journey don't stop believin album

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Don’t Stop Believin’: Journey Greatest Hits Album Reaches Rare Milestone

by Erinn Callahan April 17, 2024, 4:36 pm

Arena rock legends Journey are still going strong after half a century . Drop by any karaoke bar and you’ll hear a medley of their greatest hits: “Any Way You Want It,” “Lights,” “Wheel in the Sky.” The timelessness of these tracks likely contributed to the “Don’t Stop Believin'” stars’ latest milestone. Journey’s 1988 Greatest Hits compilation recently joined an exclusive club.

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“don’t stop believin'”: journey notches how many weeks on the billboard 200 .

Multiple outlets reported Wednesday (April 17) that Journey’s Greatest Hits has entered its 800th week on the Billboard 200 .

I love Journey and Steve Perry is always that band for me! — darkstrm01 (@JohnZatt1482) April 17, 2024

The “Lovin’, Touchin’, Squeezin'” artists are only the third-ever musical act to achieve this feat, and they are among legends. Pink Floyd joined the club in 2012 with their 1973 opus Dark Side of the Moon . The late Bob Marley arrived there last September with his 1984 compilation album Legend .

Metallica is also jockeying for its place in history, as their 1991 self-titled record has spent 746 weeks on the list. Creedence Clearwater Revival reached the 600-week (non-consecutive) in August 2022 with Chronicle: The 20 Greatest Hits .

Journey’s  Greatest Hits  debuted on the Billboard 200 on Dec. 3, 1988. The LP  peaked at No. 10  on Feb. 11, 1989.

The compilation record sports two Top 5 hits, “Open Arms” and “Who’s Crying Now.” Journey’s Greatest Hits compilation also includes four Top 10 hits and three Top 20 tracks.

“Don’t Stop Believin” Reaches Its Own Milestone

“Don’t Stop Believin'” is arguably Journey’s most recognizable hit. Who among us hasn’t joined a room full of people in crooning, Some’ll win, some’ll lose / Some were born to sing the blues ?

Last month, Forbes named the 1981 single — off Escape , the band’s seventh studio album — as its “Biggest Song Of All Time.” And, well… former Journey frontman Steve Perry couldn’t believe it.

[RELATED: Steve Perry Era Journey Songs That Are Impossible Not To Sing Along To]

“I was so emotionally stunned,” Perry wrote in a March 20 Instagram post.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Steve Perry (@steveperrymusic)

He continued, “To be part of such a moment as this made me reflect on my parents. By that I mean, though I lost them both years ago, I was so happy for them because they are truly the reason this is happening. My dad was a singer and both of them were very musical. So on behalf of my Mom and Dad, I thank every one of you for so many years of support.”

Featured image by Rob Loud/Getty Images for Journey

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Journey’s Bassist Ross Valory Opens Up About the Band’s Saga — And His Adventurous Solo Album

By Andy Greene

Andy Greene

Ross Valory has dreamed of making a solo album ever since he started gigging around San Francisco in the late Sixties, but other projects kept getting in the way. He was in the process of amassing original songs in 1971 when the Steve Miller Band brought him into the fold to play bass on Rock Love . Later, he teamed up with ex-members of Santana to form the Golden Gate Rhythm Section. Within a few months, they changed their name to Journey .

The upside to all this is that Valory has finally been able to finish his solo LP All of the Above, which arrives April 12. “I took the energy and the focus of what I was doing on tour with Journey and began recording my own material,” he tells Rolling Stone via Zoom from his home in East Bay, California. “All of these songs have been waiting. Some of them go back decades. I wanted to finish what I started.”

Growing up in Lafayette, California, Valory heard his parents playing Nat King Cole, Bing Crosby, Perry Como, and Andy Williams around the house at a young age. He sang with a men’s chorus while in high school, competed in a cappella tournaments around the state, and learned to play clarinet, ukulele, and guitar. He didn’t pick up the bass until he was 16 and a new kid at school invited him into his soul band under the condition he learn the instrument.

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Valory has done very few interviews over the years, preferring to let his bandmates tell the story of Journey. We took this opportunity to hear the saga from his perspective, and learn all about the creation of All of the Above.

You were briefly in the Steve Miller Band prior to Journey. What was your experience like making Rock Love ? Rock Love was very experimental. Steve Miller was going through his last throes with Mercury Records. So to him, Rock Love was an obligation. It didn’t matter whether they promoted it or sold it or not. But he met his contract, so he was very experimental.

And [drummer] Jack King and I, having come from the experimental music scene of San Francisco, were very agreeable to that. So Rock Love is probably the one-off album of Steve’s career. It’s unlike anything else he did before or afterwards.

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You were a supergroup of sorts. This was a time when a lot of supergroups were forming. Known members of bands would get together and do an album project and even do a tour. But there was also a stigma attached to the supergroup thing. It was becoming very unpredictable. A lot of supergroups were getting together, they’d make an album, and then they’d split. They wouldn’t even play, or they’d do half a tour and then split up. So the supergroup idea only worked so far for us.

You guys made three records. You toured a ton. Did you start to get frustrated that the records weren’t selling better despite all the hard work? Actually, it’s quite the opposite. All three of those albums went gold, and gold in those days means 500,000 copies. The standard changed in later years to $500,000 worth of product. But for each of those three albums to sell 500,000 copies is no sharp stick in the eye. However, we were signed with a major record label who goes, “Okay, that’s fine, but let’s look at the long term here. Let’s see how we can sell more records.”

And so the band appreciably and agreeably was able to adapt, and it changed to a more popular music, song oriented, vocally oriented format, and the eventual arrival by 1978 of Steve Perry .

What’s your first memory of Steve Perry? I was in the position to actually hear the demo album that he had done with the band he had been working with prior to Journey, the Alien Project, in which the bassist had died in a car accident and the project fell apart. I had the opportunity to listen to that cassette, and I was simply amazed by it. What a voice.

Did you feel a spark the first time you played with him? Absolutely. Some of the first songs we developed were “Lights” and “Wheel in the Sky.” It was absolute magic.

“Wheel in the Sky” was partially credited to your wife at the time, Diane Valory. My now ex-wife was a part composer along with Gregg Rolie, Neal Schon, and Robert Fleischman, who briefly was in the band before Steve Perry. He began to work that song up until Perry’s involvement.

Why did Gregg Rolie leave the band? I think he just got tired of slogging it out. It was his second career after a lengthy one in Santana, and so it was time for him to bow out.

How did the addition of Jonathan Cain change the sound of the group? He completely added the magical combination that we already had with me, Neal, and Steve Perry. He had a different style of playing for sure. It solidified everything. That was obvious on Escape and Frontiers , which was some of the best work we ever did.

Were you stunned when the group suddenly scaled up into arenas and landed these giant hits on the radio? There was something that we all felt, especially with Steve Perry’s arrival. We knew that this was going to work. It was just intuitive, a gut feeling. But I must tell you, to be driving in a car and have the radio on and to hear “Wheel in the Sky” play was momentous. And then beyond that, to be performing in the larger venues and having audiences that were attuned to what we were doing and loving it was also momentous.

The tour schedule back then was pretty grueling. You went out for months and months without any breaks. Did it ever start to burn you out? I can’t say grueling, but it was certainly a lot of work. So many people have this impression of rock stars where it’s all la-dee-da and martinis by the pool. Not really. It’s a whole lot of work. And Journey was so busy from 1972 through at least 1984 or so. It was a lot of work. It can be tiring, especially for a singer.

When the group took that break after 1983 and Steve had those solo hits, did you think the band was over? No, I didn’t. But certainly people had their own solo projects that they wanted to pursue. I didn’t think it was over at the time.

How did you find out that you and Steve Smith were out of the band in 1986? Well, that was something that Herbie imparted, but it was pretty evident that the majority of the players wanted to take a different direction, a different approach in style, and that was their prerogative.

Steve Perry said later that it was a mistake and he regrets it. Well, good for him. But you can look back at all that…it’s so long ago. There’s no judgment at this point. It was probably a wrong move, but it was a short move. It was one album and one tour. There were some good songs on that album, and it did keep the band’s brand alive.

Why didn’t the band last longer? We were the first band signed to Interscope Records. They loved the album. They did pretty well promoting it. We landed a very good spot opening up for Bryan Adams for an entire tour. But then again, it was a Bryan Adams crowd, and I can’t say that the audiences were entirely tuned into the Storm and its music, but as the tour progressed, it started to really work.

Then we went back and recorded the second album and presented it to Interscope, and they said, “This is great. This is brilliant. It’s even better than the first one. But while you were away, we no longer have a promotional department for that kind of music.”

The industry decided way back then, “We don’t want to sell this. We’d rather get new bands that we can get a lot less expensively and that we can get a piece of their publishing on. And if it doesn’t work, we have not lost an investment. And if it does, we are in the money.” That’s a very cynical but accurate outlook of what the industry was at the time.

