The Chicago Transit Authority is the debut studio album by the American rock band Chicago, and the only album released under their original name Chicago Transit Authority. The double album was released on April 28, 1969, and became a sleeper hit, reaching number 17 on the Billboard 200 by 1971. The Chicago Transit Authority spawned several successful singles, including "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?", "Questions 67 and 68" and "Beginnings". The album stayed on the Billboard chart for 171 weeks, The album was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2014. In 2025, the album was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry.
History
Chicago was formed in early 1967, first as the Big Thing, then Chicago Transit Authority when producer James William Guercio took them on in 1968. Their trademark was fusing brass and jazz with a soulful rock and roll feel that Guercio thought would prove successful, and lobbied his label to sign the band.
Chicago Transit Authority signed to Columbia Records late in 1968 and recorded their first album in late January 1969 at CBS studios on 52nd Street in New York City. While Guercio had recently produced Blood, Sweat & Tears' second album (which proved to be a huge smash), he did so to raise capital for his band, and to secure the contract with Columbia (which was reluctant at first to have two jazz-rock bands since Blood, Sweat & Tears was already on their roster). By the end of the Chicago Transit Authority sessions, the band had decided they wanted it to be a double album. Skeptical, as the band had no track record, Columbia agreed to the concept only if the group would take a royalty cut.
Musical style, writing, composition
Keyboardist Robert Lamm, guitarist Terry Kath and bassist Peter Cetera shared lead vocals, while James Pankow, Lee Loughnane and Walter Parazaider handled all brass and woodwinds (trombone, trumpet and saxophone, clarinet and flute respectively) and Danny Seraphine played drums. Lamm, Kath and Pankow were the band's main composers at this time. Band members added percussion during sections of a song when they weren't playing their main instrument. For example, on "I'm a Man", Pankow was on cowbell, Parazaider on tambourine, and Loughnane on claves.
According to the album's original liner notes, the solo performance of Kath on "Free Form Guitar" was created without the use of any pedals. Kath instead plugged his Fender Stratocaster directly into his studio amplifier and improvised the entire track. According to Guercio, the album was done on an 8-track console.
According to band member Walter Parazaider, when the group went into the studio to record the album, they "found out we knew very little about what we were doing. ... The first song was "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?" We tried to record it as a band, live, all of us in the studio at once."
Artwork
The cover design for the album is called "Painted Shingle" on the group's official website. The inside jacket features individual photos of each band member, which reviewer Peter Morelli notes, "For a band deliberately constructed to be a leaderless democracy, Robert Lamm (far right, standing) sure stands out in the band photos!" and No. 9 in the UK. While critical reaction was generally favorable, sales were slow at first and the album initially failed to produce any hit singles, with the group seen as an album-oriented collective. Meanwhile, FM radio, with its album-oriented format, helped push sales along. In 1970 and 1971, "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?" (No. 7), "Beginnings" (No. 7) setting the then record for a rock album's chart longevity by October 1974 at 155 weeks, and was certified gold (and later platinum and double platinum) by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
While the band toured the album, legal action was threatened by the actual Chicago Transit Authority, forcing the group to truncate their name to simply Chicago.
| rev2 = Encyclopedia of Popular Music
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| rev3 = The Great Rock Discography
| rev3Score = 7/10
| rev4 = MusicHound
| rev4Score = 3.5/5
| rev5 = The Rolling Stone Album Guide
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Chicago Transit Authority has received acclaim since its release. Writing for Allmusic, Lindsay Planar wrote, "Few debut albums can boast as consistently solid an effort as the self-titled Chicago Transit Authority (1969). Even fewer can claim to have enough material to fill out a double-disc affair."
Awards and Honors
In 1970, the group was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best New Artist, though they would lose to Crosby, Stills and Nash.
In 2014, Chicago Transit Authority was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
In 2025, Chicago Transit Authority was inducted to the National Recording Registry. Rhino Records trimmed some of the songs, noticeably the fadeouts on "Questions #67 and #68" (six seconds longer on the LP) and "Free Form Guitar" (five seconds longer), the 10 second gap between "Someday" and "Liberation", and some studio chatter.
In 2010, Rhino Handmade re-released the original quadraphonic mix of the album on a limited edition DTS DVD, and in 2016, in DTS-HD Master Audio, as part of Chicago Quadio Box Set.
On June 26, 2019, Rhino Records announced a 50th Anniversary Remix edition of Chicago Transit Authority, offering it in both CD and double LP formats. Although the press release announced an August 30, 2019 release date, the date was pushed back to September 13, 2019 outside of Canada. The band worked with engineer Tim Jessup, who also mixed the band’s Live at the Isle of Wight Festival. Robbie Gerson, reviewing the vinyl release for Audiophile Audition, gave an overall positive review, saying, "Rhino has done an outstanding job in re-mastering Chicago Transit Authority to 180-gram vinyl." In his review for All About Jazz, Doug Colette gave the CD four out of five stars, noting that there's "less precedence for the harmony singing," but that there's "wallop to the drums," "edge to the guitar," and "great care throughout to highlight, without overstatement but with proportionate accuracy and impact, the tightly-fused rhythm work of drummer Danny Seraphine and bassist Peter Cetera: both sound equally vigorous and muscular in their playing."
Track listing
Personnel
- Peter Cetera – bass, lead and backing vocals
- Terry Kath – guitars, lead and backing vocals
- Robert Lamm – keyboards, lead and backing vocals
- Lee Loughnane – trumpet, claves, backing vocals
- James Pankow – trombone, cowbell
- Walter Parazaider – saxophone, tambourine, backing vocals
- Danny Seraphine – drums, percussion
Production
- James William Guercio – producer, original liner notes
- Fred Catero – engineer
- Nick Fasciano – artwork
2002 reissue
- Lee Loughnane – A&R, project supervisor
- David McLees – A&R, project supervisor
- Gary Peterson – A&R, project supervisor
- Mike Engstrom – project manager
- April Milek – project assistant
- Bob O'Neill – project assistant
- Ingrid K. Olson – project assistant
- Randy Perry – project assistant
- Steve Woolard – project assistant
- Jeff Magid – audio supervisor
- Cory Frye – editorial supervisor
- Steven Chean – editorial research
- David Donnelly – remastering
- Hugh Brown – photography
- Maria Villar – art direction, design
- David Wild – liner notes
Charts
Weekly charts
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"
|-
! scope="col"| Chart (1969–1971)
! scope="col"| Position
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! scope="row"| Australian Albums (Kent Music Report)
| 23
|-
|-
|-
|-
|-
|}
Year-end charts
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"
|-
! scope="col"| Chart (1970)
! scope="col"| Position
|-
! scope="row"| US Billboard 200
| 23
|}
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"
|-
! scope="col"| Chart (1971)
! scope="col"| Position
|-
! scope="row"| US Billboard 200
| 15
|}