| Styx II | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | July 1973 | |||
| Recorded | 1972-73 | |||
| Venue | "Little Fugue in G" at St. James Cathedral, Chicago | |||
| Studio | Paragon, Chicago | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 34:20 | |||
| Label | Wooden Nickel | |||
| Producer | John Ryan, Bill Traut (exec.) | |||
| Styx chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Styx II | ||||
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| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [3] |
| The Rolling Stone Album Guide | [4] |
Styx II is the second album by American band Styx, released in July 1973. [5]
After releasing their debut album, which consisted mostly of cover songs, the band intended to write some strong original new material; Dennis DeYoung was particularly in favor of this. DeYoung had written a song by himself on an electric piano in the band's garage, and had originally intended for it to be on the first album. He later decided to play it on an acoustic piano. However, Bill Traut wanted to save it for the second album. The result was "Lady", written about DeYoung's wife Suzanne.
"Lady" failed to be a hit when it was first released in 1973; however, after the band released their fourth album Man of Miracles in 1974, they went to WLS, the most powerful Chicago radio station at the time, and convinced the program director (Jim Smith) to replay this song. It wound up being played frequently on the air in Chicago. In May 1975, the song broke out nationally, eventually peaking at no. 6 on the Billboard charts.
Besides "Lady," the album contained some upbeat and prog rock songs, such as the rockers "You Need Love" and "I'm Gonna Make You Feel It," which were written by DeYoung and sung by James "JY" Young.
This is also the first album on which John Curulewski wrote and sang on two songs: the proggish, jazzy "A Day," which has an unusual sound for the band, and the boogie humor song "You Better Ask," whose outro features a snippet of "Strangers in the Night" on calliope organ and an evil laugh.
Side 2 opens with a DeYoung rendition of "Little Fugue in G" by Bach, played on pipe organ at a Chicago Cathedral, and segues into the mellow prog rocker "Father O.S.A."
The rocker "Earl of Roseland" was written by DeYoung based on early memories from when he grew up in Chicago's Roseland neighborhood, where he had formed the band with the Panozzo brothers.
After Styx moved to A&M Records and achieved national success in the US, Styx II went Gold shortly before the success of The Grand Illusion (1977) and became the only big-selling album from the Wooden Nickel era, because of "Lady." The album was reissued in 1980 by their prior label, Wooden Nickel. Under the title Lady, the reissue had new artwork (though it is not to be confused with a Styx compilation album that was later released with the same name). Until the release of Crash of the Crown in 2021 it was the only Styx album to not feature material written or co-written by Young (apart from their covers 2005 album, Big Bang Theory ).
All tracks are written by Dennis DeYoung, except where noted
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Lead vocals | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "You Need Love" | Young | 3:44 | |
| 2. | "Lady" | DeYoung | 2:56 | |
| 3. | "A Day" | Curulewski | Curulewski | 8:19 |
| 4. | "You Better Ask" | Curulewski | Curulewski | 3:54 |
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Lead vocals | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5. | "Little Fugue in G" | Johann Sebastian Bach | (instrumental) | 1:17 |
| 6. | "Father O.S.A." | DeYoung | 7:08 | |
| 7. | "Earl of Roseland" | DeYoung | 4:39 | |
| 8. | "I'm Gonna Make You Feel It" | Young | 2:23 |
In 1975, Billboard (United States) listed the album as #20 in the Pop Albums charts and the single "Lady" as #6 in the Pop Singles chart.
| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| United States (RIAA) [6] | Gold | 500,000^ |
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. | ||
Styx is an American rock band formed in Chicago, Illinois, in 1972. They are known for blending melodic hard rock guitar with acoustic guitar, synthesizers mixed with acoustic piano, upbeat tracks with power ballads, and incorporating elements of international musical theatre. The band established themselves with a progressive rock sound during the 1970s, and began to incorporate pop rock and soft rock elements in the 1980s.
Cyclorama is the fourteenth studio album by Styx, released in 2003. This was the first studio album with Lawrence Gowan, following the departure of group co-founder Dennis DeYoung in 1999. It was also the latter of two albums to feature Glen Burtnik, and the only album released by the Lawrence Gowan/Tommy Shaw/James "JY" Young/Glen Burtnik/Chuck Panozzo/Todd Sucherman lineup, and as such the only original Styx album to feature four different singer-songwriters as opposed to the usual three. The album peaked significantly higher on the Billboard album charts than Styx's previous release, Brave New World (1999), ending up 48 slots higher at No. 127, but paled in comparison to previous 1970s and 1980s releases on A&M Records.
