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" | ||||
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Single by Styx | ||||
from the album Kilroy Was Here | ||||
B-side | "(A.D. 1928) Rockin' the Paradise" | |||
Released | April 1983 | |||
Recorded | 1982 | |||
Genre | Rock | |||
Length | 4:53 | |||
Label | A&M | |||
Songwriter(s) | Dennis DeYoung | |||
Producer(s) | Styx | |||
Styx singles chronology | ||||
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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 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."
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.
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.