Rob Creighton looks at 30 songs in 30 Days

My Favorite Song:  “Take Me Back To Chicago” by Chicago

How can you pick just one song?  That’s what is difficult about this post.  In all honesty my favorite song can change depending on my mood, what I feel like listening to, what CD’s I have in my car.  I had to do some soul searching on this one.   I considered one other specific song “Don’t Mean Nothin’” from Richard Marx for this entry.  Right now “Don’t Mean Nothin’” sort of speaks to me and I’ve been listening to it a lot.  I also considered a few John Mellencamp cuts for this honor.  Yet, as much as I like John’s music, I just don’t find myself cranking up and getting an emotional charge from “Pink Houses”, “Lonely Ol’ Night”, “Jack and Diane” or “R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A.” as much as I do from Chicago’s “Take Me Back To Chicago”.

So why Chicago and “Take Me Back to Chicago”?  When I first heard this song on my Quasar stereo while listening to my cassette of Chicago XI, the one with the map on the cover, I fell in love with it immediately.  It became one of my “go-to” Chicago songs.  As a kid it was awesome because it referenced the place I lived.  Throughout the the years as I’ve moved around it represents home.  It makes me remember hanging out on the lake with Glen, Kevin, Tom and Neil.  It makes me remember WIND Records in Oak Lawn.  It makes me remember going downtown with my buddy Jeff and trying to imitate Ferris Bueller’s Day Off .  It reminds me of hot dogs and twinkle coat ice cream cones from Premo’s.  It reminds me of the good days.  In addition Chicago was the first band I really dug into.  The first band whose cassettes and CD’s I devoured.  The first band who I went and saw in concert multiple times.  So it’s fitting that Chicago and “Take Me Back to Chicago” is my favorite song.