Dennis DeYoung and Styx move beyond radio

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: suntimes : Styx and Giggles: Laughter key to using band�s music in soundtracks : By Mike Thomas : Staff Reporter/mthomas@suntimes.com : Last Modified: Feb 24, 2011 02:08AM : One of the most lewdly hilarious scenes in �Hall Pass,� a new Farrelly brothers romp that opens Friday, is coincidentally Chicago-centric. : Written (as was much of the script) by Deerfield�s Pete Jones, it features Chicago-trained actor Jason Sudeikis having vigorous solo sex in the driver�s seat of his family minivan. As he does so, a popular anthem sung by locally based rocker and former Styx frontman Dennis DeYoung blasts from the speakers. : �The best of tiiiiiiiiiimes,� DeYoung belts as Sudeikis shows off his finely honed improv skills, �are when I�m alone with you.� : Co-director Peter Farrelly paid top dollar for the track � around $200,000, he says � but insists it �makes the scene.� : �We did try other songs when we heard how expensive it would be,� Farrelly says. �We tried [Aero�smith�s] �Dream On� and another. But none of them worked like that one. As soon as people hear it and see what [Jason] is doing, they laugh.� : DeYoung, who still tours and will appear Saturday in an acoustic concert at Governors State University, says that�s his chief concern when deciding whether to approve songs for use in film and television comedies: Will people laugh? : Equally important, when he reads a script and imagines his song accompanying the scene for which it has been requested, does he laugh? : He wasn�t always so laid-back. : Many moons ago, when an ad agency sought to use his 1973 power ballad �Lady� for a cheese commercial (the gist: two bulls go gaga over a hot cow), DeYoung protested. But since he didn�t own the publishing rights (an atypical scenario), his concerns fell on deaf ears. : �I didn�t see the commercial [beforehand],� he recalls, �but I saw the storyboard for it and I said, �No. It�s going to demean my song.� � : When it aired, though, DeYoung had an epiphany. �Everybody that I know and trust and love saw it and thought it was hysterical,� he says. �So I realized early on that sometimes you can be a little close to this stuff. You�ve got to back off and say, �Now, wait a minute.� So that taught me a valuable lesson.� : He now considers himself the Leslie Nielsen of soundtrack contributors � a serious, as opposed to comedic, composer (as Nielsen was a serious actor before his success with �Airplane!�) who shows up unexpectedly in less-than-serious circumstances, thus producing cognitive dissonance and, ideally, much hilarity. : �If you put �Bang a Gong� or �Bang on the Drum� in a comedy context,� DeYoung says, �you�re already there.� : Over the past decade, especially, DeYoung�s earnest and epic compositions � everything from �Lady� and �The Best of Times� to �Come Sail Away� and �Mr. Roboto� � have underscored a number of spoofs and goofs.(He�s far more judicious about commercials, for which he claims to have turned down millions). : The vocally challenged (and big-boned) Eric Cartman mauled �Come Sail Away� on �South Park.� A skirt-clad Homer crossed the River Styx accompanied by �Lady� on �The Simpsons.� (�Ohh! This truly is hell!�) Two slacker-looking dudes rocked out to �Mr. Roboto� in a Volkswagen stereo spot. And prior to achieving cinematic glory, executive producer Judd Apatow employed �Come Sail Away� and �Lady� to great effect in the short-lived TV dramedy �Freaks and Geeks.� : NBC�s �The Office� and FX�s �It�s Always Sunny in Philadelphia� have jumped on the bandwagon, too. Past Styx songs in flicks include Will Ferrell�s �Old School,� Jim Carrey�s �Fun With Dick and Jane� and Adam Sandler�s �Big Daddy,� : �A lot of these people who are using this music were coming of age when Styx was the biggest thing in the country,� DeYoung says. : �Hall Pass� screenwriter Jones, 41, is one of them. : �There was a period in my life where I may not have been in a minivan, but I was listening to Styx and I was [he pauses to choose the right words] growing up. So that�s what I was thinking about.� : When it came time to score his scene, then, there was only one choice. : �In my mind, it was always Styx or Journey or REO Speedwagon,� Jones says. �But Styx, to me, was always my favorite of those groups.� : Fortunately for DeYoung and his bank account, that�s a common sentiment among show-biz and marketing types. Besides earning him fat fees ranging from �good� to �stupid,� his lucrative licensing sideline introduces and reintroduces Styx�s chart-topping classics to countless new or lapsed listeners. Some of them, presumably, end up buying CDs or downloading select tunes. : On an artistic level, De�Young is unconcerned that pairing his handiwork with particularly sophomoric visuals might distort its meaning by creating perverse associations. �The Best of Times,� for instance, is a heartfelt ode about DeYoung and his longtime wife/muse, Suzanne. That it soon could conjure images of, um, auto-erotica �doesn�t matter.� : �Think of the Beatles songs, where the intent is one thing and people interpret it totally different,� he says. �It�s art. So I know what my intent was. It stays the same.�

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