Styx - Greatest Hits (1992)

Replacing the band's volume in A&M's Classics series, Greatest Hits collects all of Styx's major chart and radio hits, from "Lady" to "Show Me the Way." Although they were a definitive album-oriented rock band, creating records that were meant to be listened to as a whole, their finest moments were always their singles, making Greatest Hits the only Styx disc many fans will need to own.

If it's your belief that one of the reasons today's rock is so bereft of personality is that all sense of show business has been drained from the music, then a look back at the career of Styx offers proof positive that it wasn't always thus. Greatest Hits offers a comprehensive overview of the band, from its art-rock days--which produced a top 10 hit in "Lady," a new version of which is included in this package--to its years as a perennial album-rock favorite--with offerings ranging from flights of fancy ("Come Sail Away," "Renegade") to proto-power ballads ("Babe," "Crystal Ball") to songs reflecting the working-class roots of its audience ("Too Much Time on My Hands," "Blue Collar Man"). The band eventually succumbed to a shift in musical tides and just plain silliness ("Mr. Roboto"), but for a time, this disc suggests, a satin-suited pomp-rocker was something to be. -- Daniel Durchholz