American rock musician (born 1947)
Dennis DeYoung (born February 18, 1947) is an American singer, songwriter and keyboardist. He was a founding member of the rock band Styx and served as its primary lead vocalist and keyboardist from 1972 until 1999. DeYoung was the band's most prolific and successful writer, having been credited as the writer of more Styx songs than any other band member. DeYoung penned seven of the band's eight "Billboard" top 10 singles as well as a solo top 10 single.
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Life and career.
1947–1970: Early life.
Dennis DeYoung was born in Chicago, Illinois, to Maurice DeYoung (1918–1997) and Loraine Rolla DeYoung (1923–2001). He had a younger sister, Darcy, who died in 2021. DeYoung was raised Catholic and is of Dutch and Italian ancestry. Growing up in the Roseland area of Chicago, DeYoung started his career as an accordionist in 1962 at the age of 15 when he teamed up with his 13-year-old neighbors Chuck and John Panozzo in a three-piece combo originally called The Tradewinds. The trio added guitarist Tom Nardini in 1964 and renamed the band TW4. In 1968, Nardini was replaced by John Curulewski and in 1970 DeYoung hired James Young to become the second guitarist in TW4. The band changed the name to Styx in 1972, upon signing their first record contract.
Before the band met with success, DeYoung spent time as a school teacher in the Southern suburbs of Chicago, where he was a music teacher in District 143. One teacher hosted dinner parties for co-workers; DeYoung always attended. He had crazy hair and would inevitably offer to play the piano, entertaining all for hours. During this period, the band played a number of small venues and school auditoriums in an effort to secure a record deal.
DeYoung met his wife Suzanne at a high school dance when he was 17 and she was 15. They married in 1970.
1972–1984: Tenure with Styx.
Within Styx, DeYoung acted as lead vocalist, keyboardist, accordion player, producer and songwriter. From the start of Styx's commercial success with the 1973 DeYoung-penned single "Lady", DeYoung became the creative force behind most of the band's hit songs. DeYoung wrote and sang lead on seven of the band's eight top 10 "Billboard" Hot 100-ranked hits during this period, with Tommy Shaw's "Too Much Time on My Hands" (No. 9) being the sole exception. The seven DeYoung penned-and-performed top 10 "Billboard" hits, in order of their peak chart placement are:
A self-taught pianist, DeYoung quickly became one of the most notable keyboard players 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 many of his steps along the way through his keyboard-playing career: He had never played an acoustic piano until the recording session for 1973's "Lady"; he recorded the track for 1979's "Babe" on a Fender Rhodes electric piano, an instrument he had never touched before, at Pumpkin Studios because the studio's grand piano was out of tune; when playing accordion for the song "Boat on the River" from the "Cornerstone" album, DeYoung discovered how small the keys felt to his fingers after years of playing pianos and Hammond organs.
As a keyboardist in Styx, DeYoung was best remembered for his prominent lead synthesizer solos performed on the Oberheim Four Voice that dominated the mix with a unique tone, a key element of the Styx sound. Influenced by the recent release of Emerson, Lake &amp; Palmer's first album, DeYoung – a novice synthesizer player at the time – used a modular Moog to record the keyboard tracks for Styx's debut album in 1972. This album featured a rock version of "Fanfare for the Common Man", more than five 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" (1981) 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 guitarist Tommy Shaw's departure in 1984 to pursue a solo career.
1984–1989: Early solo career.
With Styx in limbo following Shaw's 1984 departure, DeYoung began a solo career of modest success. His first solo album, "Desert Moon" (1984), generated a top 10 hit, "Desert Moon", and the follow-up single, "Don't Wait for Heroes", cracked the "Billboard" Top 100 as well. The "Desert Moon" album was certified gold in Canada in 1984. To date, "Desert Moon" is the only solo single by any Styx member to hit the Billboard Top 10.
DeYoung's solo career continued with "Back to the World" (1986), which contained the singles "Call Me" and "This Is the Time", which was featured in the soundtrack of "Karate Kid II" (1986) movie. His third solo album "Boomchild" (1988) failed to have a hit single, though the video for "Boomchild" received a fair amount of music video airplay.
After a five-year hiatus; DeYoung and several other members of Styx began discussing a possible reunion in 1989. By December 1989, Styx had unofficially reformed. Tommy Shaw, who joined Damn Yankees in 1988, did not return.
1990–1992: Reuniting with Styx.
In 1990, Styx (minus Tommy Shaw, who was replaced by guitarist/singer-songwriter Glen Burtnik) returned to the studio for the album "Edge of the Century" (1990). "Show Me the Way", a track written by DeYoung for his son Matthew, received extensive radio play, peaking at #3 on the "Billboard" Hot 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 members of Congress debating whether or not to send troops to the first Persian Gulf War. This put the group in an exclusive group as one of only a few bands to have a top ten hit single under four different United States presidents. The group toured extensively before A&amp;M Records (which had just merged with PolyGram Records) dropped the group from its roster in 1992; the group broke up again shortly afterwards.
1993–1995: Venture into acting.
