The Very Best of Chicago: Only the Beginning is a double greatest hits album by the American band Chicago, their twenty-seventh album overall. Released in 2002, this collection marked the beginning of a long-term partnership with Rhino Entertainment which, between 2002 and 2005, would remaster and re-release Chicago's 1969–1980 Columbia Records catalog.

Chicago is an American rock band formed in Chicago in 1967. The group began calling themselves the Chicago Transit Authority in 1968, then shortened the name in 1969. Self-described as a "rock and roll band with horns," their songs often also combine elements of classical music, jazz, R&B, and pop music.