| Saturday in the Park | |
| Cover: | Saturday in the Park cover.jpg |
| Type: | single |
| Artist: | Chicago |
| Album: | Chicago V |
| B-Side: | "Alma Mater" |
| Released: | July 13, 1972[1] |
| Recorded: | September 1971 |
| Genre: | |
| Length: | 3:56 |
| Label: | Columbia |
| Producer: | James William Guercio |
| Prev Title: | "Questions 67 and 68" / "I'm A Man" |
| Prev Year: | 1971 |
| Next Title: | "Dialogue (Part I & II)" |
| Next Year: | 1972 |
"Saturday in the Park" is a song written by Robert Lamm and recorded by the group Chicago for their 1972 album Chicago V. It was very successful upon release, reaching on the Billboard Hot 100,[6] and became the band's highest-charting single at the time, helping lift the album to .[7] Billboard ranked it as the No. 76 song for 1972. The single was certified Gold by the RIAA, selling over 1,000,000 units in the U.S. alone.[8]
According to fellow Chicago member Walter Parazaider, Lamm was inspired to write the song during the recording of Chicago III in New York City on Saturday, July 4, 1970:[9]
However, Lamm recalls the story differently, as he told Billboard magazine:[10]
In the studio version of the song, the line "singing Italian songs" is followed by "Eh Cumpari" (the title of a song made famous by Julius La Rosa in 1953), and then Italian-sounding nonsense words, rendered in the printed lyrics as "?". Piano, guitar, and vocal sheet music arrangements have often read "improvised Italian lyrics" in parentheses after this line. However, in a film of Chicago performing "Saturday in the Park" at the Arie Crown Theater in Chicago in 1972, Robert Lamm clearly sings, "Eh Cumpari, ci vo sunari," the first line of "Eh, Cumpari!".
Cash Box said that "The hornrockers paint a scene of inner city greenery that's sure to grow to Top 10 by summer's end."[11] Record World called it "a medium-paced rocker with an appropriately summery feel" and with "crisp, tight instrumental arrangements".[12]
| Chart (1972) | Peak position | |
|---|---|---|
| Australia (KMR) | 43 | |
| Canada Top Singles (RPM)[13] | 2 | |
| US Easy Listening (Billboard)[14] | 8 |
| Chart (1972) | Position | |
|---|---|---|
| Canada Top Singles (RPM)[15] | 25 | |
| US Billboard Hot 100[16] | 76 |
