Chicago - Stay The Night

by Tommy Gunnarsson

published: 8 / 7 / 2025

In Video Vault Tommy Gunnarsson reflects on the video for Chicago’s ‘Stay the Night’ which he describes as “a classic.”

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Back in the mid-80s, the only way to see music videos in Sweden was to rely on the two public service TV channels, which was kind of hopeless, to be honest. In short, they rarely showed them. But every once-in-a while, they suddenly appeared on the TV screen, and if you were lucky, you might be able to tape them, too, and then you watched those videos over and over and over. For that very reason, Chicago’s music video for ‘Stay the Night’ is a classic for me. My brother had the ‘Chicago 17’ album, so I was more than familiar with the song, but when I saw the music video, I was blown away – I had never seen anything like it! Car chases – in a music video! Today, it’s more or less forgotten (one of the directors, Bob Giraldi, also did the ‘Beat It’ video, which is far more revered today), but when I watch it again today on YouTube, I can see why I liked it so much. Sure, the objectification of the female character is dated to say the least, but the action sequences are still quite impressive, especially since it’s rumoured that singer Peter Cetera performed some of the stunts himself. And nostalgia really is the best way to ignore the ravages of time, right?