Sing For The Day by Styx

Album: Pieces Of Eight (1978)

Charted: 41

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Songfacts®:

Written by Tommy Shaw, this joyful song is addressed to "Hannah," with Shaw mentioning the name several times:

Hannah you're with me in spirit wherever I go
Hannah you're my inspiration my fountain of youth
Hannah I'm honestly hoping you'll always be there...

Shaw has a daughter named "Hannah," but the song came first - she was born in 1987, nine years later. In the song, the name represents the band's female fans as a collective, with Shaw sharing his respect and compassion for them.

As for Hannah Shaw, she became known as "The Kitten Lady" for her work with cats.
Tommy Shaw played guitar, mandolin and autoharp on this song, giving it a Renaissance feel.
This was the second of three singles from the Pieces Of Eight album, following "Blue Collar Man (Long Nights)" and preceding "Renegade."
Styx made a video for this song that was directed by Bruce Gowers, but it apparently never made it to MTV. Low-quality versions eventually sprung up on YouTube.
On May 27, 2016, Tommy Shaw did a concert with the Contemporary Youth Orchestra in Cleveland that he called "Sing For The Day" after this song.

Comments: 10

Adam Dabomb from Seattle Don't mean no disrespect but it was orig written for stage hand Pat Hinchey's daughter Hannah.
Bill from 01749My daughter is 9, and it's hard to believe that this song is not about a special young girl. My feelings for her are identified in almost every line.
Greg from San Jose, CaTommy has said that Hannah was the name of the daughter of one of the bands stage hands. Tommy adored the girl and wrote the song for her. He later named his own daughter after her. Straight from his mouth.
Henry from Orlando, Fl UsaI have several friends that were DJ's when this album came out. This is their story. SFTD was the 2nd single off the Pieces Of Eight album. The 45 had the catalog number 2110. The flip of the 45 was Queen Of Spades. The song did not break into the Top 40. Around the same time a DJ out west was giving Renegade a lot of airtime and requests starting to come in and more and more stations started playing Renegade. Rather than issuing Renegade as another single, they stopped press Sing For The Day and put Renegade on the A-side and put Sing For The Day on the B-side, dropping Queen Of Spades all together. The Renegade single has the same catalog number on the 45 of 2110. Renegade topped out at #16 on the Top 40 charts.
Kaye from Alabama Sing for the day was written about female fans. There was someone that was a few years younger and also a musician that he had known for years. They had a mutual love of all music and would pass ideas back and forth. She became a backup singer and guitar player for several large performers before she retired from music in the mid 80's.
They have not seen each other since 1982.
It is about her and his young female fans.
... from Seattle, WaSuch a sweet, and pleasant song, as are most of Styx'
Cheryle from Columbus, OhSong was written in 1978, daughter was born in July, 1987. Ergo, the song came first. Tommy has said that the "Hannah" in the song was a generic name meant to symbolize all his young fans at the time.
Mia from Syracuse, NyI love this song and as Melissa stated this song was written long before his daughter Hannah was even born and he named her after the Hannah in the song. Hi Melissa!
Randy from Colerain Twp., OhDefinitely an underrated song that is overshadowed by other great songs on 'Pieces of Eight'. I thought that I had read somewhere many years ago that Tommy had played the mandolin, autoharp, and acoustic guitar on this track.
Melissa Evans from Cincinnati, OhHannah in the song represents all of Tommy's fans and it wasnt til 1987 that Tommy named his daughter after the girl in Sing for the Day.

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