Like many people, I was drawn to the song Color My World by Chicago, especially as a slow dance favorite. For me, though, it was the horns that made the song special. I remember going to teenage dances when the song came out. By then, Chicago had become, and still remains, my favorite band.
A friend gave me my first Chicago album, Chicago II. Their song Saturday in the Park came out around that same time. If I wasn’t hooked on their music before, I certainly was by then.
My first Chicago concert was when I was sixteen years old. I went with friends in a Volkswagen Bug. It was my first concert, and I had to almost beg my parents to let me go. The concert was terrific, just as I had imagined.
I didn’t see Chicago in concert again until thirty-two years later. By that time, some of the original band members were still performing alongside newer ones. I got the tickets in an unusual way. I gave the mother of a friend $20 to play the slot machines at the casino where Chicago was performing. In return, she gave me the concert tickets she won. The band sounded just as good as they had thirty-two years before.
Five years later, I went to another Chicago concert with a friend. Her boyfriend, who worked in radio, got us backstage passes to meet the band. Knowing I would have the chance to meet them, I brought along the program from my first Chicago concert and proudly held it in the picture taken of us with the band.
Ahhh, meeting my favorite band and then getting to listen to their music afterward! Those horns still get me every time.
