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about this album
Styx II is the second album by American band Styx, released in July 1973. After releasing their debut album, which consisted mostly of cover songs, the band intended to write some strong original new material; Dennis DeYoung was particularly in favor of this. DeYoung had written a song by himself on an electric piano in the band's garage, and had originally intended for it to be on the first album. He later decided to play it on an acoustic piano. However, Bill Traut wanted to save it for the second album. The result was "Lady", written about DeYoung's wife Suzanne. "Lady" failed to be a hit when it was first released in 1973; however, after the band released their fourth album Man of Miracles in 1974, they went to WLS, the most powerful Chicago radio station at the time, and convinced the program director (Jim Smith) to replay this song. It wound up being played frequently on the air in Chicago. In May 1975, the song broke out nationally, eventually peaking at no. 6 on the Billboard charts. Besides "Lady," the album contained some upbeat and prog rock songs, such as the rockers "You Need Love" and "I'm Gonna Make You Feel It," which were written by DeYoung and sung by James "JY" Young. This is also the first album on which John Curulewski wrote and sang on two songs: the proggish, jazzy "A Day," which has an unusual sound for the band, and the boogie humor song "You Better Ask," whose outro features a snippet of "Strangers in the Night" on calliope organ and an evil laugh
