Styx

Greatest Hits (1995)

  1.Lady '95
  2.The Best Of Times
  3.Lorelei
  4.Too Much Time On My Hands
  5.Babe
  6.Fooling Yourself
  7.Show Me The Way
  8.Renegade
  9.Come Sail Away
 10.Blue Collar Man
 11.The Grand Illusion
 12.Crystal Ball
 13.Suite Madame Blue
 14.Miss America
 15.Mr.Roboto
 16.Don't Let It End

After A&M sadistically dumped the band following Edge of the Century, the label now wanted to now simply capitalize on the band's earlier success. It should be noted that the current Styx lineup was ready to record a new album instead of a "hits" package, and even made demos of eight or nine songs. To this day these demos have not seen the light of day. So a rehash of hits was not what the band was really looking for - A&M had actually already done this on Classics ' a few years later, so why bother?

Fortunately, what was to emerge would be a carefully arranged package that would do justice to the band's name and give respect where respect was due. This was also a great starting place for fans who never owned the material, or maybe had not even yet been introduced to the band at all. Everything that should be here is here. Although the band did have some minor singles that are ignored, this was due to the time constraints of a single compact disc - not because the band was being pompous in excluding things that they did not deem appropriate for whatever reason. All the stuff is here.

Special attention is made to vastly improve the Classics collection. At first glance, it appears to be mostly a duplication. Improvements, however, are noticeable. First, Lorelei is now included instead of Light Up. Like several tracks on this collection, this song was never really a "hit", but true fans regard it as sacred and its inclusion is a top form of gratitude to the fan. We now have the studio version of Miss America, which may or may not be the favorite for all, but most would probably prefer the original. Also is the complete version of Come Sail Away that doesn't fade out thirty seconds early as on Classics. Since the last collection of hits, the band had also added the smash Show Me The Way to their repertoire of greatness. Again, it's also included here.

The biggest treat here is not merely the inclusion of Lady, but the story behind it. Since this was the one hit that the band had with their first record label (Wooden Nickel), it was not available for their current record company (A&M) to release here. However, because of a loophole in the contract with Wooden Nickel, the band was allowed to re-record the song and include it here. Phone calls were made, and who should appear on the rerecording, but Tommy Shaw. Slightly ironic since the original version was before his actual time with the band. Recorded with the new name Lady '95, the new version sounds very (thankfully) similar to the original version. DeYoung's lead vocal is a little more polished, but it was 22 years after the original song was first done. With Tommy, Dennis and JY reunited, it sparked talks of a reunion. Much of the animosity that existed during the hectic pace of popularity in the early eighties seemed a distant, unpleasant memory.

This was a great retrospective of a great career, but because of the reunion for this one song, a resurgence was on the horizon.

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