Don't Let It End

"Don't Let It End" is the third track and the second top 10 single on the 1983 album Kilroy Was Here, by Styx.

"Don't Let it End"
Single by Styx
from the album Kilroy Was Here[1]
B-side"(A.D. 1928) Rockin' the Paradise"
ReleasedApril 1983 (1983-04)
Recorded1982
GenreRock
Length4:53
LabelA&M
Songwriter(s)Dennis DeYoung
Producer(s)Styx
Styx singles chronology
"Mr. Roboto"
(1983)		 "Don't Let it End"
(1983)		 "High Time"
(1983)

The song was written and sung by Dennis DeYoung. The track is a mid-tempo ballad about one who breaks up with a lover and pleads to get the person back. The song reached No. 6 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 the week of July 2, 1983[2] and No. 56 in the UK Singles Chart. It also reached No. 15 on the Canadian RPM Top Singles chart the week of July 2, 1983. At the time, it was the seventh Styx single to peak in the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100.

Cash Box noted that the song is "a return to [DeYoung's] soft romantic side" after the more futuristic "Mr. Roboto and that guitarist Tommy Shaw "breaks up the weak-kneed plea with sturdy rock guitar work."[3]

According to Dennis DeYoung in a 2005 interview with classicrockrevisited.com, the track was originally slated as the first single from Kilroy Was Here until the staff at A&M suggested "Mr. Roboto".

Allmusic critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine criticized the compilation album Come Sail Away – The Styx Anthology for excluding this song.[4]

Despite the song's enormous success, along with "Show Me the Way", "Babe" and "The Best of Times" it has not been performed live by the band since singer Dennis DeYoung was dismissed in 1999. DeYoung, however, still performs the song regularly on his solo tours.

Video

The video of the track was directed by Brian Gibson. It starts out with Dennis portraying Kilroy looking at a picture of a girlfriend he lost (the picture is of Dennis' wife in real life, Suzanne) and then gets up to go in another room which morphs into the prison that his character of Kilroy was in. Then Dennis morphs into the Kilroy as prisoner character and joins the members of Styx who play prisoners in the video performing the track and then the end shows Dennis as he appeared at the intro.

The reprise of the track was more to do with not letting rock and roll die and had a teaser of the riff to "Mr. Roboto" before ending like a 50s rocker with Tommy Shaw singing the first section and DeYoung the finale. The live version ends with the ending guitar chords from "Twist and Shout".

Personnel

Chart performance

References
  1. "www.allmusic.com". allmusic.com. Retrieved July 8, 2023.
  2. Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles 1955-1990 - ISBN 0-89820-089-X
  3. "Reviews" (PDF). Cash Box. April 30, 1983. p. 8. Retrieved 2022-07-18.
  4. Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Come Sail Away: The Styx Anthology". Allmusic. Retrieved 2023-01-21.
  5. "Item Display - RPM - Library and Archives Canada". Collectionscanada.gc.ca. 1983-07-30. Retrieved 2019-08-01.
  6. "officialcharts.com". officialcharts.com. Retrieved July 8, 2023.
  7. Whitburn, Joel (2002). Top Adult Contemporary: 1961-2001. Record Research. p. 236.
  8. "Top 100 Hits of 1983/Top 100 Songs of 1983". Musicoutfitters.com. Retrieved 24 April 2021.
  9. "Top 100 Year End Charts: 1983". Cashbox Magazine. Retrieved 2016-06-05.
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