49 Years Ago Today, a Legendary Rock Band Pulled Off a Wild Stunt to Release Their Most Iconic Album
In the mid-1970s, one legendary band realized their greatest weapon wasn't on the radio-it was right there on the calendar.
Exactly 49 years ago today, Styx gambled on an album release by making it into a legendary, triple-number event that would permanently carve itself into rock history. Their sixth album The Grand Illusion, was released on July 7, 1977, or 7-7-77. ,
The LP was produced by the band and engineered by Barry Mraz and Rob Kingsland, as reported in a blog post on the website Styxworld. According to the post, The Grand Illusion reached No. 6 on the Billboard Top 200 albums chart and spawned two hit songs, "Come Sail Away" and "Fooling Yourself."
The release date was reportedly chosen for good luck. Its members benefited from that roll of the dice, catapulting Dennis DeYoung (vocals, keyboards), Tommy Shaw (vocals, guitar), James "J.Y." Young (vocals, guitar), Chuck Panozzo (bass), and John Panozzo (drums) into rock icons.
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Shaw shared his thoughts on The Grand Illusion in 2013. He told The Daily Herald it was a "wonderful moment" in the band's life.
"Dennis [DeYoung] had the verses and choruses to the song early on and played it for us. It spoke to all of us and what we were experiencing as members of the same band, as our popularity grew and we started to make some money," he began.
"We were a very tight group musically at that time, and it was all for one and one for all -- this wonderful moment in the life of any band. So we all began to pour our hearts into it like one big 'AMEN!'"
He concluded, "Although there are credits for who wrote what, it was more the credit for who wrote the essence of the songs because everyone contributed unabashedly to each other's songs. The same can be said for the Pieces of Eight album. That's what sets those two apart from albums that came later. Again, the prime season of innocence in the life of a band."
"I think we all knew that this was our best work to that point," Young told Ultimate Classic Rock. "There was a very cohesive thing from the title of the record. There was a resonance there of a concept album or whatever, so I think we felt like we really had captured something."
Following the success of The Grand Illusion in 1977, the band released Pieces of Eight in 1978, Cornerstone in 1979, and Paradise Theatre in 1981. All four of these LPs went multiplatinum.
Styx is currently co-headlining "The Windy Cities Tour" with the rock band Chicago.
Related: 35 Years Ago, Van Halen Scored a Chart-Topper With One of Rock's Wildest Album Titles
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This story was originally published July 7, 2026 at 5:02 AM.