The Story Behind The Night Chicago Died

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The true story is that legendary mob boss Al Capone was caught and brought to justice by the FBI and not by officers from the Chicago Police Department. However, over in England a pop group of the 1970s didn’t have all of the facts straight. Instead, they wrote a song out of the facts they had about a deadly gun battle that occurred in the 1930s supposedly between Chicago policemen and Al Capone’s foot soldiers on the east side of Chicago, Illinois. As it turns out such a battle never occurred and there is no east side of Chicago. The good news for the group Paper Lace was that their song “The Night Chicago Died” rose up to number one on the U.S. pop charts on August 17. 1974. I love the song myself it has a really good beat and gets you singing along. So, in this case, it doesn’t matter that history was rewritten what matters is that a great hit single was the result.