Chicago 
Aliases: Chicago Transit Authority.
The best album credited to Chicago is Chicago which is ranked number 2,374 in the overall greatest album chart with a total rank score of 682.
The best album credited to Chicago taking into account any aliases or variations is Chicago Transit Authority by Chicago Transit Authority which is ranked number 1,039 in the overall greatest album chart with a total rank score of 1,680.
Chicago is ranked number 530 in the overall artist rankings with a total rank score of 3,368.
- Members: N.B. The member list may not contain a full list of members (and there may be notable omissions). If a member has never released a solo album, or their solo albums do not appear on BEA, they will not be able to be listed as a member. These omissions are not meant to cause offense to anybody. The member list is solely meant as an additional navigation aid to browse between the items listed on the site.
- Bruce Gaitsch
- Lou Pardini
- Dawayne Bailey
- Neil Donell
- Jason Scheff
- Jeff Coffey
- Loren Gold
- Peter Cetera
- Bill Champlin
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Chicago best albums
The following albums by Chicago are ranked highest in the greatest album charts:
Chicago bestography composition
Chicago best tracks
Include tracks from compilations & live albums | Exclude tracks from compilations & live albums The same track can appear on multiple albums, so excluding tracks from compilations and live albums helps to remove duplicates from this list.
Chicago ratings
Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AVwhere:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
n = number of ratings an item has currently received.
m = minimum number of ratings required for an item to appear in a 'top-rated' chart (currently 10).
AV = the site mean average rating.
Showing latest 3 ratings for this artist. | Show all 44 ratings for this artist.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Artist ratings | Avg. artist rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 11/28/2023 00:24 | LosWochos | 7,784 | 79/100 |
| ! | 09/22/2023 17:13 | Stevo796 | 980 | 74/100 |
| ! | 08/01/2023 19:56 | MaxStorm98 | 542 | 92/100 |
Rating metrics:
Outliers can be removed when calculating a mean average to dampen the effects of ratings outside the normal distribution. This figure is provided as the trimmed mean. A high standard deviation can be legitimate, but can sometimes indicate 'gaming' is occurring. Consider a simplified example* of an item receiving ratings of 100, 50, & 0. The mean average rating would be 50. However, ratings of 55, 50 & 45 could also result in the same average. The second average might be more trusted because there is more consensus around a particular rating (a lower deviation).
(*In practice, some artists can have several thousand ratings)
This artist is rated in the top 15% of all artists on BestEverAlbums.com. This artist has a Bayesian average rating of 77.1/100, a mean average of 74.9/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 77.5/100. The standard deviation for this artist is 16.5.
Chicago favourites
Showing all 7 members who have added this artist as a favourite
Chicago forum mentions
BestEverAlbums 08/10/2026 08:00 in Chart of the day (#5400): By BLOView latest topic →
RoundTheBend 04/09/2016 16:57 in What album are you listening to right now?Chicago comments
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Love them or hate them there is no denying that in the US Chicago were one of the most successful bands of all time. Never the critic’s favourites, and with only sporadic success in the UK , Chicago had 10 successive top ten albums including five consecutive number ones in America between 1970 and 1977.
Whilst many people will remember Chicago for their AOR power ballads of the 80’s their beginnings are much more exciting and radical. Chicago Transit Authority, as the band were known as at the time they originally signed with Columbia in 1968, were a brave amalgamation of pop, rock and Jazz with a punchy brass section. Their sound was exciting, the songs varied and the arrangements exceptional. They were blessed with three excellent songwriters each of whom had a distinctive vocal style.
Critically the band gradually declined form there startling debut but commercially they were phenomenally successful.
After their first two albums Chicago would start to take themselves a little bit too seriously, releasing a string of sprawling double albums which the critics attacked with vigour. Despite this the public kept buying and within the morass of music that the band produced in their earliest years there are some splendid tracks.
Chicago went on to release another 20 or so albums with a second period of huge success in the early eighties
Love Chicago. They have had several great albums over the years however to me their greatest days were when Peter Cetera & Terry Kath were still with the band sharing the vocals & song writing with Robert Lamm & James Pankow. What a wealth of different but complimentary talent! Chicago Transit Authority & Chicago ll will always be their greatest albums & among the greatest Jazz Rock albums of all time however Chicago III,V,VI,VII, & Chicago X are also huge high points for me.
Martini 08/21/2020 23:50 | #257292
Terry Kath is one of the greatest and m9st underrated guitarists of all time. It's his guitar solos that make this band really stand out, especially live. Their best song is 25 Or 6 To 4
ChrisPBacon 04/26/2020 01:10 | #250519
I loved the first 7 albums, with the exception of Chicago 4 (the quadruple live album). Chicago 8, 10, and 11 were not as good, then Terry Kath died. People say it's a shame they turned into a wimpy band, but I think it's amazing how long they were great. Cetera had a great voice and was amazing on bass. Kath had a great voice and was amazing on guitar. Lamm had a fine voice, was very good on keyboards, and was a great songwriter. Seraphine was a fantastic drummer. Pankow wrote some great tunes. As for the brass and woodwinds, I am no expert, but they sounded just fine to me.
I absolutely adore Chicago I and II, but after that I feel they started to lose their way. They had a few great songs here and there but lost their soul.