A few years later, you reunited with Steve Perry and Journey for Trial by Fire. What a pleasant surprise. What a great idea. And it was by the efforts of John Kalodner, a major exec at CBS/Sony. It’s a project that I’m very proud of with some great music. What a great occasion to bring those people back together and accomplish what we did.

It was the thing everyone wanted to see, which was the five of you back in a room together. Yeah. There was some good material with “When You Love a Woman,” Message of Love,” and “If He Should Break Your Heart.” Unfortunately, Steve was suffering from systemic arthritis that attacked his hips. He just could not continue well enough to do the subsequent tour. So the project for the five of us ended with the recording of the album and the one video for “When You Love a Woman.”

Steve Smith decided that without the original members, it would not be worth his while. But there’s another aspect there. Steve is a major jazz artist. So that’s when we brought in Deen Castronovo from Bad English. And Steve Augeri, to answer your question, I think was a great, great candidate.

You guys toured like maniacs and really built the band up again. Right. It was just reinventing ourselves. We continued to work with Steve Augeri until 2006 when his voice failed. Now I should comment about this to give perspective on why and how something like that happens. At that point, we were not flogging it as much as we were in the old days. We were paying more attention to spacing out the number of shows, especially the number of consecutive shows in a week, to give the singer a break.

There are about 18 hits that any given audience would generally like to hear. To perform all of those songs in one night, four to five nights a week, is something that not even Steve Perry could have done.

This is not to disrespect his talent and his strength in those days, but to perform all of those hits in one night, I wouldn’t want the job. It is no surprise that Steve Augeri’s voice failed. That’s a big workload.

Many fans felt Steve Augeri was lip-syncing in his final shows. Is that true? Oh, that’s not true. But that’s the old Milli Vanilli thing. Not at all.

You brought in Jeff Scott Soto after that. He’s a great singer, but maybe not quite right for that material. Jeff is a fine singer and a great entertainer, but it just was a little different. And in the process of writing new material for another album, Jeff and the other writers didn’t really fall into sync. There was not enough in common. So Jeff certainly stepped in and did what he did on short notice. What a guy.

And then suddenly the band is on Oprah and seemingly everywhere. It was just this crazy resurgence. Yes, it was. All that time and energy in building the band’s presence and validity from 1998 to around 2008, that played a big part in it. I think all the time and energy spent by all of us, including Steve Augeri, really helped. The arrival of Arnel is striking and notable, but it is really based on all the footwork we had done to work our way back into the industry.

Did you talk to Steve Perry during the band’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction? I sure did. I went and paid a little visit. He had a little room in the back. And what a pleasant experience that was. On a side note, there was a very brief soundcheck, and I was having problems hearing my own instrument. There was distortion and glitches in the system, and the soundcheck ended before I could sort that out. It was like, “I’m sorry, we’re out of time.” So the performance likewise was equally difficult for me.

That’s just the way it goes. It was like, “Gee, here it is. This is the moment, and I don’t have time to fix a problem.” That’s a distraction from the greater magic of that night.

A few years later, all these feuds erupt in the press between members of the band. You were largely on the sidelines, but it must have been painful to watch. Yeah. It was painful for everybody involved.

Do you regret visiting the Trump White House with Arnel and Jonathan? Not at all. My intention there was to privately have a VIP tour of the White House, regardless of who was sitting in the Oval Office. That’s what I wanted. It was an opportunity. I wanted to see the White House and get the special tour, which I did. It was amazing. I didn’t see any of it as a political statement or an alignment, whatever.

Do you miss the concerts and being part of the band? Of course. What an amazing experience. I am so blessed to have spent the better part of 50 years in a band that’s remarkable. All the fine players and singers that have come through the room that I had the privilege of performing with, including the current players. These are all brilliant, talented people, whether they are present in the band or not. What an experience, from this experimental fusion band into one of the top-rated popular bands. This is a band that reinvented itself twice. But to answer your question, certainly I miss it. I miss performing, and eventually I will be doing so on my own.

Tell me about the history of your solo album All Of The Above. It goes back a long time, and it does stem from all the influences I’ve taken on since childhood. I was very busy for decades with Journey and other bands. The material that I’d been writing over the years since 1970 began piling up on the back shelf and were just sitting there. Many of these songs were complete or at least a solid concepts for songs. And I decided about 10 years ago, “Why wait till I retire? Why not get started now?” So I took the energy and the focus of what I was doing on tour with Journey, and began recording my own material here in the East Bay 10 or 12 years ago.

Who plays on it with you? It begins with [keyboardist] Eric Levy. He’s an amazing talent that played in the [jazz fusion band] Garaj Mahal. He’s been performing with Night Ranger for many years. The first song we recorded together for the album was “Wild Kingdom.” And he’s the only player besides myself who appears on all the songs.

He came in, and Eric and I had put together a demo of the arrangement. Karl brought in Walfredo de los Reyes Jr., a fine Cuban-American drummer who had played with Santana before. And both of them laid down the basic tracks for that song. Eric and I worked our parts up, and then we brought in Marc Russo of the Yellowjackets and the Doobie Brothers to do the saxophone work.

What’s the oldest song on the album? “Tomland” goes back to about 1970.

Pretty amazing you’ve been working on this stuff for well over 50 years. There’s the date of inspiration or inception, and then there’s the date of recording that could be decades apart. And the order of the songs in the album is not chronological either.

It’s largely a collection of original instrumentals, but you also include a cover of War’s “Low Rider.” That was just almost willy-nilly. It just so happened that I had the availability of Les Stroud, the harmonica player who’s better known as Survivorman on television. He happened to be rolling through town. I got his harmonica parts laid down. I also had the benefit of having [drummer] Greg Errico from Sly Stone. That’s the perfect guy for that kind of song. It just all happened very, very quickly.

After all these years or being in a band, how did it feel to finally be the one calling the shots? There’s so many aspects of the project, in terms of not just writing and arranging the songs, but also publicizing it. I’m familiar with all of that, but it’s surreal because I’m doing it on my own. I’m talking to a guy from Rolling Stone right now. It’s not like this is my first rodeo, but it’s my first rodeo by myself.

Are you going to tour it? Not at this time. Right now I’m in the process of promoting the album. I’m also at the same time, in my off hours, working on the new material, so there’s this balance there. I’d love to play shows, but I am not yet equipped to do that. I would want it to be right. I would want it to be sophisticated. I would want to have the right players for the right songs in the same room at the same time.

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Are you contact with any of them? No. We’ve all moved on. That’s not to say that I couldn’t or wouldn’t. It just happens to be that way at this time. They continue to play and they will do well. I wish everyone the best.

Is it a strange thought that they’re onstage most every night with someone else playing your parts? It’s not strange anymore. It’s become something that was a long time ago. I’m immersed into something now that’s equally fulfilling to me.

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Don't Stop Believin' by Journey

Songfacts®:

