"25 or 6 to 4" is a song written by American musician
Robert Lamm, one of the founding members of the band
Chicago. It was recorded in 1969 for their second album, Chicago, with
Peter Cetera on lead vocals.[1]
Composition
In a 2013 interview, Robert Lamm said he composed "25 or 6 to 4" on a twelve-string guitar with only ten strings—it was missing the two low E strings—and that he wrote the lyrics in one day. The band first rehearsed the song at the
Whisky a Go Go.[2]
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. 03:34 or 03:35).[3][4] 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.[5]
The song's opening guitar
riff has been compared to chord progressions and riffs in other songs. In the opinion of writer Melissa Locker:
...the opening guitar
riff from
Green Day's "
Brain Stew" bears a striking similarity to the opening stanza of Chicago’s "25 or 6 to 4."[6]
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 as
power 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...[7]
Hermann details the riff's similarity to the chord progression in
Led Zeppelin's version of "
Babe I'm Gonna Leave You" by
Anne Bredon, which came out a year before "25 or 6 to 4", and the similarity of that chord progression to one in
George 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".[7]
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."[9]
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 US
Billboard Hot 100 chart[10][11] and number 7 on the
UK Singles Chart.[12] It was the band's first song to reach the top five in the US.[10] It has been included in numerous Chicago compilation albums. In 2015, Dave Swanson, writing for Ultimate Classic Rock, listed the song as number one on his top ten list of Chicago songs.[13]Classic Rock Review says the song is "one of the most indelible Chicago tunes".[14] In 2019, Bobby Olivier and Andrew Unterberger, music critics for Billboard magazine, ranked the song number one on their list of "The 50 Best Chicago Songs".[15]Guitar World rated "25 or 6 to 4" No. 22 for "greatest wah solos of all time."[16]
Bans
The song was banned in
Singapore in 1970 due to "alleged allusions to drugs";[17] the ban extended to later albums that included the song, such as Chicago 18. In 1993, the ban on this song was lifted, along with long-time bans on songs by other artists such as the
Beatles,
Bob Dylan and
Creedence Clearwater Revival.[18]
Later versions
An updated version of "25 or 6 to 4" was recorded for the 1986 album Chicago 18 with
James Pankow listed as co-writer,[19] and new band member
Jason Scheff on lead vocals. It featured two verses instead of three. The single reached number 48 on the US chart.[20] This version was also used as the B-side for the band's next single in 1986, "
Will You Still Love Me?"[21]
Through the 2010s, "25 or 6 to 4" continued to be a staple in Chicago's live concert set list[22][23][24] and in Peter Cetera's solo concert set list.[25][26][27] In 2016, the group's former drummer
Danny 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.[28]
"25 or 6 to 4" has become a popular song for marching bands to play. In 2018 Kevin Coffey of the Omaha World-Herald named it as the number one "marching band song of all time".[52] As performed by the
Jackson State University marching band, the
HBCU Sports website ranked it number seven of the "Top 20 Cover Songs of 2018 by HBCU Bands".[53] In a nod to its popularity with marching bands, Chicago performed "25 or 6 to 4" and "Saturday in the Park" with the
Notre Dame Marching Band on the football field during halftime on October 21, 2017.[54][55]
Jason Newsted, former bassist of
Metallica, says that this song was the first rock or metal riff he ever learned to play.[62]
Paul Gilbert, former guitarist of
Racer X and
Mr. Big, says 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.[63]
References
^Chicago Group Portrait (Box Set)(album liner notes archived online) (Media notes). New York City: Columbia Records. 1991. Retrieved February 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. Retrieved February 19, 2019.
^Lamm, Robert (June 15, 2009).
"Chicago Comes to Agganis". BU Today (Interview). Interviewed by Devon Maloney. Boston University. Retrieved February 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. Retrieved December 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.). Retrieved February 26, 2017.
^Perusse, Bernard (January 22, 2011).
"Pacifika's music hard to label". Regina Leader-Post. Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada: Postmedia News. Retrieved October 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. Retrieved August 1, 2017 – via Newspapers.com.
^Porio, Anabelle (January 6, 2017).
""ZONKEY" by Umphrey's McGee". Entertainment Monthly. Boston, Massachusetts, USA: Emerson College. Retrieved October 22, 2017.
^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 from
the original on September 8, 2017. Retrieved October 23, 2017.
^Frost, Matt (March 2015).
"Paul Gilbert". Guitarist. No. 391 (published February 6, 2015). Retrieved October 23, 2017.