The Night Chicago Died | |
Cover: | Paper Lace Night Chicago Died.jpg |
Caption: | Belgian sleeve |
Type: | single |
Artist: | Paper Lace |
Album: | And Other Bits of Material, Paper Lace (US Version) |
B-Side: | Can You Get It When You Want It |
Released: | 15 June 1974 |
Recorded: | 1974 |
Genre: | Pop rock |
Label: | Bus Stop (UK), Philips (Europe), Polydor (Canada), Mercury (US), Phonogram (Japan), EMI (Australia/New Zealand) |
Producer: | Peter Callander, Mitch Murray |
Prev Title: | Billy Don't Be a Hero |
Prev Year: | 1974 |
Next Title: | The Black Eyed Boys |
Next Year: | 1974 |
"The Night Chicago Died" is a song by the British group Paper Lace, written by Peter Callander and Mitch Murray. The song reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for one week in 1974, reached number 3 in the UK charts, and number 2 in Canada. It is about a fictional shoot-out between the Chicago Police and members of the Al Capone Syndicate. The narrator retells his mother's anguish while awaiting news of the fate of her husband, a Chicago policeman. This song begins with an electronic synthesizer sound impersonating a police siren. The first four lines in the Intro are spoken by the group. It also features the sound of a ticking clock, heard in the third verse.
"The Night Chicago Died" was Paper Lace's follow-up single to "Billy Don't Be a Hero", a No. 1 hit in the U.K. but virtually unheard in the U.S. where Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods' cover reached No. 1. Callander and Murray wrote both songs.
The U.S. single received a Gold certification from the Recording Industry Association of America, signifying sales of at least half a million copies. Though the song's story is set in the United States, Paper Lace were unable to perform the song live in the U.S. at the height of its popularity because of contractual issues.[1]
"The Night Chicago Died" is about a shoot-out between the Chicago Police and gangsters tied to Al Capone. It was inspired by the real-life Saint Valentine's Day Massacre,[2] although that involved Capone's men killing seven of Bugs Moran's gang members and had nothing to do with the police. No confrontation large enough to leave around one hundred police deaths ever happened. Al Capone was arrested in 1932 for income tax evasion.
The song's events supposedly take place "on the East Side of Chicago". Chicago has three commonly referred-to regions: the North Side, the West Side and the South Side. There is no East Side, as Lake Michigan is immediately east of Downtown Chicago. While there is an area of Chicago known as "East Side", it is a neighborhood on the Far South Side on the Illinois/Indiana state line. East Side is also several miles away from where Capone lived on Prairie Avenue in Chicago. Furthermore, in the 1920s, East Side was known for being a quiet, residential, and predominantly Eastern European neighborhood—a sharp contrast from the site of the bloodbath described in the song.
Songwriters Peter Callender and Mitch Murray said in interviews (most notably on Beat Club shortly after the song's smash success) that they had never been to Chicago before that time, and that their knowledge of the city and that period of its history had been based on gangster films. (Callender defended his interpretation of Chicago's geography by saying, "There's an East Side of everywhere!")
As reported by History.com:
Paper Lace sent the song to the mayor of Chicago, Richard Daley, who greatly disliked it.[3] A member of Daley's staff is quoted as saying that Paper Lace should "jump in the Chicago River, placing your heads under water three times and surfacing twice. Pray tell us, are you nuts?”[4]
Chart (1974) | Peak position | |
---|---|---|
Australia (Kent Music Report)[5] | 1 | |
Canada RPM Top Singles[6] | 2 | |
France (IFOP)[7] | 35 | |
Netherlands (Single Top 100)[8] | 2 | |
New Zealand | 1 | |
South Africa (Springbok)[9] | 3 | |
UK[10] | 3 | |
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 | 1 | |
U.S. Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary | 27 | |
U.S. Cash Box Top 100[11] | 1 |
Chart (1974) | Rank | |
---|---|---|
Australia (Kent Music Report)[12] | 4 | |
Canada[13] | 26 | |
Netherlands[14] | 25 | |
U.S. Billboard Hot 100[15] | 47 | |
U.S. Cash Box[16] | 19 |