• Journey's most enduring song, this track has a unique structure, which helps it stick in your mind. Where most songs have a chorus that's repeated several times, "Don't Stop Believin'" brings in its chorus (and title) only at the end - about 3:20 into the song. The structure goes: instrumental, first verse, instrumental, second verse, first pre-chorus, instrumental, third verse, second pre-chorus, instrumental, and then finally the chorus until fade-out. It was not their biggest chart hit (that would be " Open Arms "), but is by far Journey's most famous song, thanks to a resurgence in the '00s.
• The line, "Strangers waiting, up and down the Boulevard" is a reference to Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, where dreams are made. Keyboard player Jonathan Cain got the idea for the song when he went there to pursue his career. In his Songfacts interview , Cain said: "The song began with the chorus. My father had coached me. I was in Hollywood, struggling with my career, kind of lost. I was asking him, 'Should I come back to Chicago and just give up on this dream?' And he said, 'No, son. Stay the course. We have a vision. It's gonna happen. Don't stop believin'.'" Cain's dream came true when he joined a group called The Babys with John Waite. In 1980, he joined Journey in San Francisco, and this song took shape. He told Steve Perry about his idea for placing the song in Sunset Boulevard, and Perry had him describe it. "I described the menagerie of people who would show up on a Friday night," Cain said. "All the dreamers that had dreams to become actors. Producers, artists, lawyers, anything... they were all there on a Friday night."
• Journey lead singer Steve Perry, keyboard player Jonathan Cain and guitarist Neal Schon are the credited songwriters on this one, but the entire band contributed. In the Time3 compilation, the genesis of this song is explained: "At the band's Oakland warehouse, this song bubbled out of a rehearsal. Schon developed the bass riff, the chugging guitar line and the sweeping chords on the chorus. Steve Smith built the song around a pattern featuring a lot of tom-toms, anchoring the number to a rich drum figure. Perry and Cain drew from their experiences with the Sunset Strip street scene for the lyrics, 'streetlight people.'"
• Speaking with New York Magazine , Perry explained that the song originated during a series of gigs in Detroit when he found himself in a hotel room unable to sleep, staring out of the window: Strangers waiting, up and down the boulevard Their shadows searching in the night Streetlight people, living just to find emotion Hiding, somewhere in the night "I was digging the idea of how the lights were facing down, so that you couldn't see anything," he recalled. "All of a sudden I'd see people walking out of the dark, and into the light. And the term 'streetlight people' came to me. So Detroit was very much in my consciousness when we started writing."
• The popular resurgence of this song can be traced to its use in the 2003 movie Monster , which was based on the true story of the female serial killer Aileen Wuornos. The film was not widely seen but drew critical raves and a Best Actress Oscar for Charlize Theron, who portrayed Wuornos. In the movie, the song comes on when Wuornos and Selby Wall (played by Christina Ricci) are skating to it in a roller rink. They mention how they love the song, and as it builds, so does their passion, and they end up kissing outside the rink. The use of "Don't Stop Believin'" in this critically adored scene got the attention of the Hollywood community, who saw the emotion the song could bring out and no longer thought of it as a nostalgia track. Requests started pouring in to use the song in a variety of movies and TV shows, and soon another generation was familiar with the song. So how did it get in Monster in the first place? The film's director Patty Jenkins used it when they shot the scene and knew it fit perfectly. She sent the band members viewing copies of the film and asked permission to use it on a short budget. Perry called her back and not only gave approval, but helped her select music for the rest of the film; he's credited as a music consultant.
• The song was written to give the audience a connection with the band, a goal it achieved. Jonathan Cain told Songfacts: "It was the first attempt to bring an audience into the band's world. We're singing for you. We're singing about your world now. So, it was a departure from what they had been doing before. What I wanted to do was get a little Bruce Springsteen going on. Bruce was the master of that, bringing his audience into his songs. I was a huge fan of Bruce's."
• Speaking with the British radio station Planet Rock in 2010, Steve Perry said of this song: "Personally, it's something that means a lot to me. Everybody has emotional issues and problems, and the song has helped me personally to not give up, and I'm finding a lot of people feel that."
• This is the first track on Journey's seventh album, Escape . It was chosen to lead the album because, according to Cain, "With that piano line, it just sounds like a book opening up."
• The song got a boost when it was used as the closing number in Rock of Ages , a jukebox musical featuring hits of the '80s. The show ran on Broadway from 2009-2015, and in 2012 was made into a movie starring Tom Cruise. It's an appropriate choice, as Rock of Ages takes place on Sunset Boulevard, which is also the primary setting for the song.
• In the last ever episode of the TV show The Sopranos , which aired June 10, 2007, Tony Soprano plays this song on a jukebox during the final scene. The episode abruptly ends with the lyrics "Don't Stop" as the scene cuts to black. Steve Perry said in People magazine June 13, 2007: "I needed to know how this song was going to be used. I didn't want the song to be part of a blood-bath, if that was going to be the closing moment. In order for me to feel good about approving the song use, they had to tell me what happened. And they made me swear that I would not tell anybody."
• This was featured in an episode of the TV show Scrubs called "My Journey." Other television series and films to use "Don't Stop Believin'" include South Park , The Wedding Singer , Shrek the Halls , Bedtime Stories , Yes Dear , King of the Hill , The Comebacks , View from the Top , Cold Case , CSI: Crime Scene Investigation , My Name Is Earl , Just Shoot Me and Laguna Beach .
• In November 2008 it was announced that this track had become the first song available in the pre-digital era to sell more than 2 million downloads through iTunes. The track's popularity increased significantly after its appearance in the final episode of The Sopranos . It also became one of the most popular karaoke songs in America in the late '00s.
• In May 2009 a remake by the cast of the Fox TV musical comedy Glee debuted at #4 on the Billboard Hot 100, five places higher than Journey's version ever reached. It was performed in the season pilot and became part of the soundtrack album Glee: The Music, Volume 1 . By the end of 2009, the digital download had earned 500,000 digital sales. The Glee version was performed on Sesame Street with monsters portraying the cast. The bit featured the letter G, so the lyrics were adapted to "Don't stop G-ing."
• Believing in yourself and following your passion are ideals Steve Perry holds dear. When Randy Jackson, who used to play bass with Journey, was a judge on the singing competition American Idol , he asked Perry to come on as a guest judge. Perry turned him down, saying, "I don't feel good about sitting in judgment of anyone's honest passion to perform or their talent. If someone has a passion to perform, they should do it no matter what anyone says." Perry added: "I was passed on in the music business many, many times before Herbie [Journey manager Walter Herbert] heard my demo and believed in me. That was the moment that changed my life and I'm still forever grateful to him for believing in me. The hardest part is to keep believing in what you love when others tell you that you are not good at it."
• MTV went on the air shortly before this song was released. The band made a Spartan performance video for it in an empty arena, apparently at a soundcheck. They made a better one with footage from a Houston stop on their Escape tour, which became the official video that shows up on their VEVO account. Neither video got much love on MTV, which preferred concept videos.
• In the UK, this song peaked at #62 when it was first released. In November 2009, it was rereleased after Joe McEldry sang it on the TV show X-Factor , and this time, it climbed to #19. Joe McElderry won the competition, and franchise boss Simon Cowell wanted to release his version of the song as the single in the aftermath of the teenage singer's victory. However, Journey declined and Cowell instead arranged for McElderry to cover Miley Cyrus' track " The Climb ." Guitarist Neal Schon explained to The Sun : "We knew about Joe's version because Simon had contacted our management. He wanted to re-do the song with a different arrangement. We listened to it. We declined. There was nothing wrong with the original version - if it's not busted, let's not fix it." Schon added that Journey were aware they were possibly passing up a UK #1 hit. "Randy Jackson, who was on American Idol with Simon, was stressing that we should let him do it because it would probably go to #1. But we stuck to our decision."
• In the UK, the Glee Cast version debuted at #5 on the UK singles chart dated January 17, 2010, one place above Journey's original recording. It was the first instance of two versions of the same song sitting at back to back positions on the chart since December 2008 when Alexandra Burke's take on " Hallelujah " was at #1 with Jeff Buckley's version one place behind.
• The song starts with Perry singing about a young couple from two different backgrounds: Just a small town girl, livin' in a lonely world She took the midnight train goin' anywhere Just a city boy, born and raised in south Detroit He took the midnight train goin' anywhere But hang on a sec, any good Motor City citizen will tell you, there is no location called South Detroit; Detroit, Michigan, distinguishes only between an East Side and a West Side. If you go south in Detroit ("down-river"), you end up in Canada. Perry admitted to New York Magazine that he wasn't overly concerned with being geographically accurate. "I ran the phonetics of east, west, and north, but nothing sounded as good or emotionally true to me as South Detroit," he said. "The syntax just sounded right. I fell in love with the line. It's only been in the last few years that I've learned that there is no South Detroit. But it doesn't matter."
• This was used in the 1982 Atari video game Journey Escape . The song played in the background while you controlled various band members, helping them find the space ship while avoiding groupies and evil promoters. Computer graphics were pretty bad back then, so the groupies were represented as hearts with legs, and the promoters were floating heads. In fact, the very game was created to be based on the band Journey and the album Escape .
• This was one of the first Journey songs on which keyboard player Jonathan Cain played. He replaced Gregg Rolle for the Escape album.
• Lady Gaga, Elton John, Bruce Springsteen, Sting, Blondie and Shirley Bassey performed this at the finale of a Rainforest Fund benefit at Carnegie Hall in May 2010.
• This song was used in a 2005 episode of animated TV series Family Guy where Peter, Joe, Cleveland, and Quagmire did a drunken karaoke rendition of the song. ITunes was catching on at this point, and after this episode aired there was a spike in download sales of the song. >> Suggestion credit : Bert - Pueblo, NM
• Journey toured to support this album, but they interrupted their tour to open for The Rolling Stones in Philadelphia on September 25, 1981. It was The Stones first show on their North American tour.
• This became the anthem of the Chicago White Sox during their 2005 season in which they won the World Series. Steve Perry attended the last game of the Series and sang the song at their victory parade. Perry's allegiance though, is to his hometown team the San Francisco Giants. He was often seen supporting the team when they won World Series titles in 2010, 2012 and 2014. Perry would sometimes lead the crowd in singing along to "Don't Stop Believin'" when it was played between innings at games.
• Steve Perry severed ties with Journey in 1998 when he needed hip replacement surgery and couldn't give his bandmates a return date. Anxious to tour, they replaced him with the similar sounding Steve Augeri, and later with Arnel Pineda. For Journey fans, a dream scenario finds Perry reuniting with the band, triumphantly taking the helm on "Don't Stop Believin'" in an affirmation of unity and faith. But every year, they scenario seems less likely. In 2017 when they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Perry attended but didn't perform with the band, which did three songs (including this one) with Pineda. When Perry emerged with a solo album, Traces , in 2018, he offered some insight into his split with the band and his absence. "My love for music had suddenly left me," he said. "If music was ever to return to my heart, then and only then I would figure out what to do. If not... so be it, for I had already lived the dream of dreams." Journey first fractured in 1987 after touring for their Raised On Radio album. This was Perry's doing, as he was burned out and worried about keeping his voice healthy. But it was Perry who initiated their return, calling Cain in 1995 to talk about getting back together. This resulted in the 1996 album Trial by Fire ; Perry's hip condition emerged after it was finished.
• "Don't Stop Believin'" powered Journey's 1988 Greatest Hits album to a whopping 15 million in US sales ( Escape sold 9 million), making it one of the best-selling compilation albums in history. In 2001, they released another compilation, The Essential Journey , which sold another 2 million.
• During the 2020 pandemic, some hospitals used the song as a rallying call for patients recovering from COVID-19 and those treating them. The New York-Presbyterian Queens Hospital, for instance, played "Don't Stop Believin'" throughout the building each time they discharged a coronavirus patient.
• In 2020, Ladbaby, a UK duo comprising YouTuber Mark Hoyle and his wife Roxanne, released a playful twist on this song titled " Don't Stop Me Eatin' ." Recorded to raise money for foodbank charity The Trussell Trust, Ladbaby's single was the UK's Official Christmas #1 that year.
• "Don't Stop Believin'" was honored by the Library of Congress, which added it to the National Recording Registry in 2022. Steve Perry said: "That song, over the years, has become something that has a life of its own. It's about the people who've embraced it and found the lyrics to be something they can relate to and hold onto and sing."
• On January 26, 2024, the RIAA certified "Don't Stop Believin'" at 18x Platinum, a jump from 5x Platinum in 2013. The new certification reflects streaming, and signals that the song is immensely popular across generations. Other songs to reach that milestone are all far more recent, like " Sunflower " by Post Malone. Based on these figures, it's safe to say that "Don't Stop Believin'" is the most widely popular song of all-time in America. You can play it to anyone and they'll certainly recognize the song and probably like it. The next-closest song from the pre-streaming era is Mariah Carey's " All I Want For Christmas Is You ," with a 14x Platinum certification in 2024.
• More songs from Journey
• More songs about perseverance
• More songs used in TV shows
• More songs used in movies
• More popular Karaoke songs
• More songs that were hits for more than one artist
• More songs covered by the Glee cast
• More songs that are discussed in movies
• More songs popular during the coronavirus pandemic
• More motivational songs
• More songs from 1981
• Lyrics to Don't Stop Believin'
• Journey Artistfacts

