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Ballet for a Girl in Buchannon
"Ballet for a Girl in Buchannon" [sic], also known as "The Ballet" and "Make Me Smile Medley", is a nearly thirteen-minute mini-rock opera/song cycle/suite from Chicago's 1970 album Chicago (also called Chicago II). It was the group's first attempt at a long-format multi-part work. It was composed by James Pankow, who got the inspiration to write the "Ballet" from his love of long classical music song cycles. According to a May 2018 interview with the Charleston Gazette-Mail, the songs were written in an attempt to win back his ex-fiancee, Terrie Heisler,[1] who was at the time attending West Virginia Wesleyan College in Buckhannon, West Virginia.[2] "Ballet" takes up most of side two of Chicago and consists of seven tracks, three of which are instrumentals:
The final track, "Now More Than Ever," is a single-verse reprise of the suite's opening song, "Make Me Smile." The vocal songs within the suite can be viewed as telling the story of a man searching for a far away lost love and attempting to rekindle the love they had shared. Two of these songs reached the top ten on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100: a single edit of "Make Me Smile (/Now More Than Ever)" (#9, 1970) and "Colour My World" (#7, 1971). The instrumental movement "West Virginia Fantasies" incorporates instrumental counterpoint extensively between the horns, guitar, and keyboards, exemplifying Chicago's skill at composing and arranging complex pieces. The suite was recorded as a single track, titled "The Ballet," on their album Chicago XXVI: Live in Concert in 1999. The version on the 2005 DVD Chicago & Earth, Wind & Fire — Live at the Greek Theatre is called "Make Me Smile Medley," named after the suite's opening song. References
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