Styx Cornerstone

Presenting radio with one of the best rock ballads ever, Cornerstone gave Chicago's Styx their big break with the number one single "Babe," which held that spot for two weeks in October of 1979. "Babe" is a smooth, keyboard-pampered love song that finally credited Dennis De Young's textured vocals…

Presenting radio with one of the best rock ballads ever, Cornerstone gave Chicago's Styx their big break with the number one single "Babe," which held that spot for two weeks in October of 1979. "Babe" is a smooth, keyboard-pampered love song that finally credited Dennis De Young's textured vocals…

Presenting radio with one of the best rock ballads ever, Cornerstone gave Chicago's Styx their big break with the number one single "Babe," which held that spot for two weeks in October of 1979. "Babe" is a smooth, keyboard-pampered love song that finally credited Dennis De Young's textured vocals. While this single helped the album climb all the way to the number two spot on the charts, the rest of the tracks from Cornerstone weren't nearly half as strong. "Why Me" made it to number 26, and both "Lights" and "Boat on the River" implement silky harmonies and welcoming choruses, yet failed to get off the ground. De Young's keyboards are effective without overly dominating the music, and the band's gritty rock & roll acerbity has been slightly sanded down to compliment the commercial market.

After successfully establishing themselves as one of America's best commercial progressive rock bands of the late '70s with albums like The Grand Illusion and Pieces of Eight, Chicago's Styx had taken a dubious step towards pop overkill with singer Dennis DeYoung's ballad "Babe." The centerpiece of 1979's uneven Cornerstone album, the number one single sowed the seeds of disaster for the group by pitching DeYoung's increasingly mainstream ambitions against the group's more conservative songwriters, Tommy Shaw and James "JY" Young…

After successfully establishing themselves as one of America's best commercial progressive rock bands of the late '70s with albums like The Grand Illusion and Pieces of Eight, Chicago's Styx had taken a dubious step towards pop overkill with singer Dennis DeYoung's ballad "Babe."…

Styx may have had their musical roots in the UK's burgeoning late-'60s/early-'70s prog-rock bombast, but they were true pioneers in at least one sense: The Chicago-bred quintet virtually defined the hugely successful "corp rock" boom that followed a decade after prog's original fortunes tarnished…

Assembled with the cooperation of the band, Styx's entry in Universal's 20th Century Masters – The Millennium Collection series of discount-priced best-of's, surveys the group's tenure at A&M Records, where they scored most of their popular success. Of course, the early hit "Lady," recorded for RCA-distributed Wooden Nickel Records (and thus in the vaults of rival major label BMG), is not included. Neither are the Top Ten hit "Don't Let It End," or the Top 20 hit "Renegade" (mistakenly called a Top Ten hit in the liner notes). But the rest of Styx's big A&M hits – "Too Much Time on My Hands," "Come Sail Away," "Mr. Roboto," "The Best of Times," "Babe," "Show Me the Way" – are on the disc, along with several Top 40 entries and the popular album track "Boat on the River," from 1979's Cornerstone LP.

Assembled with the cooperation of the band, Styx's entry in Universal's 20th Century Masters – The Millennium Collection series of discount-priced best-of's, surveys the group's tenure at A&M Records, where they scored most of their popular success…