Rock icons Styx have checked in with the following message to the fans:

"Today we celebrate 40 years of Paradise Theatre! The album came out on Jan 19, 1981, and is a fictional account of Chicago's Paradise Theatre from its opening to closing, used as a metaphor for America's changing times from the late '70s into the '80s."

They have posted an overview of the album by resident Styxologist, Mike Mettler, on the official Styx website. Following is an excerpt:

Is it any wonder that Paradise Theatre made such a lasting impression when it was released 40 years ago today by A&M Records on January 19, 1981? In fact, Paradise Theatre (or Theater, depending on which part of the album sleeve you’re viewing) was Styx’s first album to reach #1, which it did for three non-consecutive weeks on the Billboard Top 200 Albums chart not too long after its release. It ultimately sold over 3 million copies, making it Styx’s fourth multiplatinum album in a row — the first time any rock band in history had ever achieved such a vaunted sales feat.

“Has it really been 40 years already? I can hardly keep track of all of our anniversaries!” guitarist/vocalist Tommy Shaw told me with a hearty laugh this past week. “But I really do love how much Paradise Theatre has endured, and I appreciate all the ways the fans continue to embrace this music of ours.”

Onward to the facts: Paradise Theatre, Styx’s tenth studio album, was recorded, engineered, and mixed in 1980 at Pumpkin Studios in Oak Lawn, Illinois, with the late, great Gary Loizzo at the helm (Loizzo passed away five years ago after a long battle with cancer on January 16, 2016.)

The album’s tone was set by the wistful bookends "A.D. 1928" and "A.D. 1958" — as well as, of course, its final 27 seconds, Dennis DeYoung’s Vaudevillian piano outro "State Street Sadie" (a particular favorite track of Styx’s keyboardist/vocalist since 1999, Lawrence Gowan) — all serving to frame a concept album that chronicled the glorious opening and eventual glum closing of a fictional Chicago theater. 

“I know exactly physically what building I was in when I wrote that riff for 'Rockin’ the Paradise,'” says co-founding guitarist/vocalist James "JY" Young. “I still drive by it sometimes in the south suburbs of Chicago, where we were rehearsing at the time. Tommy came up with the verse and Dennis came up with the lyrics, and there it was.”

Adds co-founding original bassist Chuck Panozzo, “Paradise Theatre really captured us at our best, when everyone was working towards achieving a common goal. And now I like that we’re able to recreate that feeling of rocking the paradise onstage every night with the people we have in the band.”

Two huge singles emerged from the record. Keyboardist/vocalist DeYoung’s touchingly reflective "The Best of Times" (JY’s self-admitted favorite DeYoung ballad, in fact) made it all the way to #3, and Shaw’s instantly iconic "Too Much Time On My Hands" reached #9. "Too Much Time" remains a crowd favorite to this day, and it appears prominently in every Styx live set. 

“It was like the song was playing in my head,” Tommy recalls of writing 'Too Much Time' on the literal last day of recording for the album. “I heard that riff in my head, but I didn’t have anything to record it on as I was driving to the studio. When I got to the parking lot, I turned the car off, ran inside, got everybody together, and said, ‘Chuck, play this riff, and then do this.’ It was like it came together in a package, and all the pieces were assembled right then and there.”

In December 2020 and in support of Steelers Nation, our man Shaw, along with every other current Styx bandmember — JY, Chuck, Lawrence, drummer Todd Sucherman, and bassist Ricky Phillips — took to Zoom to collectively perform an updated remake of the song for our modern times, in a video and audio package produced by the band’s formidable live engineer, Chris "Cookie" Hoff. You can watch that energetic and quite kinetic version of "Too Much Time" on Styx’s official YouTube channel.

Other classic Paradise cuts continue to be performed live by the band, including the aforementioned "Rockin’ the Paradise", which has since turned into a top-hatted Lawrence Gowan performance showcase — and a song that also has the fine distinction of being the 10th video ever shown on MTV on the very day the music channel debuted on U.S. cable systems on August 1, 1981. 

“It reminded me of the kind of song Elton John was doing in the early ’70s. That’s how it felt to me, and I fell in love with it immediately,” admits Lawrence. “It’s a dissertation, that lyric. And it’s very uplifting, very positive. Live, it’s an over-the-top performance where I realized, yeah, I could really rev up this character. I’d done a kind of ringmaster-y character myself in the past, and these lyrics fit with that idea. I also thought I might be able to get away with a sequined coat on that one. (chuckles) It’s a song where I’d like to play piano from top to bottom, but the only spot where I can get away with it and still be the showman is in the middle.”

Read the complete overview here.

Tracklist:

"A.D. 1928"
"Rockin' The Paradise"
"Too Much Time On My Hands"
"Nothing Ever Goes As Planned"
"The Best Of Times"
"Lonely People"
"She Cares"
"Snowblind"
"Half Penny, Two Penny"
"A.D. 1958"