Since its release on ‘Chicago II’ in 1970, Chicago’s ’25 or 6 to 4′ has been a staple on the radio. With over fifty years of hearing the same recording, you start to think you know everything about it. However, this live clip from 1970 casts the song – and the band – in a whole new light.
Tanglewood is a music venue in Lenox, Massachusetts, that has been presenting summertime concerts since 1937. Boston Magazine notes that the musical tradition became hugely popular in the ’60s and ’70s, hosting artists like Ray Charles, Janis Joplin, Willie Nelson, Santana, and more.
Chicago played Tanglewood on July 21, 1970, just months after releasing their self-titled studio album, which would retroactively be referred to as “Chicago II.” The band was still in their original lineup, featuring keyboardist Robert Lamm, guitarist Terry Kath, bassist/vocalist Peter Cetera, drummer Danny Seraphine, trumpeter Lee Loughnane, saxophonist Walter Parazaider, and trombonist James Pankow.
The band’s three-piece horn section set it apart from everything else in rock at the time. In the age of power trios like Cream and the Jimi Hendrix Experience, their broader palette gave them richer textures to work with. However, they still had the guitar firepower to keep up with their virtuosic contemporaries.
YouTube channel “Live & Loud,” which uploaded this video, says it captures the band’s raw power at the peak of their jazz-rock fusion era.
“Guitarist Terry Kath delivers an iconic, blistering solo that remains one of the most celebrated moments in rock history,” they write. “This high-energy rendition of their breakthrough hit captures the band’s unmatched precision and signature brass-heavy sound.”
The lyrics to “25 or 6 to 4” have always been mysterious to listeners, who have proposed various theories about their meaning. Lamm told Dan Rather in 2019 that he wrote the song literally about writing a song after a long night.
“I couldn’t quite make out what the time was, but the hands on the clock were somewhere around 25 or 26 to 4 a.m., and I just began to just jot down what the hell I was doing there, and I thought, ‘Well, for now, I’m just going to describe the process of writing this song, and I’ll figure out what the lyrics are going to be later,’ but I didn’t need to,” he said.
The majority of the song is built on a single descending chord pattern that starts on Amin. The bass note steps down to G, F#, F♮, and E before repeating. This chord cycle serves as the intro, verse, solo, and bridge. As simple as it is, it provides the perfect support for the melody and foil for the chorus.
“The melody is memorable because of the ascending counterpoint to the main chordal changes of the song, which are descending,” producer and recording engineer Bobby Owsinski explains. “The chorus is much different from the verse, but the addition of the harmony vocals (always a strong point of the band) changes the section’s sound significantly.”
“25 or 6 to 4” isn’t just a piece of radio gold. It’s a platform for musicians to showcase their precision, improvisation, and raw firepower. Whether it’s Chicago’s 1970 performance or your upcoming gig, this song is the perfect vehicle for expression.
