Chicago 17 (Bonus Track Version)

From Steely Dan to Boz Scaggs and many many more artists that needed his own unique and particular groove. Jeff Porcaro knew what that song wanted. He could put in 8ths or 16ths or whatever. There was a great vibe that was added to give the song its great beat. It is such a wonderful attribute to a very talented and gifted musician who suffered such a tragic death . Even in life he gave of himself as a wonderful asset to the band Toto. I am hoping to complete my entire Toto collection to add to what I already have in my I-pod library. Still the best and a legend in his own time.And missed by all that knew loved and worked with him. He will always remain my Dreamyeyed Angel who appears every night in my dreams playing drums on my heartstrings forever and ever. Oops forgot to say that he is the title of a book I'm writing. 🎺😈😂💙🎼❤️🎤🐯📲🎹🎻📀🎸💽💚💜🐈📱🎧😇💿💛🎷🐱😏.etc etc etc.Meow. I love him

This is the overall best album of Chicago. Very Poppy but also good blend on rock and horn section, the distinctive sound of Chicago. Cetera is still with them and this is their peak. If you like Chicago at all this is a must have.

I always loved Chicago and I'm glad to check them out at their most confidently commercial, Chicago 17. All the songs are fantastic, including the album's most notable hit "You're The Inspiration". I couldn't think of a cooler Chicago album then this one.

Chicago 17, while being a great album overall, has always been a dividing line between Chicago fans. Produced by the great David Foster, this slick litte gem yielded 4 huge hits for the band: You're The Inspiration, Hard Habit To Break, Stay The Night, & Along Comes A Woman. These songs were well written, highly produced mega hits very typical of the 80's pop sound of the time. This is of course where the now famous "sell-out" debate comes into play. Most of Chicago's original 60's & 70's fanbase, who had become accustomed to the bands Jazz/Rock/Soul roots found the 80's incarnation of Chicago unexceptable. Chicago had gone from Terry Kath led avant-garde rockers, to Peter Cetera led commercial pop balladeers; thus isolating themselves from a large portion of their original following. The flip side of this scenario is it gained them an entirely new fanbase who loved the new sound; helping to make Chicago 17 an unstoppable multi-platinum success. The album also contains two other strong songs besides the main hits, Remember The Feeling, and Once In A Lifetime are both very solid tracks. Chicago 17 would prove to be the bands biggest commercial success that was all to short lived. Following the tour for this album in 1985, the bands lead singer, Peter Cetera would leave to start a solo career. Cetera had performed the lead vocals on all of the major hits of this album and wrote/co-wrote all but one of them. The loss of Cetera, who was not only their lead vocalist but also principle songwriter and bass player was a huge blow to the bands popularity. Regardless of which side of the debate you fall, there is no denying that Chicago 17 was the end of an era for a great band. Give it a listen...

This is definitely Chicago's best and most cohesive work post - Terry Kath. David Foster's production is great. A well-balanced album that combines pop-rock and ballads successfully. Although I give the release 5 stars, try to seek out the original Warner Brothers - Full Moon CD released in 1984. It doesn't have the poorly clipped edits of "Please Hold On" and "Prima Donna" which this version, the Rhino Records release contains. After the release of this album, Peter Cetera left the group for what has become a spotty solo career in 1985. His departure, while not as devastating as Terry Kath's death, has for the most part, (with the exception of Chicago 19) ended the band's relevance in terms of cutting edge, artistic creativity as well as blockbuster sales and Billboard Chart action for singles and albums. This included less frequent original releases, that were somewhat cookie cutter in terms of style, and way too many greatest hits repackages through the 90's and into the new millenium.

I bought this album back in '84 when I was 12. Have been listening to it for 25 years. Still love it and the remaster is just fine. The bonus tracks can go, but who cares.

Talk about big. Chicago 17 was a proverbial bomb, exploding into the music world of 1984. It proved to be their most successful release of all time, and is very deserving of that title. It was no doubt propelled by the four massive hits it contained: Stay The Night, Hard Habit To Break, Along Comes A Woman, and You're The Inspiration--two of which are very, very good, the other two of which are abominations. Let's start with the good hits: Stay The Night and Along Comes A Woman. Both are rockers, and the latter contains a little bit of an R&B flavor. The first is more of a straight-ahead rocker. Now, the bad. The REALLY bad. Unfortunately, the biggest hits from 17 had to be atrocious ballads. While I like Hard To Say I'm Sorry and I can tolerate Love Me Tomorrow from 16, these are just AWFUL. Remember The Feeling, albeit not a hit, can be thrown into the same category. But the remaining five songs are all very, very good. Only You and Please Hold On (the latter of which was co-written by Lionel Richie) are both funky, R&B influenced tunes, and some of my favorites from the album. An R&B streak is very prominent on this album, with the aforementioned plus elements of it in We Can Stop The Hurtin' and Once In A Lifetime. We Can Stop The Hurtin' is Robert Lamm's return to form with a social commentary song. Though it's a bit preachy, and nowhere near as genuine as something like Dialogue or It Better End Soon, it's still good. Once In A Lifetime proves that a love song can be heartfelt without being schmaltzy. If only Peter Cetera could have taken that advice. Finally, Prima Donna is a screaming 1980's rocker, somewhat similar to Stay The Night. Lastly, the Rhino re-release contains a Robert Lamm ballad, Where We Begin. It's not atrocious, but it's not great. Not particularly memorable either way. We all know what happened in 1985 after the release of Chicago 17. Peter Cetera left the band to follow a semi-successful solo career. Chicago would take a bit of a hit from this. Nowhere near the magnitude of guitarist Terry Kath's death in 1978, but the departure's repercussions were evident on the follow-up release, Chicago 18. 7.5/10, 4/5

alright if u're reading this u must be a chicago fan this i think may be their 2nd best album every song is solid in it's own .. if u don't have this album already stop reading this and get it now!!!

This sounds AWESOME! Now granted I don't have a fancy stereo system. I use my iMac G5 with bose speakers hooked up to it but the resolution/definition in these songs are much improved from the old 80s CD. It even sounds much clearer and more detailed than the same songs that are featured on the box set that came out about 3 years ago. It is like redescoving this CD since I am able to hear it in a way I never was able to before. The main complaint I have is the bonus track. This is probably Chicago's most consitant album and I believe it was ruined by the bonus track. The song sounds unfinished and it features Robert Lamm singing with what sounds like David Pack of Ambrosia fame. There are many other great songs that could have been used. Another complaint some may have, but I don't, is that they used the LP version to make this CD so there are a couple of songs on here that aren't going to sound like the old 80s CD. This doesn't bother me much since I grew up with the LP version. So if you have fond memories of this album like I did or you are a fan of 80s music... buy this CD!

This is important to note because every nuance from the LP is here - including the rancid edit that occurs in "Please Hold On". The overall sound is quite compressed as though the album were mastered specifically for radio. Your best bet is to purchase the original CD and remaster it yourself. This is one of only two times that Rhino has blown it.