1981Released
4:17

Did You Know?

Interesting facts and trivia about The Best Of Times. By Songfacts®.

If it's a romantic Styx song, it was probably the work of Dennis DeYoung, who was with the band until 1999. Like "Babe" and "Lady," he wrote and sang "The Best of Times." "For me, the song is simple," he told Songwriter Universe. "It's when the world goes mad, how do you cope? And in this instance, it's the love between two people, that they make their own paradise within their companionship, their love for each other, and their own home... it's saying that the best of times are when I'm alone with you."

Dennis DeYoung got the title from the 1859 Charles Dickens novel A Tale Of Two Cities, which opens with the famous passage: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times."

This was the first single from the Paradise Theatre album, which had a loose concept centered around the rise and fall of a theater in Chicago, where the band is from. In that context, the song recalls the glory days of the Paradise Theatre; the word "paradise" shows up three times in the lyric, and can allude to either the building or the state of mind: Rumor has it it's the end of Paradise ... I wish the summer winds could bring back Paradise ... But tonight will always last As long as we keep alive memories of Paradise

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Song Analysis

Key, BPM (tempo) and time signature of The Best Of Times.
CKey
MajorMode
4/4Time Signature
79BPM

Album

The album The Best Of Times is released on.

Released By

The record label that has released The Best Of Times.
A&M
© 1981 A&M Records
℗ 1981 A&M Records

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