"Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?" is a song written and sung by Robert Lamm and recorded by the group Chicago. It was included on their 1969 debut album Chicago Transit Authority and released as a single in 1970. Background According to Robert Lamm, "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?" was the first song recorded for their debut album. The song was not released as a single until two tracks from the band's second album, "Make Me Smile" and "25 or 6 to 4", had become hits. It became the band's third straight Top 10 single, peaking at in the U.S. and No. 2 in Canada. Because the song straddled years in its chart run, it is not ranked on the major U.S. year-end charts. However, in Canada, where it charted higher, it is ranked as both the 59th biggest hit of 1970 and the 37th biggest hit of 1971. Lamm said of the song: "[It's] not a complicated song, but it’s certainly a quirky song. But that was my intent. I wanted to write something that wasn’t ordinary, that wasn’t blues-based, that didn’t have ice cream changes, and would allow the horns to shine and give Lee Loughnane a solo. So all that was the intent." The original uncut album version opens with a brief free form piano solo performed by Lamm. A spoken verse by Lamm is mixed into the sung final verse of the album version. The single version does not include the free form intro, and was originally mixed and issued in mono. A stereo re-edit (beginning from the point where the free form intro leaves off) was issued on the group's Only the Beginning greatest hits CD set. A 2:54 shorter edit (omitting not only the opening free-form piano solo but also the subsequent varying-time-signature horn/piano dialog—therefore starting at the trumpet solo which begins the main movement—and without the spoken part) was included on the original vinyl version of Chicago's Greatest Hits, but was not included on the CD version. This shorter edit was included on the CD version of the compilation album If You Leave Me Now. This version was used as a radio edit version. A shorter version at 2:46 (starting midway through the trumpet solo) was issued as a promotional single, which finally appeared on 2007's The Best of Chicago: 40th Anniversary Edition. A live version on the