Comments: 119

• Chad Eicher from Apple Creek, Ohio This song has got to be one of the greatest hit songs that I knew the words to. The cast of the Fox television show "Glee" did their version of that hit song. It just blew me away.
• Rw Cain, at a songwriters festival in 2014, explained some parts of the song. The girl and guy story is like a version of Jack And Diane; they may not be real people. The trains moving at midnight is inspired by the song Midnight Train To Georgia. Live versions of the song, depending on the main vocalist, may change South Detroit to whatever city the band is playing in at that moment.
• Soulsoldseparately from Buffalo, Ny Does "city boy born and raised in South Detroit" refer to an actual person?
• Seventh Mist from 7th Heaven My daughter's favorite song. She often used it as inspiration once she was on her own and (seemingly) facing a new challenge every day. She never stopped believing.
• Susan from Illinois Question-asker from A Train Going Anywhere, I think the lyric means ourselves. The movie is our lives. I believe our lives on this planet will end, but our souls will live on and on in another place.
• Ronsha from New Jersey OMG. This song is so dang famous! People everywhere know this song. I swear to God it's even growing on the younger generations, including me. I used to hate it and think it's overrated, but deep down I always thought, oh darn, this song's catchy, who am I kidding? I'm 13 now and Don't Stop Believin' is one of the most uplifting songs I've ever heard. Not only the sound, but also the lyrics are beautiful. Good song to make you feel strong, nostalgic... it could make you cry too.
• Brett from Mason Whether we choose to hear Streetlight People for street lights, people Steve Perry came right out and said after a concert in Detroit he is looking out from his hotel room down on the street and there we're people just wandering around the street. Not necessarily prostitutes or any other specific type of people. More or less aimlessly wandering around Under The Lights doing nothing. Mendez for the South Detroit I don't think he was intending to give a geography lesson. He was making a song sound the best it could possibly be
• Mckinzie from United States This is my all time favorite song, I say that this is my song because I could relate to this song so much.
• Nick from Ohio This is the most played classic hit of all time. Who would have thought that a song that peaked at #9 would become the undisputed biggest song in history.
• Badintense from Erie Pa This song has crossed all generations and ethnicities as a beloved song. Last summer (2019) in my neighborhood a group of young black teens were hauling their giant boom box down the street blaring this song and singing the words perfectly as if they were in an adult karaoke bar. It actually brought a tear to my eye since I was a teen when this song first came out in 1981. Journey's music has really brought people together into a common bond no matter what the media tries to push on people.
• Question-asker from A Train Going Anywhere what does the lyric "Oh, the movie never ends It goes on and on, and on, and on" mean in this song?
• Seventhmist from 7th Heaven I recently took a long trip and played a Journey collection in my car, downloaded from a phone app. It contained a live version of this song, performed in Houston, that I hadn’t heard before. When Perry reached line about the boy, he sang, “Just a city boy, born and raised right here in Houston!” That definitely caught me by surprise.
• Jodie from Xx I'm pretty sure he's saying "streetlights, people". Not "streetlight people".
• Steve from Albany, Ny And the nonsense about Windsor being "considered" south Detroit continues to stick to the Wiki page like doodoo. LOL It's been said by many that you should never rely on Wiki as a source of reliable / accurate information. Very true.
• Charles from Charlotte The stuff about lowlife killer Eileen Wuernos kissing her female lover just sullies the discussion of a great American pop song. Wish Perry & Co, had said NO!! to that.
• Leonardo from Connecticut I would argue that the Sopranos season finale repopularized the song, not Monster...
• Tony from San Diego Steve Smith plays an amazing drum pattern during the choruses.
• Steve from Albany, Ny The info on the Wikipedia page for this song is inaccurate. And some moderator is allowing it to be there. I guess the following from John Cafferty & The Beaver Brown Band's song C-I-T-Y was actually referring to Windsor too: "On the South side of Detroit city I'm working all night on the line" Yep, definitely referring to Windsor, Ontario because everyone knows Windsor, Ontario is "considered" south Detroit. Right. LOL
• Steve from Albany, Ny Regarding "south Detroit", I'm simply going to paste in what I just got done explaining to a mod at Wiki who is apparently bent on leaving misinformation on the Wiki page for this song. Sorry but this is pretty simple stuff and anyone who doesn't get it is an imbecile. ........................ I'm guessing / just realizing that you're a type of moderator here. If you in fact have control over what info is on the page in question, it would be a HUGE wrong to leave in the very misleading entry you've re-submitted. Windsor, Ontario is south _OF_ Detroit, Michigan. Detroit, Michigan is the city that NUMEROUS bands would make reference to in their songs. Especially rock bands and especially during the 70s into the 80s. Not Windsor and not any other suburbs of Detroit that also lie south of Detroit (or "downriver"). The song simply makes reference to the south SIDE of Detroit. The quote by Perry makes it clear that the word south was only added because... well, try singing it without south and just a long INNNN in it's place. As the quote makes clear, the song would not have sounded right without south (or something) before the word Detroit. Not that it's is needed for most to understand that the song is referencing Detroit and only Detroit but there is also a quote by Perry in which he stated that Detroit was very much in their (the writers) minds as they wrote the song. Windsor is not a part of Detroit. The song makes reference to the south side of Detroit. If the entry about Windsor is left on the page, so be it, but it is completely misleading and wrong.
• John from Chino, Ca This song is played during the final minutes of Detroit Red Wings home games where it seems evident that the team will win. Played over the PA system, the song is muted so the crowd can sing the verse, "Born and raised in South Detroit."
• Barry from Sauquoit, Ny On December 13th 1981 "Don't Stop Believin'" by Journey peaked at #9 (for 3 weeks) on Billboard's Hot Top 100 chart; it had entered the chart on October 25th and spent 9 weeks on the Top 100... It reached #2 in Canada and #6 in the U.K. Was one of four tracks from the group's 1981 album 'Escape' to make the Top 100 (the others were "Who's Crying Now" (4), "Still They Ride" (#19) and "Open Arms" (#2)... And on September 12th, 1981 the album peaked at #1 (for 1 week) on Billboard's Top 200 Albums chart.
• Steve from Albany, Ny Some of the comments here regarding this song and it's mentioning of south Detroit are ridiculous. Saying there is no south Detroit is funny enough (there is a south side of any city and I was born and raised in SW Detroit myself) but I especially get a kick out of the people who say the song is referring to Windsor. If the following Steve Perry quote is accurate, "All of a sudden I'd see people walking out of the dark, and into the light. And the term 'streetlight people' came to me. So Detroit was very much in my consciousness when we started writing.", then the ONLY city being referenced in the song is Detroit. If by chance the lyrics were written as "South Detroit" as opposed to "south Detroit", I suppose that could indicate that Perry/ the writers were thinking of some area of Detroit or evena separate town with that name but it's not likely and that capital S is the only error here. There's nothing complicated here, the song simply refers to the south side of Detroit.
• Jay from Centereach, Long Island, Ny I am surprised that the "South Detroit" line is so controversial. As a New Yorker, and not wholly familiar with the local geography or the neighborhood names of Detroit, I always thought South Detroit simply meant the southern part of Detroit, much like the South Bronx is the southern part of the Bronx. But who cares? This is a great song; no one should be concerned about a geographic error.
• Deethewriter from Saint Petersburg, Russia Federation Neal Schon told RAW RAWK RU NEWS 2011-10-24 that the recent resurgence of "Don't Stop Believin'" after appearing on The Sopranos and Glee -- as well as becoming the first iTunes song to reach two million downloads -- is beyond his comprehension: "When the record came out, there were other songs that were actually bigger than that off it on radio. Y'know, to have it this many years later just come out and be bombastic (laughs) like never before, just like all over the place and just keep on . . . It just keeps on going. Y'know, it's just pretty amazing."
• Terry from Grafon, Wi This song should be the national anthem of the United States.
• Willie from Scottsdale, Az Bwaaahahaha! Now Michelle "White House Crasher" Salahi is shacking up with Neal Schon. Priceless.
• Ken from San Mateo, Ca Since last year's World Series victory, I will always associate this song to the Giants and the Bay Area. Absolutely one of the best songs!!!!
• Hannah from Gustavus, Oh I'm graduating this coming Sunday (May 29, 2011) and I couldn't be more thrilled that this was voted in as our class song. When they announced it at school you could hear people cheering. I think the reason it's such an enduring song for graduation is that unlike most of the class themes that get picked ("Good Riddance," "Here's to the Night," etc.) it's not about looking back and being sad it's over, but rather looking forward and realizing there is indeed life afterward. It's about living life to the fullest (the first verse) and how even though life is difficult ("some are born to sing the blues"), the important thing is to at least take chances and try ("roll the dice just one more time") - and of course, to not give up no matter what may happen, because everything will turn out just fine in the end.
• Michael from Cincinnati, Oh Journey's 1982 album "Eascape was made into a video game titled "Escape".It was produced by Atari for the 2600 model.It was made by Data Age in San Jose,Cal.The Object of the game was to help the band members "Escape" the fans chasing them around.Pretty cool game at the time.
• Steppy from Detroit, Mi *South Detroit Debate* I'm from metro Detroit (as well as a giant Journey fan) and had always wondered about the reference to South Detroit. I heard and interview a year or so ago with Steve Perry, where he addressed the issue. I listened to it online, maybe Youtube?, so the interview may have been old. At any rate, he said that after a concert in Detroit, he was sitting in his hotel room, very late, working on this song. The room was on a high floor and he was watching the people standing under the lights and pondering their lives ("streetlight people"). While he realized that South Detroit didn't really exist, he used a bit of artistic license, because it flowed better than East Detroit.
• Megan from Stevenson, Al Tell me why this is AMAZING?! lol This song is on a totally different level. Awesome.
• Jim from Long Beach, Ca Great song. South Detroit=Winsor,Ontario,Canada.....
• Jay from St Paul, Mn I listened to a few interviews Steve has given. He said he used South Detroit because it sounded better than North, East or West. He said he didn't realize there was no South Detroit. He jokingly said he found out South Detroit was actually Windsor. As far as streetlight people, he said it's something that he noticed when he looked out of a hotel window. If you Youtube it, you can find the interviews. Very worth while.
