25 years ago this week

[Toph]

Styx was desperate...their first single off their first album in 7 years, Love Is The Ritual, had flopped horribly, only reaching #80 on the pop charts. This was the lowest single debut of any Styx album since nothing charted off the Man of Miracles album back in 1974. The album, Edge of The Century, was now dovetailing to the depths of the Top 200 Album chart. Styx was in panic mode. A tour to support the album had been pushed back to allow the band to quickly book TV appearances to resurrect the failing LP. Immediately appearances were booked on Arsenio Hall, Rick Dees, and even the Tonight Show. But there would need to be something to promote. Love is the Ritual had stiffed, so another single would need to be promoted. The second song on the album, a prototypical Dennis DeYoung ballad, was the perfect choice. Sounding more like classic Styx than anything on the album, the song combined deep prayerful lyrical content, an almost gospel like chorus, and the signature Styx keyboard and guitar instrumentation. It would debut in the charts at a concerning #96 on December 8th and then start a slow and steady rise to #79 the next week before soundbites of the Gulf War were inserted and began a skyrocketing through the top 40. It would enter the top 40 on january 26, 1991 and peaking all the way at #3 on March 16, 1991. The song was Styx's 8th top 10 single, 3rd song to peak at #3, and established the group's longevity, giving them top 10 hits in 3 decades. Little did the band know then that it would also be (to date), the last top 10 single of their career.

[yogi]

Really good info and an excellent read.

A&M really screwed them on the Edge album. I enjoyed the entire album. Side 1 was EPIC Styx.

I still listen to Edge quite a bit today.

[gr8dane]

Guess the gulf war was good for something.

[FormerDJMike]

A bit of trivia, I worked at WOKI in Knoxville, TN where the "Desert Storm Mix" originated. Ray Edwards took sound bytes and put them into the song on a reel to reel. It was then dubbed to a cart (much like an 8-track tape). Most of our music was played from CD and this was the only song (at the time) that was played on an analog cart. I made a copy of it and mailed it to Glen (I don't remember how I got his address). He wrote me a letter back a few weeks later and thanked me for sharing it and that they had already been made aware of it. I believe it was eventually released (for radio only) on CD on a compilation disc sent out to radio stations at the time (for the life of me I cannot remember the service that sent them out, I know when I worked in Country radio in the mid 90's they were made by Jones Radio Network). It then appeared on the "Rick Dees Weekly Top 40". At that time I was a part timer working the weekend early mornings playing Rick Dees and Casey's Top 40. I remember hearing it when it was on Rick Dees and I ended up keeping the disc (I don't know where it is now).

The song was huge for us, we had a "Top 9 at 9" and it stayed #1 for months on end and ended up breaking some records for the longest #1 requested song on our station. We still had Ritual in a light rotation and only played it in the evenings or the weekend since the song was already done. We also played Love At First Sight very sparingly. I remember the CD single being there but I remember only hearing it one or two times.

Around 1992 WOKI changed formats to country. The last song they played was Show Me The Way, which went right into Dolly Parton "I WIll Always Love You".

[yogi]

Very cool

[Everett]

Awesome info tophinator.

Mike that sucks that stations change formats.
I'm sure they appreciated the love you gave um though.

[FormerDJMike]

Finally got around to playing my vinyl copy of Edge. I think it sounds pretty decent, not as bad as I expected it to be. In fact, I was was listening at home I couldn't tell a difference in this and the CD.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrQwm2cguGE

And yeah, the format change sucked. Since I was just part time I was left out of the loop and not informed of the change. I was in college at the time and when I got back to my dorm I had 27 new messages on my answering machine asking me "WTF did you do to your station?!?" and I had no idea what anyone was talking about. One of my roommates said "Man, they are country now, did you know about this??". No, I didn't. It was basically a station flip/flop they moved the top 40 over to a smaller station so I went on to work there for a bit. Then as the station was about to get sold I jumped over on the country bandwagon for a bit just to keep a job in radio.

[Toph]

I think without a doubt, Show Me The Way is the best Styx video ever produced. Don't know who the producer was, but he did a heck of a job.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXf2PbEPQ-Y

Here are some of the other performances of Show Me The Way in honor of it being 25 years old. DeYoung's sporting a serious mullet...

Tonight Show https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H28t_K9WWkw
Arsenio Hall https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pwnD6jb_WM
Rick Dees https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fVM9BGm0uk
Rick Dees - 2nd appearance (after it was a hit) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p02Y4aOMQsk

[LtVanish]

Thanks for posting the links, boy I really miss seeing John on the drums, he was a really underrated drummer in my opinion, he had great timing, and I loved his antics, he was very animated.

