Now that contemporaries like Journey and Foreigner have received their flowers from the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, we think it’s time they give major consideration to Styx as well. The band that formed in Chicago was able to ride the shifting musical winds as well as any, proving adept at proggy song suites, charging hard rock, and sweet balladry.
To prove our point, let’s take a sojourn through their catalog and talk about the five songs that did the best on the U.S. pop charts.
5. “Lady” (No. 6 in 1975)
The band’s first big hit was the essence of a slow-builder, taking almost two years to reach its chart peak after its release on Styx II in 1973. It even predates Tommy Shaw’s time in the band. Like many of Styx’s biggest hits, “Lady” showcases Dennis DeYoung’s winning melodic touch. This one was a power ballad before such things were in vogue, as it rises from its quiet beginnings to quite a ruckus thanks to some crunching guitars. And the high harmonies that would become one of the band’s trademarks are in evidence as well.
4. “Don’t Let It End” (No. 6 in 1983)
The concept for the Kilroy Was Here album allowed just enough room for DeYoung to slip in a ballad. In a bit of a twist for the band, it’s a love-gone-wrong song. Aside from that, Styx is able to follow their winning formula. You could imagine the song working quite well if it had stayed minimal with DeYoung’s keyboards and vocals. But it emerges from that seed to become something more expansive. Tommy Shaw delivers an excellent guitar solo, and the harmonies almost give the chorus a hopeful edge, as if the narrator might indeed convince her to come back.
3. “Mr. Roboto” (No. 3 in 1983)
Incredibly, the song that became one of the ’80s most defining tracks wasn’t initially intended for radio release. Dennis DeYoung composed it to be used as part of the stage show for the Kilroy Was Here album, only to find that everybody who heard the track loved it. And why not? “Mr. Roboto” still sounds pretty cool after those years, with little bits tucked away in the corners of the recording that can sneak up on you. And it was prescient, because here we are 40 years later and we’re still worried about AI taking over, much like Kilroy was back in the day.
2. “The Best of Times” (No. 3 in 1981)
The album Paradise Theatre was one of Styx’s commercial peaks, as it would also feature the rip-roaring Tommy Shaw-led Top-10 hit “Too Much Time on My Hands.” “The Best of Times” definitely has to make the short list of the band’s best-ever songs. Those harmonies are at their rafter-scaling best, Shaw’s guitar solo catches the tone of the song perfectly, and DeYoung manages to build the stakes with dire proclamations before turning it around and giving us the antidote to the world collapsing: the love of someone special.
1. “Babe” (No. 1 in 1979)
Knowing that Dennis DeYoung has been married for more than 50 years to his wife Suzanne will help you to understand his proclivity for unabashed love songs. But the songwriter manages to keep things from going overboard into the sweetness department by introducing some sort of conflict, in this case the reality that even the closest partners have to occasionally be separated. DeYoung’s electric piano hook is the kind of thing that No. 1 songs tend to possess, and there’s a singalong quality to the chorus that also carries this one a long way.
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