Songoftheday 11/6/12 - You're wondering who I am, machine or mannequin with parts made in Japan...

Styx - "Mr. Roboto"
from the album Kilroy Was Here (1983)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #3 (two weeks)
Weeks in the top-40: 16

Today's Song of the Day is by the arena-rock group Styx, which was started by neighbors Dennis DeYoung and siblings Chuck and John Panozzo in the early 70s, recruiting guitarist James Young shortly after. Their self-titled debut album was released in 1972, and from it came the minor pop hit "Best Thing". With their sophomore set, Styx II, they released a single that would eventually go to the top-10 a couple years later, "Lady". After switching labels from the small Wooden Nickel imprint to the much larger A&M, as well as adding guitarist and second lead singer Tommy Shaw, the band's exposure and success exploded. Besides having four consecutive top-10 studio albums from 1977 to 1981, the band scored a #1 pop hit in America and their first hit in Britain with "Babe" in 1979.

Styx started out the 80s with their first and only #1 album, Paradise Theater, whose first single, "The Best Of Times", became their first hit on the newly created rock radio chart, and the followup, "Too Much Time On My Hands", which was their biggest hit on that chart, going to #2 in 1981.It was a big concept album in the time of dinosaur-giant albums, and was the apex of their career.

In 1983 Styx recorded another concept record, this time based on a dystopian society where rock music was outlawed and musicians were imprisoned by evil robots. The whole scheme was set up by DeYoung, with the band members taking various roles like a Broadway musical. The first single from the Kilroy Was Here set ("Kilroy" was an imprisoned musician) was "Mr. Roboto", a Queen-esque epic number that sets up the story...

The song debuted on the pop chart all the way at #40, and climbed up to #3, of course due to the group's fame as much as the song's "fit" on pop radio. It also was a big hit on rock radio, hitting the top-3 there as well. Beyond American shore, the song hit the top-10 in Germany, but relatively stiffed in England, only scraping the top-100 there.

Of course the song would now be a template for the rock musical genre, and the band would've probably had better success staying on Broadway instead of touring with the grand, expensive production that sank their tour and split the band.

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Almost ten years later, Canadians Barenaked Ladies paid their homage to the song at the end of their "The King Of Bedside Manor"...

In 2002, Japanese neo-newwave band Polysics interpolated the song for their "Domo Arigato Mr Roboto", with hilarious results..

..and finally, here's Styx themselves from their 1983 tour for the album...

Up Tomorrow: a Brooklyn boy exists.