text: In addition to the material recorded for the album, "Wake Up Sunshine", "It Better End Soon" (both later released on their second album), "Loneliness is Just a Word" (later released on Chicago III), and an early version of "Mississippi Delta City Blues" (with mostly different music than its eventual versions on Live in Japan and Chicago XI) all date from this era, and were performed as early as 1968. Other early original songs, such as "Dedicated to Girl Number 1" and "Once Upon a Life", were never released.
  Released in April 1969, Chicago Transit Authority (sometimes informally referred to simply as "CTA") was not an immediate hit, eventually reaching No. 17 in the US and No. 9 in the UK. While critical reaction was generally favorable, sales were slow at first and the album initially failed to produce any hit singles, with the group seen as an album-oriented collective. Meanwhile, FM radio, with its album-oriented format, helped push sales along. In 1970 and 1971, "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?" (No. 7), "Beginnings" (No. 7) and "Questions 67 and 68" (No. 71 and No. 24 for the 1971 re-release) all made it into the Billboard Hot 100 belatedly. Buoyed by the success of their later albums, Chicago Transit Authority had stayed on the charts for 171 weeks as of June 1975, setting the then record for a rock album's chart longevity by October 1974 at 155 weeks, and was certified gold (and later platinum and double platinum) by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
  While the band toured the album, legal action was threatened by the actual Chicago Transit Authority, forcing the group to truncate their name to simply Chicago.