Dennis DeYoung

Dennis DeYoung

Dennis DeYoung (born February 18, 1947) is a rock musician, best known as the vocalist, keyboardist, and driving force of the rock band Styx.

Early life and education

Growing up in the Roseland neighborhood in Chicago, Illinois, DeYoung's career as a vocalist started in 1963 at the age of 16 when he teamed up with 15-year-old neighbors Chuck and John Panozzo in a small three-piece combo; the trio later added guitarist James Young and John Curulewski to form the band Tradewinds in the late 1960s. The band renamed itself TW4 in 1968 before becoming Styx in 1970.

On January 18, 1970, he married his longtime sweetheart Suzanne Feusi, to whom he is still married. The couple have two children, Carrie Ann and Matthew. Unlike many rock-and-roll families, the growing family toured together throughout DeYoung's career in order to provide stability to the couple's young children. Before the band met with success Dennis spent time as an elementary school teacher in the Chicago southern suburbs where he taught music at Springfield School in Midlothian Illinois. During this period the band played a number of small venues and school auditoriums refining thier craft before the song Lady propelled them to national then international stardom.

Within Styx

Within Styx, DeYoung acted as lead vocalist, keyboardist, accordion player, producer, and writer of many of the band's songs and almost all of the bands hits. A self-taught keyboardist who had to work to learn to play the bass notes on a keyboard with his left hand because accordion players use their left hand only to press buttons, DeYoung quickly became one of the most notable keyboardists in rock. Featured on the cover of the January 1981 issue of Contemporary Keyboard magazine (a story that was reprinted in Contemporary Keyboard's book on the greatest rock keyboardists), DeYoung described how he'd never played an acoustic piano until the recording session for 1972's "Lady", recording the track for 1979's "Babe" in a friend's basement on a Rhodes electric piano he'd never touched before, and the odd feeling of switching back to playing accordion for the song "Boat On The River" and discovering how small the keys felt to his fingers after years of playing electric organs and pianos.

As a keyboardist in Styx, DeYoung was best remembered for his prominent lead synthesizer solos performed on the Oberheim synthesizer that dominated the mix with a unique tone, a key element of the Styx sound. DeYoung was an early user and pioneer of the use of synthesizers in rock and roll. Influenced by the recent release of Emerson Lake & Palmer's first album, DeYoung — a novice synthesizer player at the time — used a modular Moog to record the keyboard tracks for the first Styx album. This album featured a rock version of "Fanfare for the Common Man", more than 5 years before ELP came up with a similar idea of recording this classical composition as a rock band featuring the synthesizer that would later become one of ELP's best known recordings.

DeYoung's songs often had a grandiose style to them in the tradition of 1970s theatrical rock, which heavily influenced the group's direction in the late 1970s, culminating in the concept albums Paradise Theatre (1980) and Kilroy Was Here (1983). The dissent of some members in the band during Kilroy brought tensions between the group's members over the future direction of the band, leading to lead guitarist Tommy Shaw's departure in 1984.

First Solo Steps

With Styx in limbo following Shaw's 1984 departure, DeYoung began a solo career of modest success. His first solo album, Desert Moon, generated a top 10 hit, Desert Moon, and the follow-up single "Don't Wait For Heroes" cracked the Billboard Top 40 as well. Desert Moon was followed by albums Back to the World (1986) and Boomchild (1988).

Styx Reunited

In 1990, Styx (minus Tommy Shaw, who was replaced by guitarist Glen Burtnik) returned to the studio for the album Edge Of The Century. "Show Me The Way," a track written by DeYoung for his son Matthew, received extensive radio play, peaking at #3 on the Billboard top 100 singles chart (Styx's 8th top 10 single, and 7th written and sung by DeYoung) particularly after a number of radio stations mixed it with voice tracks of parents headed off to fight in the first Persian Gulf War. The group toured North America extensively before A&M Records (whom had just merged with PolyGram Records) dropped the group from its label in 1992; the group broke up again shortly afterwards, and DeYoung was on his own once more.

From Theatrical Rock to Theatre

Between stints with Styx in 1993, DeYoung, a devout Roman Catholic, joined a touring revival of the stage musical Jesus Christ Superstar. He appeared in about 200 performances across North America as Pontius Pilate. Most critics panned the performance as average. The experience inspired him to record his 1994 album of Broadway standards, 10 on Broadway, and to begin work on a musical of his own based on The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

End of an Era

Styx reunited once more in 1995, this time including Shaw but minus a very ill John Panozzo (who died a short time later in July 1996), and recorded a new version of the DeYoung-penned "Lady" for their 1995 Styx Greatest Hits album. The group toured in 1996 and 1997, then returned to the recording studio in 1998 to begin work on "Brave New World", their first studio album in nearly a decade..

