The Sounds of Summer- Day 16 of 95- “Saturday In The Park”- Chicago. It may not be ‘the 4th of July” but its close enough. Chicago is one of those groups where I like most of their singles from the 70’s- after that not so much. They had 33 Top 40 hits in their career. “Saturday In The Park” was written by Robert Lamm of the group and was on the Chicago V album in 1972. On the charts it went to #3 their biggest hit up to that time and has been a staple on the radio every since. The story of how the song was inspired differs by who does the telling but the park which inspired Lamm to write the song was Central Park in New York City. Lamm sings the lead vocals with Peter Cetera singing lead on the chorus.
slicethelife 
I’m with you here, Hans. I really like Chicago’s early music, including this tune. It’s not that I hate their later work, but Peter Cetera became a bit too much, and the ballads he sang in the ’80s started sounding the same.
In looking at their singles chart history- the hits were drying up when Cetera kind of took over things- and did have the hits- I can understand why they did what they did but it doesn’t make for good listening. Like some other artists of the era they found a hit formula and ran it into the ground! You need a mix which they had in the 70’s!!
Good song!