• Ken from San Mateo, Ca What a song...Like the Chisox, this also became a tribute song for the 2010 World Champion San Francisco Giants! And Journey is from this area, so it makes better sense.
• Bobby from Belleville, Nj While Journey's version is a classic, back in 2008 before it was used in Sopranos, freestyle artist George LaMond remade the song into a pop/dance version. And a very good one, I might add.
• Barry from Sauquoit, Ny Five years before Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" Olivia Newton-John had a completely different record with the same title, it peaked at No. 33...
• Bd from Vienna, Va Probably worth noting in the brouhaha about Journey turning down a cover of this song is that Randy Jackson was in the band for a while in the mid-80s before their first breakup.
• Rob from Fredericton, Nb One of the many anthems most prominiately found in the 80s hall of great music. For every song played on the radio, this one song sticks out the most when I use to go to a carnival in my hometown. With the smell of fries, hotdogs and other foods lingering in the air, you could always hear a Journey tune blaring in the background while everyone enjoyed riding the many rides at this carnival. So when you take an experience, like a carnival, and feature all of it's pleasantries you soon inaugurate any song from the 80s, namely a Journey tune, and the picture is complete. Such a great band and such a great song.
• Sara from Detroit, Mi And for those of you that want to split hairs, Look on the map of Detroit. Melvindale, Ecorse, Lincoln Park, Ecorse, Delray, Allen Park, Southgate, Taylor, River Rouge, Wyandotte. These are all blue collar or very poor areas, and most people worked for the Big 3 auto companies. This area is called "Downriver" as it is south of Detroit. Detroit itself is a pretty small city. What most people think is Detroit is any one of the suburbs that lies within or outside of Detroit's city limits. Oak Park, Hazel Park, Highland Park, and Hamtramck, are all INSIDE the City Limits. Where as Dearborn, Dearborn Heights, Southfield, Eastpointe, are OUTSIDE of Detroit's City Limits...yet most people consider it part of the greater metro area. When the word METRO is used by itself all over the country it means DETROIT METRO. We were the first place to use the term "Metro" as a colloquial term for a specific large area, as Detroit was the first city in the country to spread out that fast with that large of a population. The city of Detroit itself, is small.
• Sara from Detroit, Mi You are all VERY WRONG about the South Detroit explanation. To those of us who are FROM Detroit and GREW UP THERE....SOUTH DETROIT IS ANYTHING SOUTH OF I-96...a.k.a "Downriver" ....There has NEVER been a place CALLED South Detroit. It's like being in any big city, the term is more loosely used, than say "South Philly", "South-Central L.A." "Southside Of Chicago". Yes Eastpointe was East Detroit but that has absolutely NOTHING to do with this, you don't see a "West Detroit" on the map do you? As for the lyrics it IS in fact "Streetlights, People". It's amazing how many Americans struggle with their own native language!
• Carrie from Roanoke, Va Petra Haden does a cover version of this song.
• Karen from Manchester, Nh I have loved this song for years...until I heard that it was the closing song on the piece of filth that is titled "The Sopranos".
• Jose from Brisbane, Australia Please tour Australia! I know it's hard because for some reason, Australia never really got into Journey... sad lot we are.
• Nikki from Yamba, Australia greta song... love that it has on family guy.. scrubs... the sapranos... the wedding singer and love when LC and stephen sing it on the second series of laguna beach!
• Ellen from Chicago, Il A great song. See Wikipedia's article (search the song title) for additional details as to what exactly is meant by "South Detroit" - in the section called "Sports".
• Rahul from Chennai, India absolutely beautiful song....
• Stu from Philly, Pa They've been quoted as saying "it's streetlight people, we're talking about prostitutes." At any rate, check the lyrics book that came with the album. One of the greatest songs of all time, it was a real treat to see the cast of Glee perform it on that new TV show. One of the best non-Journey renditions of it. My band Raised On Radio usually starts our sets with this song.
• Mike from Brighton, Ma To answer the age old question, "South Detroit" actually refers Southfield, Michigan. (Southfield, ironcally is north of Detroit.) In the 1980s, Journey played many charity soft ball games with WRIF-FM (The Riff).
• Brendan from Cape Town, South Africa The line after "streetlights, people" sounds like "heaven just a fun emotion" Any other suggestions?
• Allen from Knoxville, Tn On the University Of Tennessee campus, somebody has spray painted on the stop signs "dont STOP believin'" Great song, even 27 years after it was released!
• Katie from St. Paul, Mn The lyrics say "Streetlights, people...", not "Streetlight people".
• Josh from Indianapolis, In Journey Rocks Big Time!!!!!!!!!!!!! thers not a song by them i dont like> Rock on!
• Bob from Dumbsville, Belarus Wow this song is beautiful! Everytime I'm down, I listen to it and it gets me back on my feet again. This song just defines 80s music. Journey will just never be the same without Steve Perry leading their crusade.
• Morten from Sydney, Australia I'm an 80's music tragic but suprisingly had never heard of this song! Thanks to Family Guy for introducing me to this gem! -Morten, Sydney, Australia
• Dean from Windsor, On I would just like to inform all those people who say this song isn't about Windsor. When "South Detroit" is mentioned the city of Windsor is what they are talking about. Windsor is actually SOUTH of Detroit. If your ever around my town and stand at the river your compass will point north. Enjoy!
• Julie from Taylor, Tx When this song comes on...me and best friend victoria go crazy! it's their best song. Classic 80's!
• Melanie from Seattle, Wa Scott from Boston - what a cool story! Haha I want to go write that on a stop sign now! :D This song is sooo good. Journey's best IMO. Steve's voice is amazing.
• Neil from Ottawa, Canada This song was sung by the football team in the 2007 film "The Comebacks". One of the players starts singing it in the change-room, and it turns in to a full-stage concert. It mocks the sports movie cliche of teams turning it around with an uplifting theme song, and also references the Chicago White Sox World Series.
• Liquid Len from Ottawa, Canada What a great song! The only song Journey did in the 80s that wasn't horrid!
• Fredrik from Stockholm, Sweden This song was also featured in the South Park episode "tsst" when Cartman is plugging in his X-Box. He sings the lines "Don't stop believing, hold on to your feelings"
• Krista from Elyria, Oh I love Journey! And I love it when ametuers sing the lyrics! But I HATE baseball cards...
• Scott from Boston, Ma During cross country last year there was a stop sign we always ran by during practice and it said "don't" above it and "believing" below it. It became our team's song and we often sang it very out of tune during runs. Also, that Family Guy episode is awesome (as most are). "Oh my god, that is Journey!"
• Michael from San Diego, Ca One of the most beautiful songs of all time...if this song doesn't get to you, then you may need to check your pulse!
• Richie from Sedalia, Mo Edgar, Kings Park, NY Better luck next time!!
• Edgar from Kings Park, Ny This song reminds me of my failed suicide attempt. Well... there's always next time.
• Brian from Portage, Mi Yes, Detroit is an East/West city, but no matter where an area is, there is still four cardinal directions.
• Brian from Detroit, Mi Anyone from Detroit will know what i am saying, but "south detroit" refers tothe area south of Outer Drive, Detroiters refer to the area as "downriver." i Just want to clear the confusion. It ISINT canada, it ISINT eastpointe, NOR groose pointe.
• Eamon from Motherwell, Scotland THis inspirational song was played every night in a juke by me when I was teaching summer camp in up state New York back in 1980. Being from Scotland, I loved the American rock scene and this classic just typifyies it. 27 years later, I play the Journey live DVD while I work out every other night and never tire of hearing it, it is in my blood. I had the pleasure of seeing Journey in Glasgow earlier this year and it was a real highlight. One question - I have heard different lyrics for this some say "Heaven is a funky mouse?" Any comments guys and girls? Eamon.Motherwell. Scotland.
• Sergio from Miami, Fl I have been listening to this song for a long time now. I grew up listening to it and I admit, its my all time favorite. It is so cool now to see a new generation fall in love with it thanks to Family Guy, Scrubs and Sopranos. I dont think it matters if South Detroit is correct or not cause whenever they performed it live with Steve Perry he always replaced Detroit with the city they were in at the moment. I always thought that was a nice touch and he always got a cheap pop for it. I know I will always love this song and just dont get sick or hearing it. Journey was a fantastic band with some great musicians.
• Mary from Canyon, Tx This song was my junior class song way back when in ancient times, not too long after it was first released. EVen I know Windsor, ON is south of Detroit! (Southeast to be exact.)
• Mark from Glassboro, Nj This song was used in the very end of The Soprano's Final Episode. The song is cut short and the screen goes to blank.
• Missy from Ann Arbor, Mi You may not belive this but 'Don't stop Belivin' was my senior class song...I love it and so did my class...we were a pretty small class and we were all ubsessed with soft and classic rock...the good stuff...Whenever I hear those first few piano keys play, I will alway go back to my high school gym, on a hot june day, walking to the stage to graduate...Good Times, Great Memories and GREAT SONG!!!
• Mike from Hueytown , Al I love the 80's on VH1 ripped this song apart.
• Mark from Des Moines, Ia I can't help but think of the CHICAGO WHITE SOX and their magical run to the World Series title in 2005. What a great season!!! What a great song!!!
• Maria from Houston , Tx I agree with most, his voice is awesome!!!!
• Kara from Cadillac, Mi Artists magic is what happens when you take a group of extraordinarily talented people and put them together, allowing them each to do what they do best. Journey is what happens when it all fits together and creates something wonderful. They're not just a band- they're an era. Neal Schon is with out a doubt one of the most gifted guitarists ever. His knowledge and presentation of his craft are nothing short of brilliant. Steve Perry's vocals are masterful. They, along with Schon's guitar work, gave Journey a distintive sound. Jonathan Cain - a perfect fit, though I admit I've always liked Greg Rolle too. I have a Journey album that was made prior to Steve Perry's joining and listening to that makes me know that Journey would have been great no matter what because they had the talent to be great. I know there were changes in the lineup, but Ross Valory's bass playing was also part of what made Journey what it is to me. I loved Steve Smith on the drums, but as with Rolle, I was sad to see Aynsley Dunbar go. Journey was a concept, a feeling, a part of life, an important accent to memories in my life and continues to contribute to important events in the lives of my kids. Two of my sons play guitar and are greatly influenced by Neal Schon. One of them is currently overseas serving in the millitary- he will marry his high school sweetheart when he returns and their wedding song will be "Open Arms". The two sons that I have at home have recently been getting into Journey - "Generations" and I have found that I love their music now as much as I ever did. It never mattered to me that Steve Perry said "South Detroit" - I lived in Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti for many years and I never could keep the suburbs or other offspring areas of Detroit straight anyway. I lived in San Francisco too and always knew that "Lights" was about that city - even if it was written in (or partially in) L.A. - Who cares? Does anybody ever question why "Still They Ride" has traffic lights in it? No. Why? Because it's a truly amazing song about times changing before people are ready for them to with an outstanding guitar lead and excellent vocals. Get over the details. This is legendary music by exceptional musicians. Just enjoy it.
