Styx

Styx came out of Chicago built like a stage show: hard rock guitars crashing into acoustic strums, synthesizers wrestling with grand piano, power ballads parked right next to the rockers, and a flair for theatrics borrowed straight from the musicals. The original crew was singer Dennis DeYoung, James "J.Y." Young, John Curulewski and the Panozzo brothers, Chuck and John.

They put out a record nearly every year, and the first taste of the big time came from Styx II and "Lady", a slow-building ballad that took its time catching on. Tommy Shaw replaced Curulewski late in 1975 and debuted on Crystal Ball, and soon enough things caught fire. The Grand Illusion in 1977 was the breakthrough, all prog-rock pomp and arena-sized hooks, with "Come Sail Away" rising from a hushed piano opening to a full-blown blast-off. Pieces of Eight kept it going with "Renegade" and "Blue Collar Man".

After that they got bigger still: "Babe" was a number-one single, Paradise Theatre was a number-one album with "Too Much Time on My Hands", and Kilroy Was Here gave the world "Mr. Roboto". DeYoung wrote and sang 7 of their 8 top 10 hits, but he has been out of the band since 1999, and Shaw and Young keep the ship sailing.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.