Wednesday December 2, 2020 “The Night Chicago Died” Paper Lace
An interesting song co-written by two UK songwriters who had never been to Chicago and sung by a British band who had never been to America before this song.
Prior to releasing “The Night Chicago Died” Paper Lace (couldn’t find a reason why on the name) formerly known as Music Box, had a number one hit in the UK with their version of “Billy, Don’t Be a Hero” but apparently Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods beat them to the punch in the US and the best Paper Lace could do was #96 on the US Billboard Hot 100 while the Bo Donaldson version reached number one.
However Paper Lace’s follow-up mostly fictional song about gangsters in Chicago was a number one hit, selling over three million copies. Both songs “Billy…” and “Chicago…” were co-written by Mitch Murray who wrote a bunch of other 60’s songs including the Gerry & the Pacemakers hit “How Do You Do It” which Beatles producer George Martin had picked for the Beatles to record, but they refused.
Paper Lace is from Nottingham and are reportedly the most successful band from there. I guess no one included Robin Hood and his Merry Men when they were measuring successes from Nottingham.
Stay safe and well...and truth, apparently Al Capone actually did some very positive things for the underprivileged in Chicago during the depression and prohibition, that is in addition to murdering, robbing, raping, bribing and bootlegging...maybe that last one was OK too.