“The Night Chicago Died” is a song by the British group Paper Lace, written by Peter Callander and Mitch Murray. The song reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for one week in 1974, reached number 3 in the UK charts, and number 2 in Canada. It is about a fictional shoot-out between the Chicago Police and members of the Al Capone Syndicate. The narrator retells his mother’s anguish while awaiting news of the fate of her husband, a Chicago policeman. The song is featured in the theatrical trailer of the 2000 comedy-drama film High Fidelity. The song is also featured in a Season 1 episode of That ’70s Show.
“The Night Chicago Died” is about a shoot-out between the Chicago Police and gangsters tied to Al Capone. It was inspired by the real-life Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre, although that involved Capone’s men killing seven of Bugs Moran’s gang members and had nothing to do with the police. No confrontation large enough to leave around one hundred police deaths ever happened.
The song’s events supposedly take place “on the East Side of Chicago”. Chicago has three commonly referred-to regions: the North Side, the West Side and the South Side. There is no East Side, as Lake Michigan is immediately east of Downtown Chicago. While there is an area of Chicago known as “East Side”, it is a neighborhood on the Far South Side on the Illinois/Indiana state line. East Side is also several miles away from where Capone lived on Prairie Avenue in Chicago. Furthermore, in the 1920s, East Side was known for being a quiet, residential, and predominantly Eastern European neighborhood—a sharp contrast from the site of the bloodbath described in the song.
Songwriters Peter Callender and Mitch Murray said in interviews (most notably on Beat Club shortly after the song’s smash success) that they had never been to Chicago before that time, and that their knowledge of the city and that period of its history had been based on gangster films. (Callender defended his interpretation of Chicago’s geography by saying, “There’s an East Side of everywhere!”)
The Night Chicago Died Lyrics
Daddy was a cop on the east side of Chicago
Back in the USA, back in the bad old days
In the heat of a summer night
In the land of the dollar bill
When the town of Chicago died
And they talk about it still
When a man named Al Capone
Tried to make that town his own
And he called his gang to war
With the forces of the law
I heard my momma cry
I heard her pray the night Chicago died
Brother, what a night it really was?
Brother, what a fight it really was?
Glory be!
I heard my momma cry
I heard her pray the night Chicago died
Brother, what a night the people saw?
Brother, what a fight the people saw?
Yes, indeed
And the sound of the battle rang
Through the streets of the old East Side
Till the last of the hoodlum gang
Had surrendered up or died
There was shouting in the street
And the sound of running feet
And I asked someone who said
“‘Bout a hundred cops are dead”.
I heard my momma cry
I heard her pray the night Chicago died
Brother, what a night it really was?
Brother, what a fight it really was?
Glory be!
I heard my momma cry
I heard her pray the night Chicago died
Brother, what a night the people saw?
Brother, what a fight the people saw?
Yes, indeed
Then there was no sound at all
But the clock upon the wall
Then the door burst open wide
And my daddy stepped inside
And he kissed my momma’s face
And he brushed her tears away
The night Chicago died
Na-na na, na-na-na, na-na-na-na-na
The night Chicago died
Brother, what a night the people saw
Brother, what a fight the people saw
Yes, indeed
The night Chicago died
Na-na na, na-na-na, na-na-na-na-na
The night Chicago died
Brother, what a night it really was
Brother, what a fight it really was
Glory be!
The night Chicago died
Na-na na, na-na-na, na-na-na-na-na
The night Chicago died
Brother, what a night the people saw
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