Why Me (Styx song)

"Why Me" is a song from Styx's 1979 triple-platinum album Cornerstone. Released as the album's second single, it reached #26 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in February 1980.[1] The song also reached number 10 on the Canada RPM Top 100 Singles chart on the week of February 23, 1980.

"Why Me"
Single by Styx
from the album Cornerstone
ReleasedDecember 1979
GenrePop rock
Length3:54
LabelA&M
Songwriter(s)Dennis DeYoung
Styx singles chronology
"Babe"
(1979)		 "Why Me"
(1979)		 "Boat on the River"
(1980)

Background

The song was an unexpected single. The original plan was for the ballad "First Time" to be released as the second single following the #1 single "Babe." In fact some radio stations in the U.S. were starting to play "First Time". However, guitarist Tommy Shaw did not want to release a second ballad right after "Babe". This disagreement resulted in DeYoung being fired briefly from the band in early 1980. DeYoung reluctantly agreed, and "Why Me" was chosen by A&M Records to be the second single.

Billboard Magazine compared to "Why Me" to songs by Queen and Supertramp, describing it as a "high gloss, multi layered midtempo rocker with its fresh harmonies and thoughtlul lyrics" and also praised the saxophone and guitar solo.[2]

Personnel
Additional musicians
  • Steve Eisen - saxophone
gollark: How is the relativistic culinary initiative going, anyway?
gollark: It was a cool area and I wanted to dig into the ravine anyway, so the border issue wasn't a problem.
gollark: I can join and help. You could use a bed.
gollark: Do you fear the fusion reactor I haven't done anything with?
gollark: Sometimes the network is happily able to transfer several MB/s (which is not great but good enough for gaming and such) but sometimes I just get horrible packet loss for no reason.

References
  1. Whitburn, Joel (2004). The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits: 8th Edition. Record Research. p. 611.
  2. "Top Single Picks" (PDF). Billboard Magazine. December 8, 1979. p. 66. Retrieved 2020-07-07.


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.