Colour My World (Chicago song)

"Colour My World"
Single by Chicago
from the album Chicago II
A-side	"Make Me Smile", "Beginnings"
Released	March 1970, June 1971
Format	7"
Genre	Soft rock
Length	2:59
Label	Columbia
Writer(s)	James Pankow
Producer	James William Guercio
Chicago singles chronology
Beginnings (1969) Make Me Smile / Colour My World (1970) 25 or 6 to 4 (1970)
Lowdown (1971) Beginnings / Colour My World (1971) Questions 67 and 68 / I'm a Man (1971)

"Colour My World" is a song written by American musician James Pankow, one of the founding members of the rock/jazz fusion band Chicago. Part of Pankow's Ballet for a Girl in Buchannon song cycle/suite, it was recorded for their second album Chicago II (1970). Terry Kath is heard in the lead vocal, and Walter Parazaider performs the highly recognizable flute solo.

The song was initially released as the B-side to "Make Me Smile" in March 1970. It was re-released in June 1971 as the B-side to the re-release of "Beginnings"; this second single reached #7 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.

"Colour My World" became a popular "slow-dance" song at high school proms and university dances during the 1970s.

Chicago continues to perform the song, either on its own, or as part of the Ballet. Since Kath's death in 1978, the vocal has been performed by Bill Champlin until 1991, and subsequently by Robert Lamm. In later years it has been performed by trumpeter Lee Loughnane.

The major seventh chord that begins the song has been called, "the most famous major seventh chord in the history of music."^[1]

Sources

1. ^ Stephenson, Ken (2002). What to Listen for in Rock, p.83. ISBN 0300092393.