25 or 6 to 4

No compilation of the greatest music of our years together at Vanderbilt would be complete without something from Chicago.

Here's one of their biggest hits of that era "25 or 6 to 4." It was recorded and released as a part of the group's second album (Chicago) then released as a single in June, 1970. Written by band member Robert Lamm, the vocals were done by Peter Cetera. It rose as high as #4 on Billboard's Top 100 rankings.

My favorite memory of the song was one of the DJs at WRVU playing it as a daily lead in to the News Department's "5 O'Clock Report." It was a 15-minute wrapup of national and international news (we had an ABC audio newsline to record stories to use) along with state and local stories (from our UPI wire machine) and campus stories as well (which we generated and produced on our own).

It was a great way to learn the business and listen to some pretty great music while we were putting the newscast together. Courtesy of YouTube, here's "25 or 6 to 4".....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCAbdNXx2sE

So where does the name of the song and the lyrics come from? According to Wikipedia, band members insist it had nothing to do with the drug culture at the time. Instead, they claim it truly does refer to telling time, all be it early in the morning. By that they mean 3:35 A.M. or 3:54 A.M. You know "25 or 6 to 4."

OK, but all I can say after all these years is,  "turn over and go back to sleep!"