‘Chicago III’ arrived 55 years ago this week as their third consecutive double album in less than two years. Yet Chicago was somehow still pushing the musical envelope.

Chicago always denied being a jazz-fusion band. The opening songs on 1974’s underrated ‘Chicago VII’ say something different.

With its stellar arrangements, impressive chops and smart production, Chicago’s “Just You ‘N’ Me” reached rare heights among pop-rock singles in 1973.

The most unmelodic, atonal instrumental Chicago ever released, “Free Country” is not a piece I would ever play separately – but it works as part of the “Travel Suite.”