Between stints with Styx, DeYoung was asked to appear in the 20th Anniversary revival tour of the stage musical "Jesus Christ Superstar" in 1993, including Ted Neeley, Carl Anderson and Irene Cara, appearing in 268 performances as Pontius Pilate. DeYoung was asked to perform by Tony-winning producer Forbes Candlish. Danny Goldberg, former DeYoung manager and head of A&amp;R at Atlantic Records, asked DeYoung to record an album of Broadway standards; the resulting album, "10 on Broadway", was released in 1994. While touring with "Jesus Christ Superstar", DeYoung began writing the book and score of a musical of his own based on Victor Hugo's 1831 novel "The Hunchback of Notre-Dame". "Hunchback" was first produced in 1997 at the Tennessee Repertory Theatre in Nashville, Tennessee.
1995–1999: Second reunion with Styx.
1995: "Lady '95".
A&amp;M Records had released the compilation album "Styx - Classics, Volume 15", but since A&amp;M did not own the rights to the original recording of "Lady" (which had been released by Wooden Nickel Records through a distribution deal with RCA Records), the track could not be included on the disc. In 1995, DeYoung called Shaw to sing on a new version of "Lady" even though he had not performed on the original. Styx reunited, but without a terminally ill John Panozzo. The band recorded a new version of "Lady," which became the lead track ("Lady '95") of a new compilation album, "Styx Greatest Hits", for A&amp;M. Todd Sucherman (uncredited) provided the drum track for the recording session. Panozzo died on July 16, 1996. Sucherman took his place, and in 1996, Styx toured for the first time in four years.
1996–1997: "Return to Paradise" tour.
Styx's 1996 tour, dubbed the "Return to Paradise" tour by the band, proved remarkably successful, and a 2-disc live recording of the show (with three new studio tracks) proved even more so; 1997's "Return to Paradise" live album, produced by DeYoung, went gold and spawned a top-30 hit on Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart, the DeYoung-penned "Paradise". With the positive response and a new record label (CMC International), Styx returned to the studio in 1998 and began work on their first studio album in eight years.
1999: Departure from Styx.
DeYoung and his bandmates celebrated the success of 1996's "Return to Paradise" tour, and 1997's "Grand Illusion" tour. In 1998 the band began work on a new album, "Brave New World". In January 1998, DeYoung's physical health took a turn for the worse; DeYoung said he was afflicted with a severe case of the flu, and the extremely high fever damaged his eyes resulting in severe sensitivity to light which caused him heavy fatigue. James Young and Tommy Shaw of Styx suggested booking a tour in support of the "Brave New World" album. DeYoung asked for six months to recover; Shaw and Young instead replaced him with Canadian rocker Lawrence Gowan in 1999 and went on tour without DeYoung.
After a year-and-a-half of touring under the name "Styx," without any compensation to DeYoung for usage of the name, DeYoung sued his former bandmates seeking the rights to use the group's name in support of his solo career. The suit was settled in 2001, with the group being allowed to keep the name "Styx" and DeYoung able to use the name in descriptive phrases such as "the music of Styx" or "formerly of Styx" (but not "the voice of Styx"). DeYoung has said that the manner in which Shaw and Young vilified him on VH1's "Behind the Music" triggered the lawsuit.
Styx has consistently maintained that any chance of a reunion with DeYoung is unlikely. When asked about any possible reunions with DeYoung, James (JY) Young of Styx commented on an edition of VH1's "Behind the Music" television series, "Maybe when they are playing hockey on the river Styx. And maybe not even then." Young also addressed the reunion issue on an episode of VH1's "Feuds 2000", noting the possibility of a reunion would only happen "[as] the Eagles said, 'when Hell freezes over'." Bassist Chuck Panozzo, no longer actively touring with Styx due to health problems associated with his HIV-positive status, offered a more hopeful tone to a writer doing a story on the band for tampabay.com; while reflecting on the effect the loss of his fraternal twin brother, John had on the band, Panozzo noted, "Before any more of us die, I would hope that it could happen. Every year that it doesn't happen is another year that goes by. And if you wait too long, who will care?" However, in a 2011 interview with "Rolling Stone", Tommy Shaw indicated that he didn't think a reunion was realistic, noting, "We're crazy, but we're not insane."
2000–2019: Post-Styx career.
In February 2000, DeYoung was approached to perform 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 near DeYoung's hometown of Chicago, was a family affair for DeYoung. His wife Suzanne and sister-in-law Dawn Marie Feusi sang backup, his daughter Carrie Ann was in charge of publicity, while his 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 live album, "The Music of Styx - Live with Symphony Orchestra".
Healthy once again, DeYoung returned to touring with a 50-piece orchestra augmented by a five-piece rock band, which included Tommy Dziallo on guitar, Hank Horton on bass, and Kyle Woodring (formerly with John Mellencamp and Deana Carter) on drums, all of whom also played shows with DeYoung with or without the orchestra.
DeYoung made his major motion picture debut in 2005's "The Perfect Man", in which he played the lead vocalist in a Styx tribute band.
In August 2006, DeYoung appeared along with Supertramp's Roger Hodgson on "Canadian Idol", where he performed with and mentored the contestants.
On April 20, 2006, at the Community Theatre in Morristown, New Jersey, DeYoung took to the stage once