• J from Boston, Ma and I mean (in the last comment) in the chorus part at the end.
• J from Boston, Ma About the streetlight line, I think the first time the line is done, it sort of sounds like streetlight with a little extra sound on it. However, the second time the line is sung, he definetly says streetlights. As the song fades out, I think he says streetlight.
• Jack from London, England Coming from England I had never heard this song on the radio before I heard it on Family Guy. I then heard the song during an episode of Scrubs Season 3 called "My Journey" and decided I had to download it. JOURNEY KICK ASS
• Nathan from From The Country Of, Canada I always heard this song on the radio, but it wasn't until its appearance on Family Guy's kareokee episode that i realized how good the song actually is.
• Peter from Detroit, Mi No matter what, at least once a month I hear this song at the bar. My friends and I are from Dearborn Heights, MI and I like to replace south detroit with "dearborn heights" while belting the lyrics to the annoyance of my girlfriend...she thinks I'm cute so it's cool. Rock on Journey!
• Tom from Vashon, Wa This is an amazing song. It is so sweet. I love it. I think that it has a great message that we can all relate to. Wether we are living on the streets or we are just having problems with our closest friend. You can never stop believing.
• Dave from Beamsville, Canada If you listen closely, you will hear a rendition of this song during the first wedding ceremony on 'The Wedding Singer' when Adam Sandler gets stood up at the alter.
• Allan from Calgary, Canada At The Den (the on-campus bar at the University of Calgary) this song has been the last song every weekend night for the last 10 years. All the regulars drop their pants and do the "no pants dance" Quite a good time and a great way to end the night at a great bar.
• Zeke from Washington, Dc All the lyrics say that the line is "Streetlight, people..." but if you listen to the song it DEFINITELY sings "Streetlights, people." Which do you think it is?
• Kevin from Grosse Pointe, Mi Yeah, but who calls Windsor "South Detroit"? Nobody. I love this song, but that line always bugs me. Why not say "Just a city boy, born and raised in East Detroit" East Detroit is the former name of Easpointe, Michigan. Also, East Detroit is just considered the East side of Metro Detriot, so he could be from the eastern part of the city of Detroit or from any one of the suburbs that is considered East Detroit (Harper Woods, Roseville, Clinton Township, St. Clair Shores)
• Emma from Palm Beach, Australia This song was performed in episode 403 of "The Family Guy" entitled "Don't Make Me Over" (original air date 06/05/05) by Peter, Cleveland, Quagmire and Joe. It's an enjoyable rendition, with pall bearers even dropping a coffin in order to hit "The Drunken Clam" to check out the performance.
• Matt from Haddon Hieghts, Nj This song is great and i got my whole family to love this song its Steve Perrys voice thats just awesome and its one of my fav
• Cindi from Vancouver, Canada OMG WHO care weather it is North, South. East or West it is a great song.....I can think about better things to debate than which way is up, down or left or right....I agree with who ever said there is N,S, E or West every where just get a compass and stand outside this isn't rocket science it's a Rock song.
• Zeke from Washington, Dc Actually, Canada IS south of Detroit. The southern part of Ontario is actually south of Detroit. Check your map Jon from Regina.
• Justin from Monson, Ma I think Journey's song "Don't stop Believin" is the greatest song in the world. I love it so much. Each time it comes on the radio, I turn it up loud. By the way, why does anyone care about how the city of Detroit is used in the song. The song's great!!!!!!!! -Justin Dubois,Monson,MA
• Matthew from East Brunswick, Nj Great song, Journey is a godsend of the 80's!
• Anwiya from Sterling Heights, Mi Hey John from Canada, you know nothing. A portion of Canada (city name: WINDSOR) is south of Detroit.
• Sara Mackenzie from Middle Of Nowhere, Fl white sox have used it for their theme song, omg!! at least it kept them going on to believe that they could win, and they did, so this song is like, an inspiration.
• Christa from Aurora, Il This was the song the white sox used for inspiration to win the world series 2005!
• Jeff from Sothington, Ct this is an inspirational song that has a good guitar part in it...the family guy episode was funny and the fact that i knew this girl that would sing this song and now everytime i hear it i see her singing it..but i still see myslef playing guitar...nice solo though
• David from Yosemite, Ca I heard this song sung a few weeks ago in San Francisco's North Beach--I was trying to sleep in the GreenTortoise hostel in the room above the lounge--and a chorus of girls was singing it. It must have been Kerioki night, but it was lovely. I couldn't recall the group (Journey), but heard a bit on the radio, and googled the lyrics. I've been googling lyrics all weekend--Napster's having free downloads, which brought me here--nice site.. I wish I could have recorded the girls singing. David Yosemite Sept. 4, 2005
• Chase from Pasadena, Ca Most of the memories posted on this website are by a girl named "Stephanie."
• Stephanie from Ellicott City, Md this song brings back some great memories .... reminds me of being just over the edge of 17, vacationing in Florida with my family. we were staying at this resort, and i was hanging out in the game room. i had been pretty bored, and i met this guy about 2 years younger than me. he was from a small town in Maine, while i was from the big city in Maryland. i was grateful to find someone close to my age, and we played airhockey, with us deciding to make a friendly bet, the terms to be determined after the game. he let me win, and the term of the bet was decided to be a kiss. we ended up making out for awhile, and when we parted for the night, we shared no pretense that we'd ever meet again. the next night, i heard this song, and it made me think of him - although it was reversed, he was the small town boy and i was the city girl, for a smile we shared the night, and the memories go on and on. i had been feeling pretty low about myself at this time, and feeling undesirable, and he made me feel like, hey, maybe there is something desirable about me after all. so, Matt from Maine, thank you.
• Ryan from Windsor, Canada Amazing song, one of the best from the 80's. oh and Jon from Regina, check your map bro. I'm from Windsor, Ontario Canada and to go to Detroit I'd have to travel North, not South (one of those "tricky" geography catches).
• Jev from Marietta, Ga Well does anyone know where I can get a good ringtone of this song period.
• Patrick from Charlotte, Nc no.
• Jev from Marietta, Ga Does anybody know where I can get a Don't Stop Believin ringtone that is reliable?
• Jon from Regina, Canada This is a great song. By the way, who really cares if they say South Detroit? It's not the end of the world. And John from Scottsdale, I thought most people knew this, but Canada is NORTH of Detroit, not south.
• Matthew from Marquette, Mi Ok... I don't know how many of you really know Geography, but there is a North, South, East and West of EVERYTHING! There is South America, Southern US, Southern California, South Detroit, my dorm room even has a southern part. While you may not find South Detroit on a map, there is in fact a South Detroit. The guy probably grew up near Michigan Avenue. As for the song... GREAT EFFIN' SONG!
• Tatem from San Diego, Ca No matter the radio station I'm listening to, you can always tell that distinctive Journey-Steve Perry sound and instantly know a Journey song regardless of your knowledge of their song list. Steve Perry gave Journey their uniqueness. I had heard about the Monster movie thing, never saw the movie though. It's hard to believe how old these guys are now. Steve Perry was a hottie. Aging happens to the best of us!!
• Perviz from Cochin, India Words can't describe the kind of feeling you get on hearing this song. Truly a masterpiece!!
• Perviz from Cochin, India This is truly a super duper song. Thanx a million Journey.
• Kevin from Grosse Pointe, Mi Yeah the whole South Detroit thing always bugged me too. Detroit is an East Side/West Side city, not a North Side/South Side city like Chicago. If the lyrics had said "East Detroit" it would have made more sense.
• Ryan from Lansing, Mi There is no East Detroit however as everyone should know, they changed there name to Eastpointe. But yeah he should really have said southren Detroit.
• John from Scottsdale, Az When I ever hear this song, I have to say "you've got it wrong, Steve, and sing "There ain't no such place as South Detroit." I grew up in Detroit. There's an east side and a west side. The dividing line is Woodward Avenue. South Detroit is..uh... Canada. Stand on the plaza in downtown Detroit, and look south. Oh, Canada. Otherwise, I like the song, but Steve and his buddies should hvae stuck to San Francisco or looked at a map
• Tom from Alma, Ga Ack! Another cookie-cutter corporate rock band. Being a child of the 80's, however, they did have some good stuff.
• Dawn from Highlands Ranch, Co Well, Neal Schon, Steve Perry and Jon Cain I think all take credit for the genesis of this song, which probably explains part of why they're not together anymore. But actress Charlize Theron really wanted this song for a scene in her movie Monster, so she and director/writer Patty Jenkins wrote a letter to Steve Perry begging him to allow them to use the song. He saw the scene they wanted it for, said it was perfect, through Sony contacts asked Jon and Neal if they were ok with it, they said yes, and Steve became musical consultant for the film, as well as the song being in the film. Steve is still traveling around the US and Canada with Patty helping her promote the movie and accepting awards for it.
• Mooler from Detroit, Mi Nora hit the nail right on the head. South Detroit is just referring to the southern part of the city just as south west detroit or west side or east side or northeast detroit...etc etc. I should know...im from north east detroit. 7 and gratiot.
• Paul from Greenwood, Sc Just a couple tidbits...in live shows, Journey frontman Steve Perry would insert the name of whatever city that would be hosting them, evidenced by the NFL films documentary of them from the late 80's where they are playing in Philly..."Born and raised in Phil-a-del-phia!"...also the guitar break between the first and second verse spotlights Schon at what he did best. Neil Schon was discovered by Carlos Santana and was playing on stage at the age of 15. He is incredibly fast and it shows on this classic.
• Larry from Artesia, Ca Streetlight people, living just to find emotion Hiding, somewhere in the night
• Angela from Santa Fe, Tx Does anyone know the lyrics to this song? I know most of them, however, there is one line in there where I can't seem to catch all the words. It is right after the line in the chorus "Streetlife people". Can anyone help me? Thanks.
• Nora from Richfield, Mn The lyrics didn't say 'south OF Detroit', it said South Detroit. Big difference

