Styx Covered The Beatles’ ‘I Am the Walrus’ and Fans Went Wild
Styx recorded their own version of The Beatles‘ “I Am the Walrus.” The band’s fans went wild for the cover. Subsequently, the tune inspired Styx to release an entire album of classic rock covers.
Styx covered The Beatles’ ‘I Am the Walrus’ at Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Guitar Festival
A 2006 article from The Morning Call revealed that Styx’s “I Am the Walrus” was born out of an appearance at Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Guitar Festival in 2004. “We had [singer] Lawrence [Gowan] do ‘I Am the Walrus,’ which I had heard him noodle on at a sound check maybe three or four years earlier,” Styx’s James Young recalled. “I mentioned it as a suggestion, then everybody started to embrace the idea.”
The crowd loved the performance. Because of that, Styx started regularly performing “I Am the Walrus” at shows. Greg Salk of the radio station WLUP offered to play the cover on his station. “You know how often that happens — never,” Young said.
The popularity of this Beatles cover led Styx to do an album of songs that inspired them
The popularity of Styx’s “I Am the Walrus” inspired their album Big Bang Theory. “So the suggestion was to just do some great songs from before Styx actually got its first recording contract, to do songs that had influenced us and, secondly, songs that we really thought we could do justice to as a band now,” Young said. “So that’s where The Big Bang Theory [sic] came from.”
Big Bang Theory includes covers of songs by The Beatles, The Who, The Allman Brothers Band, and The Jimi Hendrix Experience from the late 1960s and early 1970s. Young explained why he chose to record tunes from that era. “It was a profoundly influential time in my life where I really sort of became a lead guitar player by listening to Eric Clapton’s ‘Crossroads’ solo on the Cream [album] Live at [the] Fillmore,” Young said. “By learning that guitar solo, that sort of set me up to learn more and then, I mean, Hendrix was truly my idol, but Clapton was right up there with him.”
How the 2 versions of ‘I Am the Walrus’ performed in the United States
The Beatles’ “I Am the Walrus” became a very modest hit. It peaked at No. 56 on the Billboard Hot 100, remaining on the chart for four weeks. The tune appeared on the soundtrack of Magical Mystery Tour. That soundtrack peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 for eight weeks, lasting on the chart for 93 weeks altogether.
On the other hand, Styx’s “I Am the Walrus” did not chart at all on the Billboard Hot 100. The song’s parent album, Big Bang Theory, peaked at No. 46 on the Billboard 200 and stayed on the chart for four weeks. It wasn’t a huge hit, but it performed well considering it came out in 2005 and Styx peaked in the 1970s.
Styx’s “I Am the Walrus” wasn’t a hit but their fans enjoyed the cover.
