Paper Lace The night Chicago Video Edit

THE NIGHT CHICAGO DIED Written by: Peter Callander & Mitch Murray Buy Night Chicago Died Buy on: on: Amazon MP3, iTunes Performed by: Paper Lace2-19743 Appears on: Paper Lace-1974, Back to the ’70s, Vol. III-1989*, Rock’n’Roll Fever of the ’60s & ’70s-1994*, AM Gold: Radio Hits of the ’70s (1969-1974)-1999*, One Hit Wonders-2004*, AM Radio: One Hit Wonders-2005*4, Remember the Golden ’70s-2008*, et al. (*Compilation of various artists.) Covered by: The Countdown Singers, No Empanthy, The Recliners & Ricky Lee Robinson. 2This song is unfairly lumped in with the likes of “Afternoon Delight“ and “Billy Don’t Be A Hero“ as one of the icons of the ’70s “bubblegum“ genre. The song is factually inaccurate — there is no East Side of Chicago, and Al Capone never engineered a police massacre. The arrangement is wildly overactive, throwing in some sound effects and ear-grabbing noises like the very odd and prominent, clipped, overprocessed cymbal sound that shows up once a verse for about four bars at a time and then disappears again. However in the ’70s this song had been an inescapable AM radio hit. 3Paper Lace was a classic one-hit wonder band. In America, anyway. (In the U.K. they were a classic two-hit wonder.) Formed in 1969 in Nottingham, England, by Michael Vaughn, Chris Morris, Carlo Santanna (not to be confused with Carlos Santana, of Latin music fame), Cliff Fish, and Phillip Wright. They were one of hundreds of pop bands in England looking for the big time while slogging their way through small club gigs and brief television appearances. Their big break came in 1974 when their version of the tear-jerking, “bubblegum“ tune “Billy, Don’t Be a Hero,“ went all the way to the top of the U.K. charts. Their next single,“The Night Chicago Died,“ did manage to hit the number one slot on the U.S. charts (number three in the U.K.) and then that was it.