"Mr. Roboto" is a song by American rock band

Styx In Greek mythology, Styx (; grc, Στύξ ) is a river that forms the boundary between Earth (Gaia) and the Underworld. The rivers Acheron, Cocytus, Lethe, Phlegethon, and Styx all converge at the centre of the underworld on a great marsh, ...

, released as the lead single from their eleventh studio album, '' Kilroy Was Here'' (1983). It was written by band member

Dennis DeYoung Dennis DeYoung (born February 18, 1947) is an American musician, singer, songwriter and record producer. He was a founding member of the rock band Styx, and served as its primary lead vocalist and keyboardist from 1972 until 1999. DeYoung was th ...

. In Canada, it went to #1 on the '' RPM'' national singles chart. In the U.S., it reached #3 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in April 1983.

Description and background

The Japanese lyrics at the beginning of the song are as follows:

どうもありがとうミスターロボット (''Dōmo arigatō misutā robotto'') また会う日まで (''Mata au hi made'') どうもありがとうミスターロボット (''Dōmo arigatō misutā robotto'') 秘密を知りたい (''Himitsu o shiritai'')

The lyrics translate into English as follows:

Thank you very much, Mr. Roboto Until the day we meet again Thank you very much, Mr. Roboto I want to know your secret

The lyric "''Dōmo arigatō, Mr. Roboto''" has entered popular culture as a

catchphrase A catchphrase (alternatively spelled catch phrase) is a phrase or expression recognized by its repeated utterance. Such phrases often originate in popular culture and in the arts, and typically spread through word of mouth and a variety of mass ...

, appearing in media such as ''

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'', ''

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'', ''

My Life as a Teenage Robot ''My Life as a Teenage Robot'' is an American animated superhero comedy television series created by Rob Renzetti for Nickelodeon. It was produced by Frederator Studios and Nickelodeon Animation Studio. Set in the fictional town of Tremorton, t ...

'', ''

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'', '' Eight Crazy Nights'', ''

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'', '' DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story, Man With A Plan'', '' The Perfect Man'', ''

Chuck Chuck is a masculine given name or a nickname for Charles or Charlie. It may refer to: People Arts and entertainment * Chuck Alaimo, American saxophonist, leader of the Chuck Alaimo Quartet * Chuck Barris (1929–2017), American TV producer * C ...

'', ''

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'', ''

Mr. Robot ''Mr. Robot'' is an American drama thriller television series created by Sam Esmail for USA Network. It stars Rami Malek as Elliot Alderson, a cybersecurity engineer and hacker with social anxiety disorder, clinical depression and dissociati ...

'', ''

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King of Queens ''The King of Queens'' is an American television sitcom that ran on CBS from September 21, 1998, to May 14, 2007, a total of nine seasons and 207 episodes. The series was created by Michael J. Weithorn and David Litt, who also served as the sho ...

'', and ''

How I Met Your Mother ''How I Met Your Mother'' (often abbreviated as ''HIMYM'') is an American sitcom, created by Craig Thomas (screenwriter), Craig Thomas and Carter Bays for CBS. The series, which aired from September 19, 2005 to March 31, 2014, follows the main c ...

''. The song tells part of the story of Robert Orin Charles Kilroy (ROCK), in the

rock opera A rock opera is a collection of rock music songs with lyrics that relate to a common story. Rock operas are typically released as concept albums and are not scripted for acting, which distinguishes them from operas, although several have been ad ...

'' Kilroy Was Here''. The song is performed by Kilroy (as played by keyboardist

), a rock and roll performer who was placed in a futuristic prison for "rock and roll misfits" by the anti-rock-and-roll group the Majority for Musical Morality (MMM) and its founder Dr. Everett Righteous (played by guitarist James Young). The Roboto is a model of

robot A robot is a machine—especially one programmable by a computer—capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically. A robot can be guided by an external control device, or the control may be embedded within. Robots may be ...

which does menial jobs in the prison. Kilroy escapes the prison by overpowering a Roboto prison guard and hiding inside its emptied-out metal shell. When Jonathan Chance (played by guitarist

Tommy Shaw Tommy Roland Shaw (born September 11, 1953) is an American guitarist, singer and songwriter best known for his tenure in the rock band Styx (band), Styx as co-lead vocalist. In between his stints with Styx, he has played with other groups includi ...

) finally meets Kilroy at the very end of the song, Kilroy unmasks and yells "I'm Kilroy! Kilroy!", ending the song. The robot-like catchphrase was created with a

vocoder A vocoder (, a portmanteau of ''voice'' and ''encoder'') is a category of speech coding that analyzes and synthesizes the human voice signal for audio data compression, multiplexing, voice encryption or voice transformation. The vocoder ...

Stan Winston Stanley Winston (April 7, 1946 – June 15, 2008) was an American television and film special make-up effects creator, best known for his work in the ''Terminator'' series, the first three '' Jurassic Park'' films, ''Aliens'', '' The Thing'', t ...

, who would become well-known through his work on ''

The Terminator ''The Terminator'' is a 1984 American science fiction action film directed by James Cameron. It stars Arnold Schwarzenegger as the Terminator, a cyborg assassin sent back in time from 2029 to 1984 to kill Sarah Connor ( Linda Hamilton), wh ...

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'' and ''Jurassic Park'', designed the Roboto costume and mask, which are displayed prominently on the cover of the album ''Kilroy Was Here''. The song's writer Dennis DeYoung did not think of the song as a single until his wife Suzanne, Dennis's friend Dave, and the staff at A&M suggested it as a good candidate. The track was released as the first single from the album at the last minute instead of "

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. 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 ...

