Lorelei by Styx - Songfacts

Album: Equinox (1975)

Charted: 27

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Songfacts®:

This alliterative song ("Lorelei let's live...) is about a guy who is over-the-moon for a girl named Lorelei, and hot and heavy to cohabit with her.

In German mythology, Lorelei is the name of a water fairy (siren) who lived in the Rhine River. When her lover didn't return, she jumped to her death from a large rock where the river narrows. Her spirit is said to inhabit that rock, drawing sailors into it as they pass by and meet their doom. Wishbone Ash released a song with the same title a few years earlier.
"Lorelei" was written by Styx guitarist James Young and keyboard player Dennis DeYoung, with DeYoung on lead vocals. The song is about Young's wife Susan, whom he married in 1972.

"The idea of co-habitation was still looked down upon in the old-fashioned world that I was born into," Young said in a Songfacts interview. "My parents weren't happy about it, but they adapted. We moved in together and my better half decided we should make it legal, so we went to city hall and got married. That's a pretty standard notion for a rock song: A man writing about a woman that he's in love with."

It's not the first Styx hit to celebrate the wife of a band member: Their first big hit, "Lady," is about Dennis DeYoung's wife Suzanne.
"Lorelei" was the big hit from the fifth Styx album, Equinox. Tommy Shaw wasn't yet with the band - he joined for their next album.

As the band racked up hits in the late '70s and early '80s, "Lorelei" got pushed out of their setlists, but it returned in the mid-'90s and was often part of their concerts in the ensuing years. When Dennis DeYoung left the band in 1999, James Young started doing the vocals at their shows.

Comments: 9

Lorali from La Crosse, Wi My parents named me after this song and it has always been my favorite :) So glad it has such a rich history to it.
Stukka63 from St.augustine,fla.The Lorelei rock on the Rhine is where a mermaid sits n poses it’s self.
Been by the rock x3 now n never witnessed anything but a rock.
But this song kicks ass.
Barry from Sauquoit, NyOn February 8th 1976, "Lorelei" by Styx entered Billboard's Hot Top 100 chart at position #90; and ten weeks later on April 11th, 1976 it peaked at #27 {for 1 week} and spent 14 weeks on the Top 100...
It reached #6 on the Canadian RPM Singles chart...
Between 1972 and 1991 the Chicago-based quintet had twenty-three Top 100 records; eight made the Top 10 with one reaching #1, "Babe" for two weeks on December 1st, 1979.
Nancy from Baltimore, MdI forgot about this song until I stumbled upon it by accident. It reminds me of my youth.
Jim from Jerome, IdI don't care if you are a fan of the Old STYX or the Styx 2.0 Dennis is the cat's ass Can't be the same without him
Drew from B'ham, AlSome people can hardly tell apart Queen & Styx. True, Queen sounds similar to Styx vocally, but not instrumentally. Sugarloaf, however, has vocal & even some instrumental similarities to Styx. If you've heard "Tongue-in-Cheek" by Sugarloaf, you'll know what I mean. Doesn't it remind you of this one?
Daevid from Glendale, CaGreat song, even though DeYoung's voice is annoying as hell.
Austin from Bristow, VaGreat song. Love the happy tone and the energy.
Randy from Colerain Twp., OhStyx occasionally performs this song live with JY doing lead vocals.

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