The Chicago song “25 or 6 to 4” actually refers to The Kent State Shootings in 1970. This defines the 25 reference.
In September 1970, twenty-four students and one faculty member were indicted on charges connected with the May 4 demonstration or the ROTC building fire three days before. These individuals, who had been identified from photographs, became known as the “Kent 25.”
OK, you have the ‘25’, and I suppose the ‘4’ comes from May the 4th. Only, the shootings took place on My 4th, 1970… and the album on which the song appeared (‘Chicago II’) was released on January 26th, 1970. Was Robert Lamm psychic?
And speaking of Robert Lamm (you know – the guy who actually wrote the song), he is quoted in the column as saying that ‘25 or 6 to four’ is the time of day in the song.
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If you believe this, you’ll have to explain how the album that contains the song “25 or 6 to 4” (Chicago II) entered the Billboard album charts on February 21, 1970 – more than two months before the Kent State shootings took place!
EDIT: Damn, Johnny…you got to the actual release date before I could find it. We were going to the same place at the same time.
It’s probably in Nostradamus somewhere. 
Maybe Nostradamus has a quatrain that will find the missing ‘6’ in the OP. (I was going to make that point, as seen by my first sentence, but it didn’t make it to the keyboard.)
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Chalk another one up for people who go to all the trouble of signing up for the SDMB for the sole purpose of posting their “real” answer as if they’re the only people to know it!:rolleyes:
Actually, I bet the OP is the only person in the world who knows this. 
The “Nostradamus” album was released prior to the group becoming a group.
And it went platinum before that.
The song was written on November 4, 1969 - exactly six months before the events it described occurred.
Man, everybody here is so linear in the temporal thinking.
No. It is a staff report by SDSAB member Songbird.
Wow. No. 25 or 6 to 4 refers to an approximate time. 3:34 or 3:35. (or, 25 or 26 to 4 o’clock).
The song is about writing a song. It has nothing to do with Kent State.
Does anybody really know what time it is? Does anybody really care?
Actually, George always did. He always ended his monologues with “say goodnight, Gracie.” And she did.
“Take the pepple from my hand. . .time for you to go.”
No, she didn’t. Or at least she didn’t say “goodnight, Gracie,” as the joke would have it. She just said goodnight.
I think it was Laugh-in that popularized the “goodnight, Gracie” (or equivalent) version of the joke.
I agree. I never meant she replied “Goodnight Gracie.” But George Did utter “say goodnight, Gracie.”
“Say ‘Goodnight,’ Dick.” “Goodnight, Dick.” Yeah, it was Laugh-in that put it on the map.