"Jenny" by Terry Kath

I was chatting with Peeber awhile back and randomly mentioned the song "The Night Chicago Died" by Paper Lace.  Not a good song but, at the time it came out, I bought the 45 (kids!).  Then I started thinking about all the other singles I bought in the early 1970s down at Record Town on the corner of Beach Boulevard and La Habra Boulevard in La Habra, California, and bringing them home and realizing there was a song on the back, which fascinated me to no end (I was 9, let's say).  They weren't played on AM radio (a few years later, when I switched to FM, I understood they were likely being played there all along, and other cuts from the originating albums, too), and I pretty much had no idea where they came from (I just didn't understand the concept of the album yet).  At any rate, for whatever reason, I tried to come up with the flip side of "The Night Chicago Died", which I couldn't (nor have I researched it since), and THEN I started thinking specifically about the first 45s I bought.  Why would I remember these? Why do we remember anything.  "The Night Chicago Died" was either the 7th or 8th single I bought; it gets blurry after that.  But I can tell you the first six -

• "Shambala" by Three Dog Night
• "Feelin' Stronger Every Day" by Chicago
• "Rock On" by David Essex
• "Seasons in the Sun" by Terry Jacks
• "Bennie and the Jets" by Elton John
• "The Show Must Go On" by Three Dog Night

So naturally I tried to remember the flip sides of these six singles and actually came up with five of them, but I'll spare you that except to mention the flip side of "Feelin' Stronger Every Day", which was "Jenny".  Now I happen to think "Feelin' Stronger Every Day" is a fine song, and you are likely aware of it if you are of a certain age.  But if you are NOT aware of "Jenny", written and sung by Chicago's original lead guitarist, Terry Kath, I wanted to change that.

(I still remember reading about his - let's be charitable and call it "accidental" - self-inflicted gunshot wound in the La Habra Daily Star Progress.  I was 15, he was all of 32.)

In any event, I think this is a pretty great song and, if you've not heard it, I hope you like it.  Oh, and those drums - well done, Danny Seraphine...

"Jenny", by Terry Kath


IBL:mm