The Grand Illusion is the seventh studio album by American rock band Styx. Recorded at Paragon Recording Studios in Chicago, the album was released on July 7, 1977, by A&M Records, intentionally choosing the combination 7th on 7-7-77 for luck. The release was a smash worldwide, selling three million copies in the US alone. Some estimates have the album at over 6 million copies sold. The album launched the band to stardom and spawned the hit singles "Come Sail Away" and "Fooling Yourself." The title track also received substantial FM airplay, but was never released as an official single.
Equinox is the fifth studio album by American rock band Styx, released in December 1975. The lead single "Lorelei" became Styx's second US Top 40 hit.
Cornerstone is the ninth studio album by the American rock band Styx, released in 1979. Styx's third straight multi-platinum selling album, Cornerstone was Styx's first album to earn a Grammy nomination, which was for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group. Like the four previous Styx albums, the band produced the album themselves. Styx recorded the album at Pumpkin Studios in Oak Lawn, Illinois.
Paradise Theatre is the tenth studio album by American rock band Styx, released on January 16, 1981, by A&M Records. It was the band's most commercially successful album, peaking at #1 for 3 weeks on the Billboard 200 in April and May 1981 (non-consecutively). It was also the band's fourth consecutive album to be certified triple-platinum by the RIAA.
Kilroy Was Here is the eleventh studio album by the American rock band Styx, released on February 22, 1983. A concept album and rock opera about a world where rock music is outlawed, it is named after a famous World War II graffiti tag, "Kilroy was here." It was the last album of original material to be released by the "classic" lineup of Dennis DeYoung, Tommy Shaw, James "J.Y." Young, John Panozzo, and Chuck Panozzo.
Man of Miracles is the fourth album by Styx, released in October 1974. It entered the Billboad Album charts on November 9, where it reached No. 154.
The Serpent Is Rising is the third album by American band Styx, released in October 1973, a mere three months after their previous album Styx II in July 1973.
Styx is the debut album by American rock band Styx. It was released in 1972.
Caught in the Act is a live double album by Styx, released in 1984. It contains one new song, "Music Time," which was released as a single, reaching #40 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts.
"Lady" is a 1973 power ballad written and performed by the rock band Styx. It was first released on Styx II and was a local hit in the band's native Chicago, but initially failed to chart nationally. The song gained success shortly after Styx left Wooden Nickel Records to move to A&M Records in 1974 as it began picking up airplay nationwide, eventually peaking at #6 on the Billboard Hot 100 in March 1975. The power ballad was later re-recorded for the 1995 Styx compilation Greatest Hits due to a contractual dispute between A&M and Wooden Nickel.
John Anthony Panozzo was an American drummer best known for his work with rock band Styx.
The Complete Wooden Nickel Recordings is a 2-Disc set released by Styx in 2005. The compilation contains remastered versions of Styx's first four albums, Styx, Styx II, The Serpent Is Rising, and Man of Miracles, which were released by Wooden Nickel Records. It also includes "Unfinished Song", which was previously released as the B-side to the single "Best Thing" and on the 1980 RCA reissue of Man of Miracles.
Greatest Hits is a compilation album and primary Greatest Hits album by the American rock band Styx. It was released by A&M Records on August 22, 1995. It contains 16 tracks, 8 of which were Billboard Top 10 Pop Singles, another 4 that were Billboard Top 40 Pop Singles, and 4 that received heavy airplay on FM album oriented rock stations.
Greatest Hits Part 2 is a 1996 compilation album by the rock band Styx and a follow-up to Greatest Hits, another compilation album released in 1995. The album features 14 previously released Styx songs as well as two new songs, "Little Suzie" and "It Takes Love". Major omissions that were not included on either Greatest Hits packages are 2 top 40 charted singles, "Why Me" and "Music Time".
"Best Thing" is the first single released by the band Styx from their self-titled debut album, Styx (1972). It charted at #82 on the Billboard Hot 100.
"You Need Love" is a song by Styx written by Dennis DeYoung. Following the success of the 1974 re-release of the single "Lady" from the album Styx II, "You Need Love" from that album was released as a follow-up single.
With the success of Styx's album The Grand Illusion, Wooden Nickel Records, Styx's previous label, released Best of Styx, which contained selected Styx songs in the Wooden Nickel catalog. Styx had left Wooden Nickel to sign with A&M Records several years earlier, so the compilation does not contain any songs from Styx's three A&M albums that preceded this album's release. "Lady", "You Need Love" and "Best Thing" are the principal songs that could be classified as hits in this collection, having charted at numbers 6, 88 and 82 on the Billboard Hot 100, respectively; the remainder of the songs are selected album tracks from Styx's Wooden Nickel releases.
Lady is a compilation of songs from the band Styx's early recordings under the Wooden Nickel Records label. It is very similar to the contemporary Best of Styx compilation, consisting of the same tracks as that album minus the song "Winner Take All", which does not appear on this album.
rolling stone styx album guide.
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