In 1972, Chicago had a big hit with “Saturday In The Park”. Written by band member Robert Lamm, the song is on Chicago’s fourth studio album, called Chicago V.
The only hit single from the record, “Saturday In The Park” begins with, “Saturday in the park / I think it was the Fourth of July / Saturday in the park / I think it was the Fourth of July / People dancing, people laughing / A man selling ice cream / Singing Italian songs.”
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Lamm later recalls how the patriotic holiday influenced “Saturday In The Park”.
“It was written as I was looking at footage from a film I shot in Central Park, over a couple of years, back in the early 70s,” Lamb tells Billboard. “I shot this film, and somewhere down the line, I edited it into some kind of a narrative. And as I watched the film, I jotted down some ideas based on what I was seeing and had experienced.
“And it was really kind of that peace and love thing that happened in Central Park and in many parks all over the world,” he continues. “Perhaps on a Saturday, where people just relax and enjoy each other’s presence, and the activities we observe and the feelings we get from feeling a part of a day like that.”
What Robert Lamm Says About Writing “Saturday In The Park” for Chicago
When Lamm wrote “Saturday In The Park”, it was while Chicago was still working on their third studio album, Chicago III. But it wasn’t until Chicago V that the song found a home.
“We were in New York when I think we were recording our third album,” Lamb tells Grammy.com. “It was summer. And those were the days when Central Park was open on the weekends to the public, and I think that was a fairly new development in the city. Because we were in New York, I always, in those days, carried around a Beaulieu Super 8 camera just for the hell of it. I shot a lot of footage of what I was seeing and what I was experiencing on that particular day: the park being open like that and people really enjoying the park experience in Manhattan, which is still really great.
“I was trying to capture that,” he adds. “And when I finally got home and looked at the film, I just described what I was looking at to write the lyrics.”
Photo by Chris Walter/WireImage
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