Chicago 17 has a lot going for it. After triumphantly returning to pop-music prominence with 1982’s Chicago 16, the band perfectly capitalized on that success by managing to record an even more commercially successful album. From intricately crafted ballads, to catchy uptempo pop hits and the vocal return of Robert Lamm, this follow-up album offers Chicago fans an eclectic snapshot of the group in the middle of the 1980s.
Penned by long-time member James Pankow, “Once in a Lifetime” finishes the album with a bang. While it has all of the prerequisite ’80s pop instrumentation (including a drum machine, and layered keyboards), the track is also uniquely Chicago.
As would be expected of a Pankow-written song, the Chicago horns are much more prominent than on many other songs on Chicago 17. The arrangement of the song is also very consistent with his composing. The first part of “Once in a Lifetime” flows like a typical pop composition, but a Pankow-ish thing happens after the second chorus and reprise of the opening: the bridge. The horns become front and center, and the song deviates away from standard pop music to what can almost be taken as a statement that Chicago is still “a rock band with horns.”
There has been a lot of discussion in Chicago fan groups over the years about whether this song should have been released as a single. Based on the chart performance of the four singles that were released, it is hard to argue that David Foster, the band, and Warner Bros. didn’t make the correct choices.
However, I would make a case that “Once in a Lifetime” would have been a perfect song for movie soundtrack, perhaps in a montage of clips: Two love interests could be going about their lives, pondering what might have been with the other one, only to end up realizing that they should have been with the other one all along.
- Chicago, “90 Degrees and Freezing” from ‘Chicago XXX’ (2006): Saturdays in the Park - October 23, 2021
- Chicago, “Show Me a Sign” from ‘Heart of Chicago Vol. II’ (1998): Saturdays in the Park - August 14, 2021
- Chicago, “Sophisticated Lady” from ‘Night & Day: Big Band’ (1995): Saturdays in the Park - May 29, 2021
