“Saturday in the Park” by Chicago

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Courtesy of , author of the Front Row & Backstage newsletter. I recently hopped on a segment of his and could think of nothing better than returning the favor this week. Enjoy!

Song Genesis: The Lamm Lies Down Near Broadway

Robert Lamm, now 79, from the June 8, 2017 Billboard: “‘Saturday in the Park’ (written and sung by Lamm in 1972, included on the Chicago V album, produced by James William Guercio) is a prime example of how I take from what I experience in the world. It was written as I looked at footage from a film I shot in [New York City’s] Central Park over a couple of years back in the early ‘70s.

“I shot this film and somewhere down the line I edited it into some kind of a narrative, and as I watched the film, I jotted down some ideas based on what I was seeing and had experienced.

“It was really kind of that peace and love thing that happened in Central Park and in many parks all over the world, perhaps on a Saturday, where people just relax and enjoy each other’s presence, and the activities we observe and the feelings we get from feeling a part of a day like that.”

Lamm expanded to the Clarion Ledger in 2017: “It was two days of filming there [with a Super 8 camera], a year apart. And as I say in the song, I think it was the Fourth of July. But I edited the film, and I’m not a great cameraman, so there were a lot of blurry shots and shots of my feet. But once I put it together, I basically created the lyrics describing what I saw.

“I already had this music grid, the riff that opens the song. I’m pretty sure I had most of the piano stuff ready for lyrics. I wanted to describe a lovely experience in the park in an era of people yearning for peace and love.”

The single was successful out of the box, reaching # 3 on the Billboard Hot 100. It became the band’s highest-charting single at the time, helping lift the album to # 1. Billboard ranked it as the #76 song for 1972. The single was certified Gold by the RIAA, selling over 1,000,000 units in the U.S. alone.

According to the song’s Wiki page, “the line ‘singing Italian songs’ is followed by ‘Eh Cumpari’ (the title of a song made famous by Julius La Rosa, shown above, in 1953). Apparently, there’s been some debate about what follows next in the song, but in a video of Chicago performing ‘Saturday in the Park’ at the Arie Crown Theater in Chicago in 1972 (below), Lamm clearly sings, ‘Eh Cumpari, ci vo sunari,’ the first line of ‘Eh, Cumpari!’”: Just as that line can be heard in the hit Chicago recording!

And, that’s about where we came in!

Bonus: Surprise cover from an unexpected place: Sweden’s Hans Annellsson from 2006. You may miss the horn figures, but methinks you’ll appreciate the smooth arrangement, as well as the fine vocals from Hans and company: