Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Don't throw out your copy of the 4-disc Portraits box set just yet. While Rhino does a terrific job of distilling Chicago's career from their 1969 debut (before shortening their name from Chicago Transit Authority) through their final Top 40 hit in 1991 ("Chasin' the Wind"), I do find fault with some of Rhino's decisions. For starters, only 34 of the band's 35 Top 40 hits are here. Missing is 1975's "Harry Truman," which went to No. 13. Also, unlike 1991's box set, several of these songs are edits. Granted, if you remember these songs from AM radio, you won't notice the difference. These are, after all, the single versions of these songs. So on songs like "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?" the piano introduction has been deleted. "Beginnings" has the percussion at the end edited out. "I'm a Man" does not include the drum and percussion interlude. Other than that, this is a well chosen and thorough collection. Where the box set only covered the band's history through 1980, Rhino brings the band's history up to date with the inclusion of their thirteen hits from the Eighties and Nineties. The set conlcudes with the Louis Prima standard "Sing, Sing, Sing" which Chicago performed with the Gipsy Kings on their 1995 album Night & Day: Big Band. In addition, the 16-page booklet is informative, if not somewhat brief when you consider the band's 30-plus year history. [Note: When Columbia released the Portraits box set, it included an extensive booklet; the current Chicago Records version now in print contains no booklet at all.] At any rate, this anthology will make redundant the three current greatest hits collections. If you're a fan of the hybrid music Chicago helped create by adding a full-time horn section to a rock band and you're still listening to your worn out vinyl records, this collection is a no-brainer. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED