Paradise Theatre (album)

Paradise Theatre is the tenth studio album by American rock band Styx, released on January 16, 1981, by A&M Records. It was the band's most commercially successful album, peaking at #1 for 3 weeks on the Billboard 200 in April and May 1981 (non-consecutively). It was also the band's fourth consecutive album to be certified triple-platinum by the RIAA.

Four singles from the album charted on various charts, with two songs reaching the top 10 pop singles chart. The lead single "The Best of Times", written by Dennis DeYoung, went to #3 on the Billboard Hot 100. "Too Much Time on My Hands", written by Tommy Shaw, went to #9 on the Billboard Hot 100, Shaw's only top 10 hit for Styx. "Nothing Ever Goes as Planned", written by DeYoung, went to #54 on the US Pop Chart. "Rockin' the Paradise"—written by DeYoung, Shaw and James Young—went to #8 on the Top Rock Track Chart.

Background
A concept album, the album is a fictional account of Chicago's Paradise Theatre from its opening in 1928 to its closing in 1956 (and subsequent demolition), used as a metaphor for America's changing times from the late 1970s into the 1980s. (Dennis DeYoung, who envisioned and developed the entire concept, confirmed this in an episode of In the Studio with Redbeard about the making of the album. )

DeYoung has said that the theme of the album is "one of hope and renewal in the spirit of the American people to understand the problems that confront the world and this country and find solutions themselves to those problems. Don't depend on heroes to do what you must do for yourself. If you hate your job but you have a dream, then pursue it. Just don't sit around and complain about it."

Newsday critic Wayne Robins stated that the songs "deal with people out of sync with themselves and their environment." For example, "Too Much Time on My Hands" is about a man who is unemployed and has given up, he regards "Lonely People" as a "contemporary rewrite of the Beatles' 'Eleanor Rigby,'" and "Nothing Ever Goes as Planned" is about "the inevitability of failure."

Vinyl edition
Initial vinyl copies of the album have a design featuring the name of the band laser etched directly onto the vinyl on side 2 (some copies had a wax design of the cover art). The vinyl record sleeve was a gate-fold and was painted by the artist Chris Hopkins. On the back cover, label and spine, the title of the record is spelled "Paradise Theater", while on the front cover, the title is spelled "Paradise Theatre".

Vinyl releases and initial CD pressings of the 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

 * Dennis DeYoung – vocals, keyboards
 * James "JY" Young – vocals, electric guitars
 * Tommy Shaw – vocals, electric guitars, acoustic guitars, vocoder
 * Chuck Panozzo – bass guitar, bass pedals
 * John Panozzo – drums, percussion

Additional personnel

 * Steve Eisen – saxophone solos
 * Bill Simpson – saxophones
 * Mike Halpin – trombone
 * John Haynor – trombone
 * Dan Barber – trumpet
 * Mark Ohlsen – trumpet, flugelhorn
 * Ed Tossing – horn arrangements

Production

 * Styx – producers, arrangements
 * Rob Kingsland – engineer
 * Gary Loizzo – engineer
 * Will Rascoti – assistant engineer
 * Ted Jensen – mastering at Sterling Sound, NYC
 * Dennis DeYoung – original concept
 * Jeffrey Kent Ayeroff – art direction, design
 * Chuck Beeson – art direction, design
 * Chris Hopkins – illustrations
 * Marc Hauser – photography
 * Greg Murry – photography
 * John Weizenbach – photography