Styx-The Grand Illusion (1977)


 


Artist: Styx

Title: The Grand Illusion

Label:  A&M

Format: 8-Track

Cat #: 8T-4637

Year of Release: 1977

Country and Year of Edition Issue: US 1977

Listed Condition: VG/G+

Sell Date: 7/7/25

Sell Price: $7.99

Discogs Last Sold: 11/18/24 VG+/VG $8.00

Low: $0.92

Median: $4.00

Average: $4.62

High: $8.00

Current low price: $3.34

Current Number on Sale at Discogs: 6

Have/Want: 140/55

Where  Summerville, SC

Time it took to sell: 1 year

Where and When Bought:  Ebay 8-track lot

Gwiz-gau Letter Grade: A-

Sad To See It Go: No

I took this out of the library when I was 7 or 8 on a regular basis, so I knew it cold before Pieces of Eight came out.  I don't think I knew another Styx record as well with the exception of Paradise Theater.  The Grand Illusion aged much better.

There are 5 stone cold hits on this:  The progged out top 40 hit "Come Sail Away" whose Billboard #8 single was lopped in half down to 3:10 from the full 6:06 glory.  The other American Top 40 was "Fooling Yourself" which peaked at #29.  The AOR hits were "Miss America," "Superstars" and the title track.  Good enough for 3 million sales by 1984 in the US.  The hits here of course were on the Greatest Hits that sold another 2 million by 2005.

I had disavowed Styx fully and completely by 1984 and hadn't really bothered to listen to them again until I picked up a few used albums and 8-tracks of theirs recently.  Styx is a very common band to find in a lot of 8-tracks.  They occasionally go out, although sometimes I see their albums rack up money on auction websites.  I have a few copies of this album listed on 8-track and I should be pretty happy I got 8 bucks for this.

There isn't anything radical with the fades.  "Castle Walls" is the one song that falls victim to 8-track resequencing fade out.  "Fooling Yourself" goes from being the second track to the second to last track.  They kept "The Grand Illusion" opening and "The Grand Finale" closing, which is all that really matters I suppose.

A little harder then what they evolved into.

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