Last evening, September 23, Chicago wrapped up its current tour celebrating the band’s landmark sophomore LP Chicago II in Staten Island.  But the music plays on, and on October 26, Rhino will release two live sets from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees.

Greatest Hits Live, coming in CD and CD/DVD iterations, is a companion to the release earlier this year of Chicago II: Live on Soundstage.  At every one of this tour’s stops, the band played the original album and then launched into a second, career-spanning set of hits and favorites.  This captures the second half of the same Soundstage performance of November 2017 as the earlier release, and features the line-up of original members Robert Lamm, James Pankow, and Lee Loughnane along with Tris Imboden, Keith Howland, Lou Pardini, Walfredo Reyes, Jr., Ray Herrmann, and Jeff Coffey.  Since the taping last fall, vocalist/bassist Coffey and longtime drummer Imboden have both left the band, though the Chicago II tour continued on with Walfredo Reyes, Jr. moving from percussion to drums, his brother Daniel de los Reyes and then Ray Yslas stepping in on percussion, Neil Donell taking over on vocals, and Brett Simons of Brian Wilson’s band playing bass.  The CD/DVD version adds video of the program plus a 5.1 audio mix.  The music will also be available digitally and via streaming services.

Going back in time, Live at the Isle of Wight brings to double vinyl the band’s full August 28, 1970 performance at the legendary festival.  The show was first issued commercially on the box set VI Decades Live: This Is What We Do.  The concert at the Isle of Wight Festival (where the band shared that day’s bill with Procol Harum, James Taylor, Melanie, and others) thrust the spotlight upon a group with just two albums under its collective belt.  The sound of Robert Lamm, Terry Kath, Peter Cetera, Danny Seraphine, James Pankow, Lee Loughnane, and Walt Parazaider was a new one.  Chicago may not have been the first “rock band with horns,” but it was no doubt the most innovative.  The Isle of Wight show captures the original line-up at their hungriest and most politically charged, taking no prisoners with a raw, gritty, and immediate blaze of sound and fury.

Both of these concerts, bookending Chicago’s long and still-active career, arrive from Rhino on October 26.

Chicago, Greatest Hits Live (Rhino, 2018)

CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Links TBD
CD/DVD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Links TBD

1. Beginnings
2. Questions 67 and 68
3. If You Leave Me Now
4. Call on Me
5. Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?
6. Hard Habit to Break
7. You’re the Inspiration
8. I’m a Man
9. Street Player
10. Just You and Me
11. Hard to Say I’m Sorry/Get Away
12. Saturday In the Park
13. Feelin’ Stronger Every Day

Chicago, Live at the Isle of Wight (Vinyl) (Rhino, 2018) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Links TBD)

Side One

1. Introduction
2. South California Purples
3. Beginnings

Side Two

1. In The Country
2. Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is? (Free Form Intro)
3. Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?
4. Mother

Side Three

1. It Better End Soon
2. 25 or 6 to 4

Side Four

1. Ballet For A Girl In Buchannon
2. I’m A Man

All tracks previously released on VI Decades Live: This Is What We Do, Rhino, 2018