“The Night Chicago Died” (Paper Lace)

This week we’re doing all songs with the word “night” in the title, and today’s classic night song of the day is “The Night Chicago Died” by a group called Paper Lace. Released in June of 1974, this track went all the way to #1 on both the Billboard Hot 100 and Cash Box Top 100. It was also a Top Five hit in Australia, Canada, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, South Africa, and the UK.

“The Night Chicago Died” was written by the British songwriting team of Peter Callander and Mitch Murray, who were also responsible for writing tunes like “The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde” for Georgie Fame in 1968 and “Billy, Don’t Be a Hero” for Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods in 1974. “The Night Chicago Died,” inspired by the real-world Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre, is about a fictional shootout between the Chicago police and members of Al Capone’s mob.

Given that the songwriters (and the performers) were not native Chicagoans (they were Brits!), the lyrics aren’t entirely accurate. For example, song says the events took place “on the East Side of Chicago.” There is no East Side of Chicago (that would be somewhere in Lake Michigan); the area often referred to as the East Side is actually a quiet residential neighborhood on Chicago’s far southside near the Illinois/Indiana line, far from where Capone and his gangs operated. Also, there were no recorded confrontations with Capone’s gang that left “’bout a hundred cops” dead. It was all made up for the song, for whatever reason.

Paper Lace was a band from Nottingham, England. They had several hits in the UK (including “The Black-Eyed Boys” and their own cover of “Billy, Don’t Be a Hero”) but just the one here in the States. They formed in 1967 under the name Music Box, changed their name to Paper Lace in 1969, released their first album in 1972, and appeared on the UK talent show Opportunity Knocks in 1973. That appearance garnered the attention of Callander and Murray, who supplied the group with two songs, “Billy, Don’t Be a Hero” and “The Night Chicago Died.” That first tune got released in the U.S. first by Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods, although Paper Lace took it to #1 in the UK and elsewhere in Europe; the second tune became the group’s only major hit in the U.S.

Paper Lace kind of went silent by the mid-70s and officially broke up in 1984. Two of the founding members, Phil Wright and Cliff Fish, reformed Paper Lace in 2009 for the oldies circuit, and you might find them there today.

And here’s your daily bonus video of the day, Paper Lace’s original recording of “Billy, Don’t Be a Hero.” It was #1 in Austria, Ireland, and the UK.