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Paradise Theatre |
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This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (June 2008) |
| Paradise Theatre | |||||
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| Studio album by Styx | |||||
| Released | January 19, 1981 | ||||
| Recorded | 1980 at Pumpkin Studios, Oak Lawn, IL | ||||
| Genre | Rock, progressive rock | ||||
| Length | 40:37 | ||||
| Label | A&M | ||||
| Producer | Styx | ||||
| Professional reviews | |||||
| Styx chronology | |||||
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Paradise Theatre is a concept album released by the rock band Styx in January 1981 (see 1981 in music).
The album, a fictional account of Chicago's Paradise Theater from its opening to closing (and eventual abandonment), is used as a metaphor for America's changing times from the late 1970s into the 1980s (group leader Dennis DeYoung confirmed this on an episode of In the Studio with Redbeard which devoted an entire episode to the making of the album).
The signature song, "The Best Of Times" (written by group leader Dennis DeYoung), went all the way to #3 and "Too Much Time On My Hands" written by Tommy Shaw went to #9 (and was Shaw's only top 10 hit for Styx). Rockin' The Paradise went to #8 on the Top Rock Track Chart.
The song "Snowblind" (lyrics by James Young, music by Young as DeYoung) was an attack on drug addiction. The track would come under fire for supposedly having backward messages and be branded by reactionary fundamentalists and Tipper Gore's PMRC as "Satanistic." JY and DeYoung refuted this on the Paradise Theatre on the same In the Studio episode. Other impartial sources have also said that the claim of Satanic messages on this record as being completely false.
Paradise Theatre became Styx's first, and to date only US #1 album, as well the band's fourth consecutive triple-platinum album.
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Initial pressings of the vinyl record had a laser-etched design over the whole surface of side 2, showing the theater logo from the sleeve as a rainbow effect.
Initial pressings of the CD and on the original vinyl album had the musical segue between "Half-Penny, Two Penny" and "A.D. 1958" indexed as the intro to "A.D. 1958". Subsequent pressings of the CD had the segue indexed as the fade to "Half-Penny, Two Penny" instead.
Styx
Additional personnel
Album - Billboard (North America)
| Year | Chart | Position |
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| 1981 | Pop Albums | 1 |
Singles - Billboard (North America)
| Year | Single | Chart | Position |
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| 1981 | "Nothing Ever Goes As Planned" | Pop Singles | 54 |
| 1981 | "Rockin' the Paradise" | Mainstream Rock | 8 |
| 1981 | "Snowblind" | Mainstream Rock | 22 |
| 1981 | "Too Much Time on My Hands" | Mainstream Rock | 2 |
| 1981 | "Too Much Time on My Hands" | Pop Singles | 9 |
| 1981 | "The Best of Times" | Mainstream Rock | 16 |
| 1981 | "The Best of Times" | Pop Singles | 3 |
| Preceded by Hi Infidelity by REO Speedwagon |
Billboard 200 number-one album April 4 - April 17, 1981 May 9 - May 15, 1981 |
Succeeded by Mistaken Identity by Kim Carnes |
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