Friday July 16, 2021 “Lady” Little River Band/Styx
Let’s have a slow dance for all the guys too embarrassed to show off their lack of dance floor skills on the faster numbers...even though as Monday’s song of the day suggested, now that they can dance.
One of the first Australian bands to find widespread commercial success in America, the Little River Band brought a polished, vocal-heavy pop sound to the late '70s, blending the rich harmonies of the founding three members Graham Goble, Glen Shorrock and Beeb Birtles (I did not make that name up) all of whom were already established rock stars in their native country.
We’ve heard this story before but the founding band members developed such animosity for each other that they refused to even travel together to gigs. In the span of LRB’s history more than twenty musicians have been band members and legal battles over song rights and royalties over songs like today’s “Lady” continue today.
Way back when we first moved to Chicago there was this local band that played high school gigs every weekend and they would advertise on the radio...every weekend. They called themselves Styx and would go on to do pretty well for themselves selling more than fifty million albums/CDs and record a bunch of either iconic or despised songs depending on which side of the love/hate relationship you are with Styx. Overall, Styx had eight songs that hit the top 10 on the US Billboard Hot 100, as well as sixteen top 40 singles.
The Styx breakthrough hit that helped establish the band as either a progressive rock band or a sappy power ballad group, your choice, was today’s “Lady” which was their first top ten single. I am going to leave both of these bands in the guilty pleasures categories or bands that sing songs we may be embarrassed to say that we like...but privately know all the words to their songs.
Stay safe and well...and sure these songs are cheesy but if you grill them with some tomatoes and add a couple of slices of bacon they are quite compelling. And oh yeah, I saw you singing along with Styx...and me.