Dennis DeYoung

Did You Know?

• DeYoung was raised Catholic and is a devout Catholic.
• He is a fan of the Chicago White Sox and a personal friend of Baseball Hall of Famer Tony LaRussa.
• DeYoung met his wife Suzanne Feusi at a high school dance when he was 17 and she was 15.

Career

Dennis DeYoung got his start in music at age 15 in 1962, playing accordion alongside his 13-year-old neighbors, Chuck and John Panozzo, in a trio they called The Tradewinds. In 1964, guitarist Tom Nardini joined, and the group changed its name to TW4. Nardini left in 1968 and was replaced by John Curulewski, and two years later, DeYoung brought in James Young as a second guitarist. The band finally became Styx in 1972, the same year they signed their first record contract. Before hitting it big, DeYoung worked as a music teacher in Chicago’s south suburban District 143. A fellow teacher often hosted dinner parties for colleagues, and DeYoung would always show up and inevitably sit down at the piano. During those years, the band played small clubs and school auditoriums while trying to land a record deal. Inside Styx, DeYoung handled lead vocals, keyboards, accordion, production, and songwriting. The band’s first commercial breakthrough came in 1973 with his song “Lady,” and from then on, he became the main creative force behind most of their hits. DeYoung wrote and sang lead on seven of Styx’s eight top 10 Billboard Hot 100 singles; the only exception was Tommy Shaw’s “Too Much Time on My Hands,” which reached number 9. The seven DeYoung-penned top 10 hits are: “Babe” (the band’s only number 1 on the Hot 100), “Mr. Roboto” (number 3), “Show Me the Way” (number 3), “The Best of Times” (number 3), “Don’t Let It End” (number 6), “Lady” (number 6), and “Come Sail Away” (number 8). A self-taught pianist, DeYoung became one of rock’s most prominent keyboard players, earning a spot on the cover of Contemporary Keyboard magazine in January 1981. In that interview, he shared some quirks of his career: he had never touched an acoustic piano until the 1973 session for “Lady”; he recorded “Babe” on a Fender Rhodes electric piano, an instrument he had never played before, simply because the studio’s grand piano was out of tune; and when playing accordion for “Boat on the River” from the Cornerstone album, he was surprised by how tiny the keys felt after years of playing pianos and Hammond organs.