Equinox Turns 41 Today!
Join us in our celebration of Equinox, which was released 41 years ago today on December 1, 1975.
by Mike Mettler
Sweet, sweet sounds fill the air: Please join us in our celebration of Equinox, which was released 41 years ago today on December 1, 1975. Equinox was Styx’s first album on A&M Records, after having released their first four LPs on Wooden Nickel/RCA. Equinox ultimately reached #58 on the Billboard 200 albums chart in 1976, and has since been certified at Gold status, or 500,000 copies sold (though we here at Styxworld tend to think it has long since gone platinum/sold over 1 million copies in the interim). The album’s only single, “Lorelei,” reached #36 in the U.S. and #6 in Canada in 1976.
Right out of the gate, Equinox's lead track, “Light Up,” fused the band’s best instincts for how to blend harmonies, keyboard hooks, and power chords together to memorable effect, resulting in a song that continues to grace many of Styx’s live set lists today - and it's one that features an amazing audience-participation moment (which we won't spoil here if you have yet to experience it in person yourself). Two other hard-driving singalong Equinox songs, “Lorelei” and “Suite Madame Blue,” are also in regular live rotation.
“Equinox really was the start of some great records for A&M,” says Styx co-founding guitarist/vocalist James “JY” Young. “We had an evolved sense of who we were, and what we could accomplish. And our goals were then set that much higher. In the context of Styx, I think it all came together on that record.”
Adds guitarist/lead vocalist Tommy Shaw, who joined Styx only a few weeks after Equinox was released, “The first time I ever heard anything from Equinox was at my audition for the band, in Chicago,” he recalls. “And the first thing I heard was JY singing ‘Midnight Ride,’ which just blew me away.”
If you’d like to learn more about the origins of Equinox and what Styx thinks of it today, you can read all about it in our weekly Styxology column, which is available to all Styx Lounge Fan Club members. Learn how you can join here.
