Twenty 1

Production

The production of Twenty 1 saw a significant personnel reconfiguration. The recent departure of founding drummer Danny Seraphine had made way for the band's "great new drummer" Tris Imboden. Session player John Keane played the majority of this album's drum tracks. Their touring guitarist since 1986, Dawayne Bailey, performed as an extra guitarist for Twenty 1's sessions.

The band retained producer Ron Nevison, who'd already done Chicago 19. According to Nevison, work on the album was somewhat fragmented, with the band members rarely being in the studio together, and with work continuing with session musicians while the band was on tour. The fragmentation was furthered when Humberto Gatica was assigned to mix the final version of the album without Nevison's input.

Although the music for Twenty 1 was considered to be of a commercially viable nature, the shifting of popular musical trends toward the impending grunge movement, is said to have lost Chicago some valuable radio support. Nevison maintains that if his original mixes had been used, he'd have been much happier and the album could have theoretically been more successful: "It all would have worked if they’d left it alone. I promise you." The single "Chasin' The Wind" peaked at No. 39 and Twenty 1 peaked at #66 during its eleven-week period on the charts, making it their second least successful non-greatest hits album, only behind Chicago XIV.

For what was intended to be the band's twenty-second album, Stone of Sisyphus, Chicago hired producer Peter Wolf to develop what could be considered a more ambitious and experimental effort. That 1994 release was indefinitely postponed, and then finally released more than fourteen years later on June 17, 2008 as Chicago XXXII: Stone of Sisyphus. A demo of "Love Is Forever" from the Twenty 1 sessions was included on the Sisyphus release.

Three singles were released: "Chasin' the Wind" (B-side "Only Time Can Heal the Wounded") in January 1991, "Explain It to My Heart" (B-side "God Save The Queen") in April 1991, and "You Come to My Senses" (B-side "Who Do You Love") in August 1991. Twenty 1 would be Chicago's last full-length album release of original songs until Chicago XXX in 2006.

Reception

Twenty 1 spent eleven weeks on the American Billboard 200, peaking at position No. 66, and did not chart in the UK.

Track listing

Unreleased:

Personnel

Additional personnel

Production