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No. 13: Journey, ‘Don’t Stop Believin” – Top 100 Classic Rock Songs

With Journey 's ‘Don’t Stop Believin’’ earning a well deserved slot on our Top 100 Classic Rock Songs list, keyboardist Jonathan Cain gave us the story behind the origins of the track, which he crafted with guitarist Neal Schon and vocalist Steve Perry .

Cain says that the secret behind the enduring popularity of the song, which comes from their highly successful 1981 album ‘Escape,’ and also hit the Top 10 on the Billboard charts, comes down to the fact that “we did some things right when we wrote the song.”

First, he points out that ‘Don’t Stop Believin’’ is a musical stimulant, one that “gives the listener permission to dream." As he puts it, “I think everyone wants to believe the grass is greener somewhere else.”

“Just a small town girl, livin' in a lonely world/ She took the midnight train goin' anywhere.”

“The song begins with the midnight train goin' anywhere and I think people are liking that concept that there is some place to go and hope that life is better. I remember those days being darn good, you know, you could go see Journey for $17.50. People that grew up in those times like the song because it reminds them of better days, so maybe we jog them back?”

Explaining the writing process, Cain recalls “when we cut the song in the studio in Berkeley at Fantasy, really it was another song. I brought the chorus in [and] it was one of the later songs we wrote. We wrote fairly quickly – I had the chords, we worked backwards in rehearsal and it was a group effort, really a sort of an improv thing. If you listen to the piano part, it is the chorus without the melody, stripped down. Same chords, but the bass line makes it sound like it's different."

Was it all really that easy? Apparently so... "We just took those chords from the chorus and created a verse out of them and added a bass line. Neal came up with all of that. The little break that Neal came up with sounded like a train. I said to [Journey vocalist Steve] Perry, 'my God, I love that song ' Midnight Train to Georgia ,' what about the midnight train going anywhere' and he was like 'oh, I love that.'"

