Sylvester Stallone’s 1978 film Paradise Alley tells the story of three Italian-American brothers, all professional wrestlers, in Hell’s Kitchen in 1946. (Paradise Alley is the name of the New York City club where they wrestle.) Stallone wrote, directed, and starred in the film, and helped choose the music, asking Robert Lamm to write a song for the soundtrack.
Chicago’s “Paradise Alley” ultimately wasn’t used in the movie. According to the liner notes for the Rhino re-issue of unlucky Chicago 13, Stallone later told Lamm that he wished he had. The former Rocky star must have taken too many blows to the head when he said that, because “Paradise Alley” sounds nothing like 1946 and would have been completely out of place in the film.
Like many other songs on the 13th album, there are some nice moments in “Paradise Alley.” It starts out with a riff-driven passage for keyboard and bass, followed by a pleasant horn line. Unfortunately, Donnie Dacus speak-sings the verses (which refer to the nightclub and the wrestlers) in an atonal style. He shouts out the chorus while Chicago semi-raps over the beginning riff, threatening to take us to the Paradise whether we want to go there or not.
The bridge has nothing to do with the film and is mostly nonsense such as “It reminds you of who you used to be and who you are and who you’ll always be.” One of my colleagues characterized the 13th album as a series of unfinished demos, and maybe Robert Lamm was planning to write a better tune for the verses or better lyrics for the bridge? It’s no wonder Stallone used this song, which he himself sung, instead for the film’s opening.
