Styx II

About

Styx II is the second album by American band Styx, released in July 1973. After releasing their debut album, which consisted mostly of cover song, the band intended to write some strong original new material; Dennis DeYoung was particularly in favor of thi. DeYoung had written a song by himself on an electric piano in the band's garage, and had originally intended for it to be on the first album. He later decided to play it on an acoustic piano. However, Bill Traut wanted to save it for the second album. The result was "Lady", written about DeYoung's wife Suzanne. "Lady" failed to be a hit when it was first released in 1973; however, after the band released their fourth album Man of Miracles in 1974, they went to WLS, the most powerful Chicago radio station at the time, and convinced the program director (Jim Smith) to replay this song. It wound up being played frequently on the air in Chicago. In May 1975, the song broke out nationally, eventually peaking at no. 6 on the Billboard chart. Besides "Lady," the album contained some upbeat and prog rock song, such as the rockers "You Need Love" and "I'm Gonna Make You Feel It," which were written by DeYoung and sung by James "JY" Young. This is also the first album on which John Curulewski wrote and sang on two songs: the proggish, jazzy "A Day," which has an unusual sound for the band, and the boogie humor song "You Better Ask," whose outro features a snippet of "Strangers in the Night" on calliope organ and an evil laugh. Side 2 opens with a DeYoung rendition of "Little Fugue in G" by Bach, played on pipe organ at a Chicago Cathedral, and segues into the mellow prog rocker "Father O.S.A." The rocker "Earl of Roseland" was written by DeYoung based on early memories from when he grew up in Chicago's Roseland neighborhood, where he had formed the band with the Panozzo brother. .

via Last.fm

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