn't have the talking in the break. I'm going to have to look for that one.]]> Fri, 02 Apr 2021 16:18:16 +0000 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=418&PID=57840&title=chicago-beginnings-questions-45s#57840 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=418&PID=57832&title=chicago-beginnings-questions-45s#57832 Author: Yah Shure
Subject: 418
Posted: 02 April 2021 at 11:38am

jebsib wrote: Curious about Chicago's "Beginnings" - not sure if anyone was listening to the radio back in 1971, but it seems like a very odd song to get to #1 at Adult Contemporary stations at that time.

How is this "very odd"? Blood, Sweat & Tears' "Spinning
Wheel", which is also heavy on the brass, had already been
a BB AC chart-topper two years earlier, and its follow-up,
"And When I Die", was close behind at #4.

It wasn't as though Chicago hadn't already enjoyed
breakthrough AC success, since "Does Anybody Really Know
What Time It Is" had been a top 5 AC hit a half-year
earlier. I would consider the 45 version of "Beginnings"
to be a medium tempo pop record, not a "hard brass rock
jam." It's very much in the same vein as "DARKWTII".

Middle-of-the-road radio was gradually changing with the
times, and the sound of acts featuring prominent brass
sections, including BS&T and Chicago, would not have been
entirely foreign to many older MOR listeners who'd come of
age during the Big Band era. MOR playlists were by no
means limited to just super-soft hits like "You've
Got A Friend", "For All We Know" or "If".

I'm exaggerating here, of course, but Olivia's "If Not For
You" is like a savage rocker, compared to, say, her later
"I Honestly Love You". And it even has a fuzz guitar
during the break (which is mixed a little more upfront on
the mono single.)

jebsib wrote: its 45 flip-side, "Colour My World", never a single, was played to death in the 70s and became the ipso-facto prom theme for middle America that decade.

Not sure how "Colour My World" can and cannot
simultaneously be "a single." In any event, it didn't earn
enough spins to chart MOR.

Although Chicago III had sold well, neither of its
two singles, "Free" and "Lowdown" kept the group's top-40
momentum on the rise, and with the prospects of a 4-LP live
album later on in the year, Columbia did what it had to, by
mining the first two albums for potential singles success.
"Colour My World" was a part of that strategy, and while it
may not have shown up on the Hot 100 as anything more than
a "flip", having worked in college radio at the time
"Beginnings"/"Colour My World" was a current single, I can
tell you that the latter title was one of our most heavily
requested song for months on end. Its time had come,
belated though it may have been.

One more thought on how MOR radio was adapting to the
reality that the Dean Martins and John Garys of the world
were no longer selling in sufficient numbers at the
beginning of the new decade: here in Minneapolis/St. Paul,
the by-far dominant station at the time was WCCO-AM. It
was a legendary full service, 50,000-watt powerhouse. WCCO
began to realize that they needed some younger blood on the
staff and hired Denny Long, who'd been with a local oldies
station, to be their new music director in early 1971 (he's
still there, 50 years later.)

Later that same year, one of the WCCO personalities got
onto the subject of the Rolling Stones, realizing that the
majority of his listeners had probably never actually heard
a record by the group. So he put on a cut from the Stones'
latest album, Sticky Fingers. Which song did he
pick as being representative of the band?

"Bitch".

Local boy Bob Dylan, whose hard rock jam, "Subterranean
Homesick Blues", had gone to number 6 on Billboard's
Middle-Road chart in 1965, would have been proud. ]]> Fri, 02 Apr 2021 11:38:00 +0000 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=418&PID=57832&title=chicago-beginnings-questions-45s#57832 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=418&PID=57830&title=chicago-beginnings-questions-45s#57830 Author: jebsib
Subject: 418
Posted: 02 April 2021 at 6:57am

Curious about Chicago's "Beginnings" - not sure if anyone was listening to the
radio back in 1971, but...

It seems like a very odd song to get to #1 at Adult Contemporary stations at
that time. I see it wedged between super soft hits by Olivia, James Taylor,
Carpenters and Bread... and its sticks out like a sore thumb as a hard, brass
rock jam.

On the other hand, its 45 flip-side, "Colour My World", never a single, was
played to death in the 70s and became the ipso-facto prom theme for middle
America that decade.

