MR

Looking back through a lot of Styx' big hit albums, it's worth noting that a lot of their albums featured only one real big smash hit. "Paradise Theatre" and "Kilroy" are the only exceptions, but even then, it's not like we're talking a string of hits.. Why was this? Did A&M or the band themselves sometimes choose the wrong songs as follow ups? I guess I'm wondering how much bigger "Cornerstone" would have been had they gone ahead and released "First Time" as the second single. Not saying this would be my ideal situation, but I guess I'm just wondering how big "First Time" would have gone, and would that have made either "Borrowed Time", "Why Me", or "Lights" even bigger successes? I guess I'm just saying, where was the album that featured a string of hits with Styx?

BlackWall wrote:Looking back through a lot of Styx' big hit albums, it's worth noting that a lot of their albums featured only one real big smash hit. "Paradise Theatre" and "Kilroy" are the only exceptions, but even then, it's not like we're talking a string of hits.. Why was this? Did A&M or the band themselves sometimes choose the wrong songs as follow ups? I guess I'm wondering how much bigger "Cornerstone" would have been had they gone ahead and released "First Time" as the second single. Not saying this would be my ideal situation, but I guess I'm just wondering how big "First Time" would have gone, and would that have made either "Borrowed Time", "Why Me", or "Lights" even bigger successes? I guess I'm just saying, where was the album that featured a string of hits with Styx?

They never had their "Escape" or "Stranger" or "4" or "Hi Infidelity" with 3 or 4 top 10 singles... Blame the record company or you can blame the music itself - usually there were only a handful of songs that would have been played on pop radio - cross out anything by JY and half of Tommy's material, a quarter of Dennis's material and that leaves you with 2 maybe 3 legitimate singles per album. As for Cornerstone, I would have released Babe followed by Lights followed by First Time and then I think you would have seen some good charting - all 3 could have been top 10. Then I would have taken a gamble, and playing on it's strength overseas, would have released Boat On The River. At the same time, I would have released "Borrowed Time" to rock radio as to not lose their rock cred and then followed that up by "Love In The Midnight" which was an ode to some of their progressive roots. I would not have released "Why Me".

But then again, I always thought that "All In A Day's Work" should have been the follow up to "Show Me The Way" so what do I know?

Sorry, just figuring out the quoting feature.

As for Cornerstone, I would have released Babe followed by Lights followed by First Time and then I think you would have seen some good charting - all 3 could have been top 10. Then I would have taken a gamble, and playing on it's strength overseas, would have released Boat On The River. At the same time, I would have released "Borrowed Time" to rock radio as to not lose their rock cred and then followed that up by "Love In The Midnight" which was an ode to some of their progressive roots. I would not have released "Why Me".

I hear you on "Why Me". Not that I dislike the song, but I think "Lights" would have been a better choice. Actually, my guess as to the reason "Why Me" was a single at all was probably due to the fact that the other guys put up such a fight against "First Time", and Dennis, and maybe even A&M, wanted to follow the success of "Babe" with a Dennis lead vocal. Again, this is just a guess and may be totally off base.

Another curious choice was releasing "Nothing Ever Goes As Planned" as the third single from "Paradise Theatre", as opposed to "Rockin' The Paradise".

BlackWall wrote:

As for Cornerstone, I would have released Babe followed by Lights followed by First Time and then I think you would have seen some good charting - all 3 could have been top 10. Then I would have taken a gamble, and playing on it's strength overseas, would have released Boat On The River. At the same time, I would have released "Borrowed Time" to rock radio as to not lose their rock cred and then followed that up by "Love In The Midnight" which was an ode to some of their progressive roots. I would not have released "Why Me".

I hear you on "Why Me". Not that I dislike the song, but I think "Lights" would have been a better choice. Actually, my guess as to the reason "Why Me" was a single at all was probably due to the fact that the other guys put up such a fight against "First Time", and Dennis, and maybe even A&M, wanted to follow the success of "Babe" with a Dennis lead vocal. Again, this is just a guess and may be totally off base.

Another curious choice was releasing "Nothing Ever Goes As Planned" as the third single from "Paradise Theatre", as opposed to "Rockin' The Paradise".

I thought Lights did well, it was on the radio all the time back then.

Well, I can't say for sure on the airplay, but I know it wasn't actually released here in the states as a commercial single(pretty sure it was in the U.K.), but then again, neither were "Suite Madame Blue" or "Grand Illusion", and they are both still on classic rock radio today.

Edit: "Lights" was released in the US as the b-side to "Why Me", and it might have received some attention that way.