Songoftheday 8/31/13 - And I like hot licks the kind I wish that I could play, and when I hear them I crank the volume all the way...

Styx - "Music Time"
from the album Caught In The Act (1984)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #40 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 2

Today's Song of the Day is by the arena-rock group Styx, whose foray into concept-album dramatics, Kilroy Was Here, had scored them two top-ten singles with "Mr. Roboto" and "Don't Let It End". However, it created a rift within the band between the flashy showtunes style of singer Dennis DeYoung and guitarists Tommy Shaw and J.Y. Young. After the tour for that album, Shaw bolted from the group, and as a coda (and probably for contract-fulfilling reasons) they released a live set, Caught In The Act. Included on the double-album was one new song recorded before Shaw left, and brought them one more top-40 pop hit in the DeYoung-penned "Music Time". In fact, Shaw only shows up for a brief second in the clip by himself pretending to be interested in all this...

"Music Time" went to the American top-40 in June of 1984, probably on name recognition alone, since it didn't even make an appearance on the rock radio chart in Billboard, nor did it do any real business anywhere else in the world.

And for good reason - this is a horrible song. DeYoung's inflated overdoing of everything goes overboard here, and the video is more sad than laughable. It's on my own top-10 worst songs of the 80s (which is ruled by another veteran band who should know better, "Jefferson" Starship)...

Up tomorrow: the doubly-named trio needs some medicine.