Greatest Hits, Volume II (Chicago album)

Greatest Hits, Volume II
Greatest hits album by Chicago
Released	November 23, 1981
Recorded	January 1969 - June 1978
Genre	Rock
Length	35:49
Label	Columbia
Producer	James William Guercio, Phil Ramone and Chicago
Chicago chronology
Chicago XIV (1980) Greatest Hits, Volume II (1981) Chicago 16 (1982)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[1]

Greatest Hits, Volume II is the second greatest hits album by American rock band Chicago - their 15th overall - and was released in 1981.

Following the commercial flop of 1980's Chicago XIV, Columbia Records dropped Chicago from their roster and cancelled a lucrative contract that had recently been signed. While the band had begun their association with David Foster and were in the process of building a new identity, Columbia put together a sequel to their first - and highly successful - hits package, 1975's Chicago IX - Chicago's Greatest Hits, basically a contractual-obligation effort. The bare-bones album artwork (merely a collage of photos from around the city of Chicago, no distinctive logo) and lack of liner notes support this.

Released in November 1981, Greatest Hits, Volume II primarily samples material from Chicago VIII through 1978's Hot Streets, after which the hits stopped coming, though it also stretches back to pick up overlooked hits from the era first covered by their original compilation album. Because it appeared just before Chicago's unexpected career revival with Chicago 16, this set performed very poorly at retail, only reaching #171 in the US. Curiously, though "Dialogue Part I & II" is part of the track listing, Part I of the song is left off, leaving only the Part II outro.

Like its predecessor, Greatest Hits, Volume II has since been superseded by 2002's The Very Best of: Only the Beginning and is out of print.

Track listing

Side one

1. "Baby, What A Big Surprise" (Peter Cetera) – 3:03
2. "Dialogue (Part II)" (Robert Lamm) – 4:10 - incorrectly listed as "Parts I & II"
3. "No Tell Lover" (Peter Cetera/Lee Loughnane/Danny Seraphine) – 3:47 - single edit
4. "Alive Again" (James Pankow) – 3:32 - single edit
5. "Old Days" (James Pankow) – 3:29

Side two

1. "If You Leave Me Now" (Peter Cetera) – 3:55
2. "Questions 67 and 68" (Robert Lamm) – 3:26 - single edit
3. "Happy Man" (Peter Cetera) – 3:15
4. "Gone Long Gone" (Peter Cetera) – 3:57
5. "Take Me Back To Chicago" (Danny Seraphine/David Wolinski) – 3:00 - single edit

Greatest Hits, Volume II (Columbia 37682) reached #171 in the US during a chart stay of 5 weeks. It did not chart in the UK.

Personnel

• Peter Cetera - electric bass, acoustic guitar, vocals, background vocals
• Terry Kath - acoustic guitar, electric guitar, vocals
• Robert Lamm - piano, keyboards, percussion, vocals, background vocals
• Lee Loughnane - trumpet, flugelhorn, cornet, guitar, percussion, background vocals
• James Pankow - trombone, percussion, background vocals
• Walter Parazaider - saxophone, flute, clarinet
• Danny Seraphine - drums, percussion
• Laudir DeOliveira - congas, bongos, Latin percussion
• Donnie Dacus - acoustic guitar, electric guitar, vocals

Charts

Album - Billboard (North America)

Year	Chart	Position
1981	Pop Albums	171

References

1. ^ http://www.allmusic.com/album/r54054/review