“Renegade” by Styx

Tommy Shaw wrote and sang "Renegade" for Styx's 1978 album Pieces of Eight, and he told it from the wrong end of a noose: an outlaw, caught for the price on his head, counting down the little time he has before the hangman reaches him. It turned into a hit in 1979, on sales charts in both Canada and the US.

The band produced it themselves, and it's Styx with the throttle wide open, hard rock with a gallop. Shaw normally played lead on his own songs, but here he handed the solo to James Young, who tears into it while Chuck Panozzo's bass pounds along underneath. A few copies of the single were pressed on see-through red vinyl. It has never left classic rock radio, and Styx usually save it for the last song of the night.

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