Lady

DeYoung wrote "Lady" for his wife, Suzanne, at 25, before the band had a record deal. He told SongwriterUniverse in 2017 that it was the very first song he wrote by himself, inspired by her dignity and class, and told Ultimate Classic Rock in 2014 it was meant for the debut album, but the producer had the band record a George Clinton song instead. It was written on electric piano and recorded on acoustic piano, and opens with an Alberti bass pattern, with the drums and distorted guitar entering around 1:17. John Ryan produced it, in late 1972. The single, released in September 1973 with "Children of the Land" on the other side and reissued in November 1974, runs 2:58 against the album's 2:56.

It sold little at first, and became a local hit in Chicago. Chicago's WLS program director Jim Smith began playing it nightly, and it reached number two on that station's survey and then the national charts: number six on the Hot 100 and Cash Box, number 19 in Canada, 23 in Australia, 17 in New Zealand and three in South Africa. Sources disagree on timing, March 1975 on Wikipedia's song page and May 1975 on its Styx II page. Wikipedia credits it as the first power ballad, and it is the only song from the four Wooden Nickel albums that the band still plays regularly. Young has said the harmonies drew on the Beatles and Three Dog Night.

Because A&M could not secure the rights to the original, the band re-recorded it as "Lady '95" for a 1995 greatest hits collection, at 3:05, at DeYoung's home studio with Sucherman uncredited on drums, which helped lead to the reunion. Which version our upload is has not been determined. Setlist.fm counts 1,623 performances, though Ultimate Classic Rock, working from the album view, gives 1,473. It has been used in Freaks and Geeks, Old School, The Office, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, The Simpsons and iZombie.