Watch Peter Cetera and All His Replacements Sing Chicago’s ’25 or 6 to 4′ Across Six Decades

By Andy Greene

Andy Greene

Chicago is not a band with a shortage of hit songs. Their long run of chart success started with their 1969 debut single “Questions 67 and 68,” and continued all the way to 1988 when they reached the top of the Hot 100 with “Look Away.” But if you had to pick a single song that embodies the band, it would be 1970’s “25 or 6 to 4.” It’s been the grand finale of just about every concert they’ve played over the last half-century, it gives every member of the large group moments to shine, especially the horns, and the crowd would likely revolt if they went home without hearing it.

“25 or 6 to 4” has a very odd title, but it’s not a song with a lot of hidden meaning. Chicago singer-keyboardist Robert Lamm wrote it in the middle of the night, sitting cross-legged on the floor, trying to create a song. When he looked at the clock, it was 3:34 or 3:35 AM. In other words, it was 25 or 26 minutes until 4:00 AM. The song is about the process of writing the song.

Unlike “Saturday in the Park” and many other Chicago classics, Lamm didn’t sing lead on “25 or 6 to 4.” He passed it onto bassist Peter Cetera since it was a perfect fit for his tenor voice, years before he became the face of the band thanks to soft-rock staples like “If You Leave Me Now,” “Hard to Say I’m Sorry,” and “You’re the Inspiration.”

The huge success of those latter songs, and his weariness with Chicago’s brutal tour schedule, prompted Cetera to leave the band in 1985. In the years that followed, they changed their lineups more often than most NBA teams. That means quite a few people have tried their hand at singing “25 or 6 to 4.” Here’s a look at all of them, with quite a few bonus videos of other renditions of the song by Chicago and Chicago alumni, together and apart.

• Peter Cetera (1967 – 1985)

  Image Credit: ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content/Getty Images

  Everyone who’s ever sang “25 or 6 to 4” is trying to match Peter Cetera’s renditions from the early days of Chicago. This is even true for Cetera himself much later in life, when his voice simply wasn’t the same as it was in his youth. The vast majority of Chicago’s early gigs are lost to time or available only on shoddy bootlegs, but a professional camera crew was rolling when they played the Tanglewood Music Center in Lenox, Massachusetts, on July 21, 1970. Cetera is obviously very impressive here, but pay attention to guitarist Terry Kath as well. There’s a reason why even Jimi Hendrix was in awe of this guy. And as hard as it was for the other singers to follow Cetera, the guitarists that followed Kath had a task just as challenging.