Tommy Shaw Tickets Continued
Tommy Shaw's first album with Styx, Crystal Ball (1976), was moderately
successful (the band still performs the Tommy Shaw-penned title track to this day)
and also includes his songs "Mademoiselle" and "Shooz". Its follow-up, The Grand
Illusion (1977) became the group's breakthrough album, going platinum and spawning a
top-ten hit and AOR radio staple in Dennis DeYoung's "Come Sail Away", as well as a
second radio hit, Tommy Shaw's "Fooling Yourself (The Angry Young Man)". The
album also includes its title track and James Young's "Miss America".
Styx's 8th album, appropriately entitled Pieces Of Eight, was the breakout album
for Tommy Shaw's songwriting talent with his rock-oriented contributions
"Renegade" and "Blue Collar Man", which became `70's rock radio staples and perennial
Styx concert favorites, reaching #16 and #21 respectively on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles
chart.
Tommy Shaw left Styx in 1983 to pursue his solo career, releasing 3 solo
albums: Girls with Guns (1984), What If (1985) and Ambition (1987).
Although Tommy Shaw never saw close to the success as a solo artist as he did
with Styx, he had 1 Top 40 solo hit with the title track from the 1st album.
In the early 1990s Tommy Shaw, Ted Nugent, Jack Blades and Michael
Cartellone formed the band Damn Yankees. Their biggest hit, "High Enough", was co-written
by Tommy Shaw. The band had a strong concert following, however, even though
the 2nd album went platinum, the band separated. Tommy Shaw returned to a
reunited Styx in 1995 and embarked on a subsequent tour with them in 1996. He would later
record a fourth solo record in 1998: 7 Deadly Zens.
