MR

I'm not trying to dump on him but I was asked this question by a friend and I thought this should be asked here. My respone was proably not but you would never know. So how about you guys? Do you think they would have gotten successful even if JC never left?

You know, its weird. I, too, have a lot of friends that approach me with "So, do you think Styx would have been successful with John Curelewski?"
Hmmmm, that question must be more popular than I thought!

No,but if we would have had more albums like Equinox,I would have been a happy chappy.

Why wouldn't they have been? "Lady" would have happened either way.. So, we still would have had a minor hit in "Lorelei". What would have happened after that? The tricky thing is knowing if Dennis would have been inspired to write the material that he wrote for "TGI" without Tommy being an influence. I know he was somewhat motivated by the shift in power. Would we still have "Come Sail Away"? That's probably the most important factor. Also, who knows what J.C. might have come up with, I definitely thought he had potential.

I guess I'm not real familiar with JC's reason for leaving the band, so I didn't cast a vote. If it was because of creative differences, then I doubt Styx with JC would've written anything near the quality of GI through PT (more like Brave New World, circa 1976). However, if JY and Dennis could've achieved the same working dynamic with JC as they did with TS early on, I don't see any reason why Styx wouldn't have experienced some success JC (perhaps to a lesser degree, or perhaps not).

ABSOLUTELY!

While Tommy did shift the bands sound some, Styx was about to make it HUGE with or without him.

yogi wrote:ABSOLUTELY!

While Tommy did shift the bands sound some, Styx was about to make it HUGE with or without him.

I agree with Yogi. The band might have sounded a bit different, but I think they would have been a success. They were certainly moving that direction while John C. was in the band.


Bugsy

I'm going to have to go with "no" for this one. I guess it depends on how you define success. With JC in the band Styx might have been as big as Wishbone Ash or Uriah Heep, but no way in the world would they have achieved anything near the success they had with Tommy. It's not just his musical contributions, it's the way his coming in kicked the band in the ass to be more performance-oriented. And on top of that, you can't downplay how important his being younger and "prettier" opened up a whole new world of promotional possibilities to Styx. He basically opened up the female demographic to the band, and even though some of the teen mag stuff was cheesy, it was a crucial part in breaking Styx to an audience other than the general hard rock audience. Not to mention, even though Dennis wrote and sang more of the hits, Tommy went out and did the bulk of the radio promo/interviews, and without his magic touch at that, some of Dennis' songs arguably would not have charted as high as they did.

JC was good at what he did, but what he did was all wrong for a band that wanted commerical success.


Sterling

BlackWall wrote:Why wouldn't they have been? "Lady" would have happened either way.. So, we still would have had a minor hit in "Lorelei". What would have happened after that? The tricky thing is knowing if Dennis would have been inspired to write the material that he wrote for "TGI" without Tommy being an influence. I know he was somewhat motivated by the shift in power. Would we still have "Come Sail Away"? That's probably the most important factor. Also, who knows what J.C. might have come up with, I definitely thought he had potential.

well, you wouldn't have had the chorus to "Come Sail Away", which was taken from an MS Funk song entitled "aint gettin' down" or something similar to that. LOL

I think they would have been successful. I agree with the point of the degree of success being the unknown.

Personally, I used to stay up late to hear "Lady" on the radio (must have been 12ish). But, what really hooked
me as a fan was "Equinox". Pre-Tommy. I also agree that another "Equinox" sounding album would have been
fine with me, too! NOT that I don't LOVE "Crystal Ball"!!!!

I do wonder what some songs that Tommy claims influence on (Grand Illusion and CSA) would have sounded like, ultimately. Especially Come Sail Away. Might have had an entirely different chorus.

I agree with Barbara. Equinox is my favorite Styx album, despite the excellent addition to the sound Tommy made on later albums.

Subsequent albums with John C. still involved might have been much more progressive sounding. Tommy definitely added a poppy/rock sound to the group, which complimented already what Dennis' inclinations were. Styx II is definitely their most accessible album prior to Equinox.

Higgy wrote:You know, its weird. I, too, have a lot of friends that approach me with "So, do you think Styx would have been successful with John Curelewski?"

Wow. You have friends that actually give a shit enough about Styx to ASK you about them? All mine roll their eyes at the mere mention of them in any form! LOL Seriously, the only question I ever get (if any) are: "Are those guys still around?"

I can't even fathom anyone in my life asking me if I think Styx would have been successful with JC. lol

Although, I did meet a guitar player Thursday night who was actually a pretty big fan of the band (not quite like...us, but still) and was asking me about how everyone was doing, particularly Chuck. It was neat to meet someone who not only knew who they were but had a remote interest in the topic at all!

Zan wrote:

Higgy wrote:You know, its weird. I, too, have a lot of friends that approach me with "So, do you think Styx would have been successful with John Curelewski?"

Wow. You have friends that actually give a shit enough about Styx to ASK you about them? All mine roll their eyes at the mere mention of them in any form! LOL Seriously, the only question I ever get (if any) are: "Are those guys still around?"

I can't even fathom anyone in my life asking me if I think Styx would have been successful with JC. lol

Although, I did meet a guitar player Thursday night who was actually a pretty big fan of the band (not quite like...us, but still) and was asking me about how everyone was doing, particularly Chuck. It was neat to meet someone who not only knew who they were but had a remote interest in the topic at all!

I should have put a wink there. It was meant in all sarcasm. If ANY of my friends knew who John Curelewski WAS, I would probably drop dead.

I would actually like to weigh in here. I'm going to disagree with the masses. Styx had already had 4 top 100 singles, 2 top 40 singles, and 1 top 10 single with JC. Not to underscore Tommy's importance (which was HUGE) but they already were successful when he joined.

Higgy wrote:I would actually like to weigh in here. I'm going to disagree with the masses. Styx had already had 4 top 100 singles, 2 top 40 singles, and 1 top 10 single with JC. Not to underscore Tommy's importance (which was HUGE) but they already were successful when he joined.

Well, "successful" is a relative term. I think any musician who can pay their bills solely through playing music is successful. If that is the definition we're using, then yes, absolutely they would have been successful. If you mean "top band in America," I don't think so. I think it would have fallen somewhere in between the two.

Higgy wrote:I should have put a wink there. It was meant in all sarcasm. If ANY of my friends knew who John Curelewski WAS, I would probably drop dead.

Ah yes...makes a big difference in how it reads. LOL

I'm with ya there - if anyone I knew other than my mother knew who he was, I'd be pretty shocked, myself.