Styx Singles

[SuiteMadameBlue]

It's about time this was put on a website. I see they added this to the Carrot Styx website. I just wish there was a website that had every tour date and city, then my Styx life would almost be complete - LOL

Well I think my favorite band, Styx, did pretty good over the years

STYX SINGLES YEAR Top Chart Position

Best Thing 1972 82

Lady 1974 6

You Need Love 1975 88

Lorelei 1976 27

Madamemoiselle 1976 36

Come Sail Away 1977 8

Fooling Yourself (The Angry Young Man) 1978 29

Blue Collar Man (Long Nights) 1978 21

Renegade 1979 16

Sing For The Day 1979 41

Babe 1979 1

Why Me 1979 26

Borrowed Time 1980 64

The Best of Times 1981 3

Too Much Time On My Hands 1981 9

Nothing Ever Goes As Planned 1981 54

Mr. Roboto 1983 3

Don’t Let It End 1983 6

High Time 1983 48

Music Time 1984 40

Follow You 1987 65

Love Is The Ritual 1990 80

Show Me The Way 1990 3

Love At First Sight 1991 25

[ek88]

Again, I always find this stuff fascinating. Grand Illusion and Miss America weren't singles? I would've never guessed. Interesting that Why Me charted higher than Fooling Yourself and Lorelei, but I don't have the impression that it's ever been the setlist staple the other two are. Was it ever played live after the Cornerstone tour? Same with Mademoiselle, charted pretty high, but was it ever a setlist regular? And where are these songs on classic rock stations?

Prior to seeing this list, I would've guessed that the following songs were the singles, based on what I've heard on the radio (keep in mind I did not start listening to the radio until 1982).

Lady
Light Up
Lorelei
Crystal Ball
Grand Illusion
Come Sail Away
Fooling Yourself (The Angry Young Man)
Miss America
Blue Collar Man (Long Nights)
Renegade
Babe
The Best of Times
Too Much Time On My Hands
Mr. Roboto
Don't Let It End
Show Me The Way
Love At First Sight

[classicstyxfan]

OK, so from a singles point of view, Styx has had 8 top 10 hits, 7 of which featured DDY lead vocals, 1 featured TS on Lead vocal.

No song with JY lead vocals ever charted higher than #82

Burtnik's lone single to make the top 100 came in at #80

and no Styx song has cracked the top 100 since 1991.....close to 15 years ago.

very interesting indeed.

[Guest]

OK, so from a singles point of view, Styx has had 8 top 10 hits, 7 of which featured DDY lead vocals, 1 featured TS on Lead vocal.

Yes, cause Dennis DeYoung is da man!!

And I remember someone saying "Don't Let It End" isn't a classic... #6 on the charts is pretty darn good.

[bugsymalone]

Somewhere I have got this list stowed away, but thanks for posting it, Suite. Nice to look at the chart success they had with some truly wonderful songs.

The preponderance of Dennis-sung top tens leads me to believe the buying, and listening, public simply liked the man's voice. It sure the heck was what brought me to Styx in the first place.

Bugsy

[BlackWall]

Suite, thanks for posting. It is interesting to know this info.. I guess I wish they would also list singles that were released, but failed to chart.

I have a book called "Complete Rock Discography", by M.C. Strong ; it claims to list all of the U.K. and U.S. singles, but I've found plenty of obvious mistakes, so I don't know what to believe.

I've always wondered what the other single was from "Equinox".. It's hard to believe "Lorelei" was the only one that was attempted. According to "Complete Rock Discography", "Light Up" was issued after "Lorelei", but failed to chart. It also claims that "Jennifer" and "Crystal Ball" were attempted.

I've also always been surprised, that with the success of "Grand Illusion", they only tried "Come Sail Away" and "Fooling Yourself", but those are the only two songs that charted, and according to the book, the only two issued. You would think they would have at least tried the title track, it seems commercial enough, or possibly "Superstars".

From "Grand Illusion" on, just about every single issued charted..

It's interesting to note that "Sing For The Day" charted as the b-side to "Renegade".

For "Kilroy", the book claims that the singles were.. "Mr. Roboto", "Don't Let It End", "Haven't We Been Here Before", and "High Time", but that "Haven't We Been Here.." didn't chart. I'm convinced that this is an error, I find it too hard to believe that during that peak period, a song, especially one as decent as "Haven't We..", failed to even crack the hot 100, yet "High Time" did. I don't believe "Haven't We.." was issued at all, at least not in the states.

