WCSX Classic Cuts : Lady
WCSX Classic Cuts
Styx: “Lady”
The Hook: Released on Styx’s second album, already they’d released their fourth when it broke nationally.
Album: Styx II
Year: 1971
Writers: Dennis DeYoung
Stats: Peaked at number-six on the Billboard Hot 100
Background: Dennis DeYoung’s ballad “Lady” became Styx’s breakout hit nationally, but it sure didn’t happen overnight. In fact, it took around a year and a half, by which time they’d released two more albums. Guitarist James “JY” Young explains how it happened.
Styx guitarist James Young on how “Lady” became a national hit two albums after it was first released as a single. OC:…a hit. :26
“It became popular in Rapid City, Provo, Utah and Little Rock, Arkansas, so we went and played all those places quite a bit at the time, but it went off the radar screen for awhile. And we continued to play around the Chicago area and people would call up and request the song. And the program director, when we went to him with our fourth album to try to get him to play something at WLS, he said, ‘I’m not going to do that, but the song “Lady,” off your second record, I get requests for that and I never get requests for songs that aren’t on my playlist. So I’m going to play that song once a night until it’s a hit.’”