Just as Styx was starting to regain the momentum stalled by their 1984 breakup, DeYoung was diagnosed in mid-1998 with a chronic fatigue syndrome-type illness that affected his trigeminal nerve; because the condition was aggravated by bright lights, DeYoung did not feel able to commit to a tour to support the Brave New World album. Tommy Shaw and James Young, already frustrated by a desire to focus on harder rock music instead of the art-rock/pop style DeYoung favored, used the illness to force DeYoung out of the group in mid-1999. Styx continues without DeYoung to this day, with Lawrence Gowan in DeYoung's place. The current Styx draws considerably less than the band did with DeYoung during the 1996 and 1997 tours. Now DeYoung tours with former Styx guitarist Glen Burtnik under the name Dennis DeYoung And The Music Of Styx.

A lawsuit between DeYoung and his former bandmates was settled in 2001 with the group being allowed to keep the name "Styx" and DeYoung being allowed to use the name in descriptive phrases such as "the music of Styx" or "formerly of Styx" (but not "the voice of Styx").

Post-Styx Career

In February of 2000, DeYoung was approached to put on a concert featuring his many songs from Styx, as well as his solo works and his 1997 stage musical The Hunchback of Notre Dame, with an orchestra. The show, performed at the Rosemont Theatre in DeYoung's hometown of Chicago, was a family affair for DeYoung; wife Suzanne and sister-in-law Dawn Marie Feusi sang backup, daughter Carrie Ann was in charge of publicity, and son Matthew designed the stage lighting. The concert was well-received and formed the basis for a touring version of the show, and eventually a 2004 CD, The Music of Styx — Live with Symphony Orchestra. Healthy once more, DeYoung returned to touring North America with a 50-piece orchestra augmented by a five-piece rock band which includes Tommy Dziallo on guitar, Hank Horton on bass, and Kyle Woodring (from John Mellencamp and Deana Carter) on drums(all whom also played shows with Dennis with or without the orchestra); he even did a few concerts with former Styx guitarist Glen Burtnick that were informally dubbed "The Denny and Glenny Show". As of 2006, he is still touring and working on a new studio CD.

DeYoung made his major motion-picture debut in 2005's The Perfect Man, in which he plays the lead vocalist in a Styx tribute band.

On April 20, 2006, at the Community Theatre in Morristown, NJ, DeYoung took to the stage once again with Glen Burtnik as part of his "Lost Treasures" concert series. This marked the first time in nearly seven years the two had appeared together. While on stage, the duo played Watching The World Go By and All For Love, songs that were originally written for the unreleased "Edge of the Century 2" album.

DeYoung stated in a Concert that he is now working on his first Studio Album since 1988 and It will most likely be released early 2007

On September 14-15, 2006, DeYoung appeared with Hal Sparks on Celebrity Duets, a show produced by Simon Cowell. They sang Come Sail Away and Mr. Roboto. DeYoung was invited back to perform on Celebrity Duets on September 28, 2006 with finalist Hal Sparks. The pair performed the Styx breakthrough hit Lady written by DeYoung in 1972.

Discography

• Styx
  • Studio Albums
    • Styx (1972)
    • Styx II (1973)
    • The Serpent Is Rising (1973)
    • Man of Miracles (1974)
    • Equinox (1975)
    • Crystal Ball (1976)
    • The Grand Illusion (1977)
    • Pieces of Eight (1978)
    • Cornerstone (1979)
    • Paradise Theater (1980)
    • Kilroy Was Here (1983)
    • Edge of the Century (1990)
    • Brave New World (1999)
  • Live Albums
    • Caught in the Act (1984)
    • Return to Paradise (1997)
  • Compilation Albums
    • Best of Styx (1980)
    • Styx Classics (1987)
    • Greatest Hits (1995)
    • Greatest Hits Part 2 (1996)
    • Come Sail Away: The Styx Anthology (2004)
    • The Complete Wooden Nickel Recordings (2005)
• Solo
  • Desert Moon (1984)
  • Back To The World (1986)
  • Boomchild (1988)
  • 10 On Broadway (1994)
  • The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1998)
  • The Ultimate Collection (1999)
  • The Music of Styx - Live with Symphony Orchestra (2004)
• DVD
  • Return to Paradise (1997)
  • Dennis DeYoung - Soundstage (2003)
  • Symphonic Rock Music of Styx (2003)
  • The Best of Styx - 20th Century Masters (2004)
  • The Best of Dennis DeYoung - 20th Century Masters (2005)

Music written by DeYoung has featured in the films Kilroy Was Here (1983), The Virgin Suicides (1999), and Big Daddy (1999). His songs have also been featured in television shows, commercials and other motion pictures. Among the more notable: The Simpsons, That 70's Show, Freaks and Geeks, Dharma and Greg, ER, King of Queens, Sex and the City, Detroit Rock City, Family Guy, Atlantis: The Lost Empire, and Austin Powers in Goldmember.

External links

• Dennis DeYoung's Official Website