One last thing, Suite, what was "Follow You"?

[styxfanNH]

Wasn't "Haven't We.." the song that had a video released exclusively to Friday Night Videos?

I remember they had one song that was but can never remember the name of the song.

[bugsymalone]

Wasn't "Haven't We.." the song that had a video released exclusively to Friday Night Videos?

This is my understanding, too. I have tried to get this one played on VH1Classic and several people on my Classic message board have told me that video was not ever released on MTV. Or, if it did, it had limited play, because I have an interview with Tommy and Alan Whathisname from MTV talking about that video on MTV.

That was one of the strangest videos I have ever seen. NO relation to the song whatsoever. But I believe this was a popular director of videos at the time who did this and all of his videos were quite, uh, "different."

Bugsy

[SuiteMadameBlue]

The song was only played twice on Friday Night Videos, I'm trying to find the article about it.

I miss Friday Night Videos and I miss videos on MTV. Again, I wish I had VHClassics

[Ash]

Follow You 1987 65

Now wait...

Glen Burtnik had a song called "Follow You" on his heroes and zeros album... but this was never done by Styx... (although it was done by the Christian band "Geoff Moore And The Distance"). I also heard "Perfect World" by Glenn covered by some R&B act... quite good.

[Ash]

Follow You 1987 65

Now wait...

Glen Burtnik had a song called "Follow You" on his heroes and zeros album... but this was never done by Styx... (although it was done by the Christian band "Geoff Moore And The Distance"). I also heard "Perfect World" by Glenn covered by some R&B act... quite good.

[bugsymalone]

They play the video for "Follow You" on VH1 Classic every now and again. Apparently Glen released this song as a solo artist and did the video for it.

Bugsy

[SuiteMadameBlue]

Good question, I just copy and paste info without reading - LOL

Here's what I found out on Glen's site:

In 1984, a demo that Glen had recorded, "HERE COMES SALLY" came to the attention of an executive at A&M Records, and he was offered a recording contract with that record company. He recorded two albums for A&M, 1986's "Talking In Code" and 1987's "Heroes and Zeros," which featured the charted single "FOLLOW YOU." About this time, the philosophy at A&M began to change, and Glen found himself unable to submit any music that the A&R people wanted him to record.

Also found this:

Glen Burtnik:

#40 Little red house 1986
#23 Follow you 1987

I wonder why that song was included and not the other singles from their solo careers, hmmm.

[styxfanNH]

The song was only played twice on Friday Night Videos, I'm trying to find the article about it.

I miss Friday Night Videos and I miss videos on MTV. Again, I wish I had VHClassics

I'm taking this from my teenage memory so it is what it is, but wasn't this video the one of Tommy kinda swaying back and forth in a sorta grey prison suit. Loosely tieing into tht Kilroy theme?

[bugsymalone]

I'm taking this from my teenage memory so it is what it is, but wasn't this video the one of Tommy kinda swaying back and forth in a sorta grey prison suit. Loosely tieing into tht Kilroy theme?

Nope, that would be Don't Let It End.

Haven't We Been Here Before is a series of strange images and a sub-story involving an illegal gambling parlor. Dennis and JY are two "gangster" types and I watched it two or three times before I realized the greasy guy in the undershirt was Dennis.

Tommy, meanwhile is involved in a series of surrealist images including hanging from a giant swinging pendulum.

Still scratching my head over that one.

Bugsy

[styxfanNH]

You know for the time period, Styx really did have lousy videos for a band of their stature.

[bugsymalone]

You know for the time period, Styx really did have lousy videos for a band of their stature.

Styx really broke up before MTV had hit its stride. Most of the Styx videos were just promotion footage in concert settings. There was an attempt to have some concept involved in the Kilroy videos with varying levels of success.

Mr. Roboto was very popular mainly because of the robots in it. And it was sort of atmospheric. Little kids still seem to like it for that.

DDY, TS, and JY made solo videos during the heyday of MTV before it became NMTV (No Music Television). I remember Desert Moon was one of the most popular MTV videos of 1984, in heavy rotation.

When Styx reunited, the video for Show Me the Way was also quite popular (beautiful video, directed by Michael Bay) and in heavy rotation.

There were videos for Love is the Ritual and Love at First Sight, too, but those were nowhere near the quality of SMTW.

My .02 on the subject.

Bugsy