"25 or 6 to 4" is a song written by American musicianRobert Lamm, one of the founding members of the bandChicago. It was recorded in August 1969 for their second album,Chicago, withPeter Cetera on lead vocals,[2] and released as a single in June 1970.
In a 2013 interview, Robert Lamm said he composed "25 or 6 to 4" on a 12-string guitar with only 10 strings. According to Lamm, "It didn't have the two low Es." He wrote the lyrics in one day. The band first rehearsed the song at theWhisky a Go Go.[3]
Lamm said the song is about trying to write a song in the middle of the night. The song's title is the time at which the song is set: 25 or 26 minutes before 4 a.m., phrased as, "twenty-five or [twenty-]six [minutes] to four [o’clock]," (i.e. 03:35 or 03:34).[4][5] Because of the unique phrasing of the song's title, "25 or 6 to 4" has been interpreted to mean everything from a quantity of illicit drugs to the name of a famous person in code.[6]
The song's opening guitarriff has been compared to chord progressions and riffs in other songs. In the opinion of writer Melissa Locker:
...the opening guitarriff fromGreen Day's "Brain Stew" bears a striking similarity to the opening stanza of Chicago’s "25 or 6 to 4."[7]
LA Weekly's music editor, Andy Hermann, names it "The Riff" and describes it as follows:
It's a descending five-chord pattern, typically played aspower chords over four bars, with the last two chords sharing the last bar. The most common variant of it goes from A minor to G to F sharp to F to E, although it can also be played as Am-G-D-F-E or even Am-G-D9-F♯-F-E...[8]
Hermann details the riff's similarity to the chord progression inLed Zeppelin's version of "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You" byAnne Bredon, which came out a year before "25 or 6 to 4", and the similarity of that chord progression to one inGeorge Harrison's song "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", which came out even earlier. He labels "Brain Stew", released in 1996, as "derivative" by comparison to "25 or 6 to 4".[8]
According to the recollections of producer James William Guercio and horn player Lee Loughnane, Cetera had to record the vocal while his jaw was still wired together after he had been attacked at a baseball game at Dodger Stadium on May 20, 1969. Guercio said he told Cetera, "I can't wait, we're gonna do this."[10]
The album was released in January 1970 and the song was edited and released as a single in June (omitting the second verse and most of the guitar solo), climbing to number 4 on the USBillboard Hot 100 chart[11][12] and number 7 on theUK Singles Chart.[13] It was the band's first song to reach the top five in the US.[11] It has been included in numerous Chicago compilation albums. In 2015, Dave Swanson, writing forUltimate Classic Rock, listed the song as number one on his top ten list of Chicago songs.[14]Classic Rock Review says the song is "one of the most indelible Chicago tunes".[15] In 2019, Bobby Olivier and Andrew Unterberger, music critics forBillboard magazine, ranked the song number one on their list of "The 50 Best Chicago Songs".[16]Guitar World rated "25 or 6 to 4" No. 22 for "greatest wah solos of all time."[17]
The song was banned inSingapore in 1970 due to "alleged allusions to drugs";[18] the ban extended to later albums that included the song, such asChicago 18. In 1993, the ban on this song was lifted, along with long-time bans on songs by other artists such as theBeatles,Bob Dylan andCreedence Clearwater Revival.[19]
An updated version of "25 or 6 to 4" was recorded for the 1986 albumChicago 18 withJames Pankow listed as co-writer,[21] and new band memberJason Scheff on lead vocals. It featured two verses instead of three, and the single reached number 48 on the US chart.[22] This version was also used as the B-side for the band's next single in 1986, "Will You Still Love Me?"[23]
Through the 2010s, "25 or 6 to 4" continued to be a staple in Chicago's live concert set list[24][25][26] and in Peter Cetera's solo concert set list.[27][28][29] In 2016, the group's former drummerDanny Seraphine reunited on stage with Chicago to perform "25 or 6 to 4" and two other songs at their induction ceremony for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.[30]
"25 or 6 to 4" has become a popular song for marching bands to play. In 2018 Kevin Coffey of theOmaha World-Herald named it as the number one "marching band song of all time".[57] As performed by theJackson State University marching band, theHBCU Sports website ranked it number seven of the "Top 20 Cover Songs of 2018 by HBCU Bands".[58] In a nod to its popularity with marching bands, Chicago performed "25 or 6 to 4" and "Saturday in the Park" with theNotre Dame Marching Band on the football field during halftime on October 21, 2017.[59][60]
Jason Newsted, former bassist ofMetallica, said that this song was the first rock or metal riff he ever learned to play.[67]Paul Gilbert, former guitarist ofRacer X andMr. Big, said that a "really primitive version" of "25 or 6 to 4" was one of the first songs he taught himself to play on the guitar, using one string.[68]
^Chicago Group Portrait (Box Set) (Media notes). New York City: Columbia Records. 1991. Archived fromthe original(album liner notes archived online) on December 29, 2020. RetrievedFebruary 14, 2017.
^Lamm, Robert; Loughnane, Lee; Scheff, Jason; Pardini, Lou (October 24, 2013)."Exclusive Interview with Chicago!" (Radio and video). Interviewed by Danny Lake. Chicago: 94.7 WLS-FM. time 11:54-13:43. RetrievedFebruary 19, 2019.
^Lamm, Robert (June 15, 2009)."Chicago Comes to Agganis".BU Today (Interview). Interviewed by Devon Maloney. Boston University. RetrievedFebruary 13, 2017.It's a reference to time. It's a song about writing the song, and I looked at my watch while I was writing and it was 25 minutes to four in the morning, or maybe 26.
^History of Chicago (television documentary). CNN. RetrievedDecember 30, 2016.'25 or 6 to 4' indicates the time in the morning, 25 minutes to 4 a.m.
^"Billboard Hot 100 Singles".Billboard. Vol. 98, no. 41. October 11, 1986. p. 80 (Scroll to page, see No. 48 on Hot 100 Singles chart.). RetrievedFebruary 26, 2017.
^Perusse, Bernard (January 22, 2011)."Pacifika's music hard to label".Regina Leader-Post. Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada: Postmedia News. RetrievedOctober 22, 2017.
^"Vince Neil plays Del Mar birthday bash".Reno Gazette-Journal. Reno, Nevada, US: Reno Newspapers, Inc. January 18, 1996. p. 15, "Best Bets" section. RetrievedAugust 1, 2017 – via Newspapers.com.
^Trunk, Eddie (host); Jamieson, Don (host); Florentine, Jim (host) (June 1, 2013)."Jason Newsted".That Metal Show. Season 12. Episode 1. Event occurs at 21:00. VH1. Archived fromthe original on September 8, 2017. RetrievedOctober 23, 2017.
^Frost, Matt (March 2015)."Paul Gilbert".Guitarist. No. 391 (published February 6, 2015). RetrievedOctober 23, 2017.
