Chicago Rolls Out "25 or 6 to 4" And The Entire Nation Has An Explanation
The song goes to Number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and everyone wants to know what it means?
June 30, 1970
The iconic song "25 or 6 to 4" is released as a single by the band Chicago, reaching the #3 spot on the Billboard Hot 100, while sparking a world of debate concerning its origin. In the pre-internet world, almost every DJ in America had a special intro for how the song was written and what it meant.
Here is what writer and keyboard player Robert Lamm had to say about the song, which was included on the band’s second album Chicago.
“I was living in a house with a bunch of hippies up above the Sunset Strip. One of the advantages of this particular house was that it was in the Hollywood Hills, and I could look out over the city late at night. I wanted to write a song about the process of writing a song. So ‘waiting for the break of day, searching for something to say, flashing lights against the sky’ all came from that scene. The song's title is the time at which the song is set: 25 or 26 minutes before 4 AM or “24 or 6 to 4”.
Because of the unique phrasing of the song's title, "25 or 6 to 4" has been interpreted to mean anything and everything, possibly a specific quantity of illicit drugs, a street address, or the name of a famous person in code. Given the era, cultural influence of the song, and various other factors it is no wonder that additional lines such as “maybe I should do some more” were suspected of encouraging drug use – especially the new and widely available drug LSD.
"25 or 6 to 4" was actually banned in Singapore upon its release for this reason. Lamm went on to say about the song, “if I had a dollar for every person that has asked me what kind of acid trip I was on, man I’d have a million bucks.”
Another curious twist that caused controversy was the band’s decision to change their name for the second studio album. Originally going by The Chicago Transit Authority, the band changed their name to Chicago while recording their second album, an effort to sidestep the possibility of litigation. It seems that the big, bad, City of Chicago wasn’t too hip on the boys representing the transit authority with their music. Isn’t that crazy? As if a group of native Chicago boys were going to bring shame to the city that made Al Capone famous by using the transit authority as the name for their band. That little tidbit of political trivia really makes me shake my head!