Question about Chicago (the band)

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I need a favor -- does anyone know the name of the Chicago song that the Beastie Boys sampled on "Mike D is in Love"? Funky guitar, this loping, one-finger piano line, climbing horns? I love this song & heard it on the radio this AM, they said it was Chicago. Help me out, please. It sounds like it has to be early stuff. I've been wondering about it for years, and if it really is Chicago I'm stoked b/c you can get all their LPs for $1. Thanks.

Mark (MarkR), Wednesday, 11 February 2004 20:31 (twenty years ago) link

Chicago may have covered it, but I don't think it's their song.

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 11 February 2004 20:50 (twenty years ago) link

You know the song I'm talking about, though? I thought I heard the DJ say something about the title containing "....Limited".

Mark (MarkR), Wednesday, 11 February 2004 20:54 (twenty years ago) link

Hmmmm. Yeah, I totally know the song. It borders dangerously on muzak almost. It boasts the most INSANELY catchy hook, yet manages to sound so entirely cheesy at the same time (hence the Beasties using it, I'm guessing).

Isn't there some database of samples somewhere? It might be cited there (although the Beasties track isn't called "Mike D is in Love," I don't think. It's something incongruous with the song's chorus. Might it be "Some Dumb Cop..."? I remember it was the b-side of the 12" of "Shadrach".

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 11 February 2004 21:14 (twenty years ago) link

Young-Holt Unlimited, "Soulful Strut". THe band was from Chicago.

Broheems (diamond), Wednesday, 11 February 2004 21:23 (twenty years ago) link

(reminds me that I need to get my old LP of that back from a friend who's had it for a couple years now. grrr.....)

Broheems (diamond), Wednesday, 11 February 2004 21:25 (twenty years ago) link

Wow, thanks a lot. Sounds like it'll be harder to find than Chicago, though.

Richardstone, Wednesday, 11 February 2004 21:39 (twenty years ago) link

Years ago I was on the BART platform in Oakland and it was deserted except for one kid with a boombox who was playing "Soulful Strut" incredibly loud... it felt like the afterlife as directed by Spike Joynze.

Richardstone, Wednesday, 11 February 2004 21:44 (twenty years ago) link

I would think it'd have to be on a bunch of comps - it was a decent-sized hit. I'm almost positive it was on one of those volumes in the Rhino Instrumentals series of cds (the song is an instrumental).

Broheems (diamond), Wednesday, 11 February 2004 21:44 (twenty years ago) link

Broheems, you're a wizard!

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 11 February 2004 22:36 (twenty years ago) link

On iTunes, there's a George Benson rendition of it and a Grover Washington version...neither as fonky as the one sampled by the Beasties.

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 11 February 2004 22:38 (twenty years ago) link

Actually Alex, this was totally a collaborative effort. Because I was thinking I hadn't heard the song in question ("Mike D. is In Love"), but I love early Chicago so I was thinking, "Ok I've gotta download this, I bet I know the answer." But before I could do so, you made the post referencing the "Shadrach" 12". So I started combing my brain for the stuff on that record. Then I reread Mark's post where wrote he heard the DJ say "limited". And then I was like "boo-yah!".

Broheems (diamond), Wednesday, 11 February 2004 23:00 (twenty years ago) link

Downloaded it and I'm listening now...aaaahhhhhhh, there's something to this file sharing shit.

Mark (MarkR), Thursday, 12 February 2004 03:10 (twenty years ago) link

aparrently tracks from the very first Chicago album (Chicago Transit Authority)showed up in the repertoire of pioneering disco DJ Francis Grasso. At the turn of the 70s, their horn section qualified Chicago as vaguely funky rock. Strange but true. They got lame quick, though.

soniclifer, Thursday, 12 February 2004 12:01 (twenty years ago) link

i like some of the album 'V' -- it starts out with the percussion and brass section being deployed on a song called "A Hit by Varese", which was never going to be a hit by anyone but sets the tone for the first side of the album -- side one starting with the a deliberate non-hit and continuing with some _nice_ brass arrangements -- of course, the varese name-drop could be a disturbing sign of zappa-group-think

'Saturday in the Park', side two, different story -- awful jerky marytylermoore music
(which reminds me, why haven't sonic youth done some marytylermoore song about making it in the big city)
(and no hstencil jokes either)

george gosset (gegoss), Thursday, 12 February 2004 12:15 (twenty years ago) link

I've always had a soft spot for "Wishing You Were Here".

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 12 February 2004 14:39 (twenty years ago) link

fifteen years pass...
one year passes...

this band’s unstoppable 20 year run of success morbidly fascinates me... first three albums all doubles of eclectic pop/jazz/r&b/latin styles. followed by a goddam quadruple live album recorded at Carnegie Hall... followed by a steady move to straight MOR (slight return to more “ambitious” extended jazzy stuff with 1974’s VII)..and a absolute blockbuster in 1976. 2 years later, key member accidentally kills himself pointing thought-to-be-unloaded gun at his head at party. Band continues on and slumps chartwise for a couple albums but keeps on rolling with 80s MOR tide and comes back to rule the adult contemporary charts for 2/3rds of the decade? So many albums. I don’t really like their music, kinda hate James Pankow’s arrangements/horn sound on the earlier stuff + cant really stand Peter cetera’s “thing”.. idk any thoughts on Chicago?

brimstead, Thursday, 10 September 2020 20:11 (three years ago) link

Fun fact: in the late '60s they were in residence at an LA club. One day they took in a Dodgers game, and a couple of people took exception to these goddamn longhairs, and beat them up, fracturing Cetera's jaw. He had to have his jaw wired shut, but they also still had to complete their residency, so he just sang with his mouth mostly closed, and ultimately kept singing that way after his jaw healed.

Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Friday, 11 September 2020 16:54 (three years ago) link

one year passes...

is this Bill Champlin, formerly of Chicago, in the Skyrizi ad? it sounds like him, and when I searched, I found a bunch of people who suspect but not confirmed outright.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_k8u2TqW3es

you had me at "giallo" (Neanderthal), Monday, 20 September 2021 19:44 (two years ago) link


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