Dennis DeYoung

Dennis DeYoung (born February 18, 1947) is an American singer, songwriter and keyboardist. He was a founding member of the rock band Styx and served as its primary lead vocalist and keyboardist from 1972 until 1999. DeYoung was the band's most prolific and successful writer, having been credited as the writer of more Styx songs than any other band member. DeYoung penned seven of the band's eight Billboard top 10 singles as well as a solo top 10 single. He has written and sung songs that hit the top 10 in 3 different decades, one of only a handful of artists to accomplish this longevity of success metric.

Dennis DeYoung was born in Chicago, Illinois, to Maurice DeYoung (1918–1997) and Loraine Rolla DeYoung (1923–2001). He had a younger sister, Darcy, who died in 2021. Dennis and Darcy were raised Catholic. The family has Dutch and Italian ancestry. The family resided in the Roseland area of Chicago.

DeYoung started his career as an accordionist in 1962 at the age of 15 when he teamed up with his 13-year-old neighbors Chuck and John Panozzo in a three-piece combo originally called The Tradewinds. The trio added guitarist Tom Nardini in 1964 and renamed the band TW4. In 1968, Nardini was replaced by John Curulewski and in 1970 DeYoung hired James Young to become the second guitarist in TW4. The band changed the name to Styx in 1972, upon signing their first record contract.

Before the band met with success, DeYoung spent time as a music teacher in south suburban Chicago area's District 143. One teacher hosted dinner parties for co-workers; DeYoung always attended and would inevitably offer to play the piano. During this period, the band played a number of small venues and school auditoriums in an effort to secure a record deal.

Within Styx, DeYoung acted as lead vocalist, keyboardist, accordion player, producer and songwriter. From the start of Styx's commercial success with the 1973 DeYoung-penned single "Lady", DeYoung became the creative force behind most of the band's hit songs. DeYoung wrote and sang lead on seven of the band's eight top 10 Billboard Hot 100-ranked hits during this period, with Tommy Shaw's "Too Much Time on My Hands" (No. 9) being the sole exception. The seven DeYoung penned-and-performed top 10 Billboard hits, in order of their peak chart placement are:

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.