[masque]

A bit of trivia, I worked at WOKI in Knoxville, TN where the "Desert Storm Mix" originated. Ray Edwards took sound bytes and put them into the song on a reel to reel. It was then dubbed to a cart (much like an 8-track tape). Most of our music was played from CD and this was the only song (at the time) that was played on an analog cart. I made a copy of it and mailed it to Glen (I don't remember how I got his address). He wrote me a letter back a few weeks later and thanked me for sharing it and that they had already been made aware of it. I believe it was eventually released (for radio only) on CD on a compilation disc sent out to radio stations at the time (for the life of me I cannot remember the service that sent them out, I know when I worked in Country radio in the mid 90's they were made by Jones Radio Network). It then appeared on the "Rick Dees Weekly Top 40". At that time I was a part timer working the weekend early mornings playing Rick Dees and Casey's Top 40. I remember hearing it when it was on Rick Dees and I ended up keeping the disc (I don't know where it is now).

The song was huge for us, we had a "Top 9 at 9" and it stayed #1 for months on end and ended up breaking some records for the longest #1 requested song on our station. We still had Ritual in a light rotation and only played it in the evenings or the weekend since the song was already done. We also played Love At First Sight very sparingly. I remember the CD single being there but I remember only hearing it one or two times.

Around 1992 WOKI changed formats to country. The last song they played was Show Me The Way, which went right into Dolly Parton "I WIll Always Love You".

very cool story....and what makes it super cool is that I was a huge fan of WOKI growing up as I lived in southern KY and WOKI was the only cool rock station we could pick up.....WKQQ in Lexington could only be picked up on rare occasion......at one point I had hours of WOKI recorded to tape so I could hear my favorite songs anytime I wanted.

were you there when the DJ locked himself in the room and played "orange blooded" for like 24 straight hours? or hell, it could have been your ass that did it!!!!! HA!!!

[masque]

there is no doubt that SMTW is a great song, but in my opinion it would have never cracked the top 40 if it had not been for what Mike said WOKI did to the song.

well it may have cracked the top 40 but it would have been a mild hit at best without the advantage of soundclips.

[Toph]

I have to disagree. It was a superior song that connected people to a bigger idea. It actually should have been the first release as a single as it sounds like classic Styx. I think that the dubbed voices might have sped up the charts and into the top 5, but I think it would have done a slow and steady climb and still landed in the top 10.

[FormerDJMike]

very cool story....and what makes it super cool is that I was a huge fan of WOKI growing up as I lived in southern KY and WOKI was the only cool rock station we could pick up.....WKQQ in Lexington could only be picked up on rare occasion......at one point I had hours of WOKI recorded to tape so I could hear my favorite songs anytime I wanted.

were you there when the DJ locked himself in the room and played "orange blooded" for like 24 straight hours? or hell, it could have been your ass that did it!!!!! HA!!!

No, that wasn't me and that was before my time. That was Shotgun Stevens who was rumored to be leaving and taking a job at Nickelodeon as host of "Double Dare" but it must have only been a rumor as I never saw him on that show. He was long gone by the time I hired on.

I have to disagree. It was a superior song that connected people to a bigger idea. It actually should have been the first release as a single as it sounds like classic Styx. I think that the dubbed voices might have sped up the charts and into the top 5, but I think it would have done a slow and steady climb and still landed in the top 10.

The song had already stalled on the Billboard 100. It was stuck in the mid 60's and stayed there never reaching the Top 40. If not for the "Desert Storm Mix" it would have faded into oblivion. It did not pick up plays until the sound bytes were mixed in. It is my belief that it would have "stiffed" around 65 never reaching the Top 40 without it. Radio stations were just not playing the song until the version with sound bytes was mixed in.

[Toph]

Nope, it never lost its bullet until it reach its peak. I have its chart run and it never lost its bullet until #3. Here's what I show as its run.

96-79-75-71-67-63-57-40-30-21-17-11-7-5-3(loses bullet)-12-22-31-35-46.....

To your point, I assume that the overdubs came around 57 or so because it really picked up momentum. But I would still advocate that the song quality would have carried well into the higher end of the charts, albeit more slowly.

[ManOfMiracles]

I remember that Show Me The Way was racing the chart pretty tightly neck-in-neck with High Enough from Damn Yankees. You couldn't turn on the radio in Chicago without hearing on or the other (or both) as they were hitting their peaks.
Are you sure about 'Ritual's chart position? I'm a little less clear on that one, but I could have sworn I saw it almost but not quite hit top 40 on Billboard. I don't recall it stalling out as high as #80 at all...

[masque]

i remember seeing the video for LITR about 4 times on MTV and then it disappeared.

[Toph]

I remember that Show Me The Way was racing the chart pretty tightly neck-in-neck with High Enough from Damn Yankees. You couldn't turn on the radio in Chicago without hearing on or the other (or both) as they were hitting their peaks.
Are you sure about 'Ritual's chart position? I'm a little less clear on that one, but I could have sworn I saw it almost but not quite hit top 40 on Billboard. I don't recall it stalling out as high as #80 at all...

http://www.billboard.com/artist/280898/styx/chart