" and turned out to be the band's last Top 5 US hit for eight years. As a result of this song, the Japanese phrase "domo arigato" entered popular American vernacular. In addition, many have cited this song and the album as potentially having alienated older fans, some calling it " jumping the shark" for the band. Though the song and album may not have resonated with older fans at the time, it remained relevant for younger generations, and James Young has said that due to the song, "we're a part of pop culture." "Mr. Roboto" has been described as

synthpop Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a subgenre of new wave music that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s a ...

Composition

The song is not in any one key and is instead in a related set of

modes Mode ( la, modus meaning "manner, tune, measure, due measure, rhythm, melody") may refer to: Arts and entertainment * '' MO''D''E (magazine)'', a defunct U.S. women's fashion magazine * ''Mode'' magazine, a fictional fashion magazine which is ...

. The intro begins in A-flat

Mixolydian mode Mixolydian mode may refer to one of three things: the name applied to one of the ancient Greek ''harmoniai'' or ''tonoi'', based on a particular octave species or scale; one of the medieval church modes; or a modern musical mode or diatonic sc ...

, ending in an F (dominant to B-flat). The singing begins, the chords alternating between a second-inversion B-flat (4–3 suspension resolution) and G-flat

Lydian mode The modern Lydian mode is a seven-tone musical scale formed from a rising pattern of pitches comprising three whole tones, a semitone, two more whole tones, and a final semitone. : Because of the importance of the major scale in modern musi ...

. Out of the "Domo" part, the song bursts into G-flat Lydian. It changes to E-flat minor

Aeolian mode The Aeolian mode is a musical mode or, in modern usage, a diatonic scale also called the natural minor scale. On the white piano keys, it is the scale that starts with A. Its ascending interval form consists of a ''key note, whole step, half ste ...

at "I am the Modren 'sic''Man", and this is the dominant key for the remainder of the song. Some portions of the song transition to E-flat major (similar to a

Picardy third A Picardy third, (; french: tierce picarde) also known as a Picardy cadence or Tierce de Picardie, is a major chord of the tonic at the end of a musical section that is either modal or in a minor key. This is achieved by raising the third of the ...

) as a transition point (to the "secret, secret" part as a pivot chord (see

modulation In electronics and telecommunications, modulation is the process of varying one or more properties of a periodic waveform, called the '' carrier signal'', with a separate signal called the ''modulation signal'' that typically contains informat ...

) and to A-flat Mixolydian, a modal change from the G-flat Lydian that the same part took in the beginning of the song). It transitions back to the familiar G-flat Lydian and then E-flat minor as the singer introduces himself as Kilroy.

Reception

Cash Box ''Cashbox'', also known as ''Cash Box'', was an American music industry trade magazine, originally published weekly from July 1942 to November 1996. Ten years after its dissolution, it was revived and continues as ''Cashbox Magazine'', an onli ...

'' reviewed the single, saying that "the group sings of the struggles of a creature with a human heart and an IBM brain. They communicate their message through such devices as a voice box intro and high tech, synth effects."

Personnel

- lead vocals, keyboards, synthesizer *

- guitar, backing vocals, vocoder * James Young - guitar, backing vocals, vocoder *

Chuck Panozzo Charles Salvatore Panozzo (born September 20, 1948) is an American musician best known as a co-founder of the rock band Styx. He is currently a part-time bass player in the band, sharing bass duties with Ricky Phillips. Panozzo suffers from HIV ...

- bass guitar *

John Panozzo John Anthony Panozzo (September 20, 1948 – July 16, 1996) was an American drummer best known for his work with rock band Styx. Early life and career Panozzo grew up in the Roseland neighborhood, the south side of Chicago, Illinois, with his ...

- drums

Music video

The song's video, directed by Brian Gibson, depicts Jonathan Chance (played by guitarist

) walking into the Rock Museum to meet Kilroy, and a robot approaches. After this, it morphs into five robots moving and dancing (choreographed by

Kenny Ortega Kenneth John Ortega (born April 18, 1950) is an American filmmaker, touring manager, and choreographer. He is known for directing the films ''Newsies'', '' Hocus Pocus'', ''The Cheetah Girls 2'', '' High School Musical'', '' Michael Jackson's T ...

). Shortly thereafter, the robots transform into the members of Styx, including a clean-shaven

(he shaved his trademark moustache off at the conclusion of the Paradise Theater tour in 1982). The video then alternates between the band playing the song on a stage and scenes from the ''Kilroy Was Here'' backdrop film. Then, the members of Styx morph back into the robots and DeYoung confronts the robots, screaming in the ear of one of the robots before collapsing. DeYoung awakens to see he is being experimented on and runs off. The video cuts back to the ending of the first scene and Jonathan Chance climbs on to the stage. Before the robot removes his mask to reveal Kilroy, another shot of the robot with lights on is used to end the clip. Playing Mr. Roboto in the video was mime Robert Griffard.

Single release

The song was released as a 45 RPM single in a 4:48 single edit, which has the

synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis a ...

intro and a bar at the finale removed (available on ''Greatest Hits'' released by PolyTel in Canada in 1992), with the song " Snowblind" (from their previous album '' Paradise Theatre'') as the

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph records and cassettes; these terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or record compan ...

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end chart

Certifications

References

External links

StyxCollector.com: Center For Roboto Research And Preservation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mister Roboto 1983 singles 1983 songs Styx (band) songs Cashbox number-one singles Oricon International Singles Chart number-one singles RPM Top Singles number-one singles Songs written by Dennis DeYoung A&M Records singles Songs about robots Songs about fictional male characters Japan in non-Japanese culture