Any idea if AC was just being adventurous on Beginnings, or if someone at
Billboard only reported the A-Side due to some chart policy?]]> Fri, 02 Apr 2021 06:57:11 +0000 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=418&PID=57830&title=chicago-beginnings-questions-45s#57830 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=418&PID=22954&title=chicago-beginnings-questions-45s#22954 Author: KentT
Subject: 418
Posted: 17 July 2009 at 12:58pm

"Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?". First single release on the old style label has the jazz vamp intro on it and the talking in the break. The re-released single had the jazz vamp edited out and no talking in the break. Version 1 was a fair seller, version 2 was a big hit. ]]> Fri, 17 Jul 2009 12:58:09 +0000 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=418&PID=22954&title=chicago-beginnings-questions-45s#22954 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=418&PID=3995&title=chicago-beginnings-questions-45s#3995 Author: Bill Cahill
Subject: 418
Posted: 14 March 2006 at 2:09pm

I believe I have the entire 11 edits on an mp3 which I can send you. Including the needless three edits on the fade out.. ]]> Tue, 14 Mar 2006 14:09:14 +0000 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=418&PID=3995&title=chicago-beginnings-questions-45s#3995 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=418&PID=3978&title=chicago-beginnings-questions-45s#3978 Author: aaronk
Subject: 418
Posted: 12 March 2006 at 5:25pm

Good info! Thanks Eric.]]> Sun, 12 Mar 2006 17:25:37 +0000 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=418&PID=3978&title=chicago-beginnings-questions-45s#3978 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=418&PID=3977&title=chicago-beginnings-questions-45s#3977 Author: eric_a
Subject: 418
Posted: 12 March 2006 at 3:12pm

After enough listening to the 45 and LP of "Beginnings", I found exactly where the phantom breakdown beats are found, around 1.21 in the LP version. (These beats are actually found earlier in the single as well.) So...here's my completed editlist:


0:00-0:02 - Acoustic guitar from beginning. Cut after two bars to:

0:06-0:09 - 2-bar Drum fill to:

0:35-1:40 -Downbeat of first verse. Cut after second "silence...la la la" to:

1:49-2:43 Downbeat of verse ("When I kiss you"). Cut right before "Mostly"

***1:21-1:22 - From beat 2 of that measure to just after beat 4

3:02-3:12 Instrumental breakdown (4 bars) to:

3:56-4:04 One of the last "Only the beginning" lines, with the horns. Cut back to:

2:27-2:43 Chorus "oooooh". Cut before "Mostly" to:

2:35-2:43 Back to horn hook; repeat this segment.

With the edits in place, end at 2:49 and fade starting at 2:38.


]]> Sun, 12 Mar 2006 15:12:48 +0000 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=418&PID=3977&title=chicago-beginnings-questions-45s#3977 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=418&PID=3676&title=chicago-beginnings-questions-45s#3676 Author: sriv94
Subject: 418
Posted: 13 February 2006 at 7:42pm

My pleasure, Ed. Although I will say this--I did have some troubles with the people who made it on a subsequent transaction, and they're not exactly moderately priced (and this was something like 10 or 11 years ago when I had this edit made). So I'm not exactly willing to give them a glowing recommendation (I won't even publicize them here--of course, with the bevy of source material available from you folks, it's not like any of us really need to utilize their services).

I am glad you enjoyed it though, Ed. If anyone really needs further details, you know where to reach me.

Edited by sriv94]]> Mon, 13 Feb 2006 19:42:33 +0000 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=418&PID=3676&title=chicago-beginnings-questions-45s#3676 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=418&PID=3675&title=chicago-beginnings-questions-45s#3675 Author: edtop40
Subject: 418
Posted: 13 February 2006 at 7:33pm

hey doug.........the mp3 you sent was pretty dead on..........except for the fade out being a little off..........it's exceptional..........i highly recomend it.........thx for the effort]]> Mon, 13 Feb 2006 19:33:04 +0000 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=418&PID=3675&title=chicago-beginnings-questions-45s#3675 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=418&PID=3668&title=chicago-beginnings-questions-45s#3668 Author: sriv94
Subject: 418
Posted: 13 February 2006 at 12:43pm

Don't have a computer generated edit--my copy was custom-made for me by a company that charged me almost an arm and a leg to have it (never dealing with them again). From what I can tell, it does seem to match the edits as described above.]]> Mon, 13 Feb 2006 12:43:31 +0000 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=418&PID=3668&title=chicago-beginnings-questions-45s#3668