Cain also has a personal connection to the song's title, courtesy of his dad: “My father was the one, when I was starving in L.A., back in the '70s before I got in the Babys, he'd call me from Chicago saying 'don't stop believin.' You remember the vision we had, this is your destiny to stay out there and make it happen, no matter how bad it seems, you can't give it up.' That's where the title came from in my head.”

After being featured in the series-ending episode of 'The Sopranos' and being adopted as a baseball anthem (to use only a couple of examples) 'Don't Stop Believin'' continues to demonstrate a seemingly everlasting, and possibly growing popularity more than 30 years after it was originally released.

And yet, after all that, Cain still modestly describes 'Don't Stop Believin'' simply as a song where "we did some things right." Listening to this classic Journey song, it's immediately apparent that in fact, they did everything right. In the universe of great story-based songs, 'Don't Stop Believin'' stands tall as one of the very best.

Skip to: No. 100 | No. 80 | No. 60 | No. 40 | No. 20

Watch Journey Perform 'Don't Stop Believin''

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From Mafia finales to Arnold Schwarzenegger: the brilliant and often bizarre and afterlife of Journey’s Don't Stop Believin'

When the screen cut abruptly to black and the strains of Journey ’s Don’t Stop Believin’ went silent at the finale of iconic TV show The Sopranos in 2007, it might have symbolised the death of Tony Soprano, but it began a new life for Journey’s enduring classic.

The song’s revival provided an extraordinary new chapter in a fairytale story that began back in 1981 and continues to this day. After its Sopranos -assisted revival, the song became a belated UK Top 10 hit in 2009 (it limped to a paltry No.62 when it was originally released), been streamed almost half a billion times on Spotify and been covered by everyone from Steel Panther to erstwhile teenyboppers Hanson. These days, Don’t Stop Believin’ is a kind of unofficial American national anthem – and it’s thanks in a large part to Tony Soprano. 

“That’s the incredible power of mixing music and images,” explains Gary Calamar, whose job as one of Hollywood’s top music supervisors is to find that perfect mix. “That Sopranos scene was incredible, the final scene of one of the best TV shows ever. There was a huge audience with big expectations for the finale. Plus, the song is a great mix of heavy whack hairband rock with Steve Perry wailing his heartfelt and, dare I say, inspiring lyrics.”

Calamar compares the use of Don’t Stop Believin’ with other memorable scenes involving specific songs: Night Ranger 's Sister Christian in Boogie Nights , Stealers Wheel's Stuck In The Middle With You in Reservoir Dogs , Sia’s Breathe Me in Six Feet Under . “When you have a big music scene like that it has a massive impact,” he says. “It really gets under your skin and sticks with you.”

“I think the song’s continued popularity goes back to its core meaning,” says Kara Wright, the A&R coordinator with publishing company Peer Music. “ Don’t Stop Believin’ carries a timeless message that says don’t stop believing in you – don’t stop believing in the world – don’t stop believing in anything. Life goes on (and on and on) regardless whether you’re a small-town girl, a city boy, the Sopranos or a member of your high-school glee club.”

The public’s insatiable appetite for Don’t Stop Believin’ was underlined just two years after its use on The Sopranos when it featured in the pilot episode of the TV show Glee in May 2009. The cast’s version of Don’t Stop Believin’ topped that of Journey’s original, reaching No.4 in the US Top 100 and echoed the digital download success of the original, going gold in the US with sales of over 500,000. The Glee cast later covered the song again, resulting in combined sales of 973,000 for both versions. It fared equally well in Britain where the Glee cast’s recording debuted at No.5.

To further emphasise the seemingly limitless affection for the song, in addition to its high-profile inclusion on The Sopranos and Glee , versions of Don’t Stop Believin’ have appeared in – deep breath – Family Guy, Scrubs, South Park, My Name Is Earl, Just Shoot Me, Benidorm, Eastenders, TV Burp , countless editions of The X-Factor and American Idol, Swedish Idol, Australian Idol … you get the picture.

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While Don’t Stop Believin’ ’s 2007 inclusion on The Sopranos is considered by many to mark the beginning of its latest wave of popularity, in an article in the LA Times, Journey’s Jonathan Cain – who wrote the song along with Steve Perry and Neal Schon – cited its use in the 1998 Adam Sandler comedy The Wedding Singer as the spark. Though Gary Calamar, who is also a DJ on LA-based radio station KCRW, begs to differ. “For better or worse I don’t think Don’t Stop Believin’ ever went away. I’ve always felt its cheesy presence.”

Ten years later Sandler and Don’t Stop Believin’ were reunited in Bedtime Stories . In the interim it featured in the 2003 drama Monster starring Charlize Theron. The actress, who was also the film’s producer, had been so keen to include the track that she personally wrote a letter to Steve Perry. After viewing the proposed scene, Perry agreed to the song’s use and even became the film’s music consultant.

The song is in the title of the Journey documentary Don’t Stop Believin’: Everyman’s Journey , while other films to feature it include View From The Top, The Comebacks, Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs and The Losers .

Gary Calamar, whose list of credits includes House, Dexter and After The Sunset , understands why the song is featured so regularly. “In a way, using these songs is like batting practice for a music supervisor, you know you have a good chance of hitting it out of the park with one of these old power ballads and a big, over the top scene.”

“It’s a feelgood song with a positive message and a memorable melody,” says Kara Wright, “and it’s an anthem that can be accepted and applied to any kind of situation.”

To back her words, scour Spotify and you’ll come across a dizzying list of artists who have covered the track in all manner of styles, from symphonic metallers Northern Kings to dungaree-clad downhome rockers Hayseed Dixie. There are classical versions, bluegrass versions, acapella versions, dance versions and lounge jazz versions. Scour YouTube and you’ll even come across a reggae cover alongside versions by Panic! At The Disco’s Brendan Urie, John Mayer, Stashrip and even audio of a workout set to the tune by none other than Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Don’t Stop Believin’ is a perennial live favourite, and not just for Journey. During its lifespan it’s been covered by an array of artists. Notable among recent live performances was its inclusion on Kanye West’s set list during his 2008 Glow In The Dark tour while a charity event for the Rainforest Fund at Carnegie Hall in May brought together the unlikely combination of Lady Gaga, Bruce Springsteen , Elton John , Sting, Debbie Harry and Shirley Bassey for an encore of the song.

 “I think the revival of Don’t Stop Believin’ can be greatly attributed to the exposure and emphasis that entertainment platforms such as TV, video games and advertising now offer to music – an ideal medium that works well for current and classic titles,” says Kara Wright.

The song’s inspirational message has made it a favourite with sports teams, never with greater impact than with the Chicago White Sox. During the 2005 season the hapless baseball team adopted Don’t Stop Believin’ as their rally cry. The team duly went on to reach the World Series for the first time in 80 years with Steve Perry being invited to attend as they swept the Houston Astros in four games.”

It’s hard to go anywhere these days without being exposed to the song in some form. All across America innocent ‘Stop’ signs have been transformed into Journey tributes with the simple addition of two words.

Wherever you do go, you can even be wearing your Don’t Stop Believin’ knickers or clutching your Don’t Stop Believin’ teddy bear. Its omnipresence is why Kara Wright feels Don’t Stop Believin’ is “at the forefront of other songs decades old being revitalised and reintroduced to popular culture.”

Wright believes the song’s success paved the way for others. Absolutely, given the digital revolution and multimedia phenomenon, I think it’s an extraordinary time for classic rock songs to find new leases on life. In this way, long-forgotten music will continue to be revived as younger audiences gain new found appreciation for rock history. The universe of catalogues yet to be unleashed is thrilling.”

And what of the men who wrote it? Unsurprisingly, the song closes every Journey show these days, though given its popularity, it would probably induce riots if it didn’t.

Former singer Steve Perry has a more complicated relationship with song. The only times Perry has sung onstage since he stepped away from music in 1995 came when he made guest appearances at three shows with the band Eels in 2014. And while he did sing Journey songs with the group, Don’t Stop Believin’ wasn’t one of them.

The original version of this article appeared in Classic Rock issue 153

Kevin Murphy is a writer, journalist and presenter who's written for the Daily Telegraph, Independent On Sunday, Sounds, Record Mirror, Kerrang!, Metal Hammer, Noise, Select and Event. He's also written about film for Empire, Total Film and Directors Guild of America Magazine.

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American Anthem

'don't stop believin" goes on and on, because we need it to.

Roben Farzad

Steve Perry performs with Journey at a Chicago-area concert in 1981. Paul Natkin/Getty Images hide caption

Steve Perry performs with Journey at a Chicago-area concert in 1981.

This story is part of American Anthem, a yearlong series on songs that rouse, unite, celebrate and call to action. Find more at NPR.org/Anthem .

It's midnight on a Tuesday in Richmond, Va. At Sticky Rice, a sushi joint that hosts this college town's most raucous karaoke night, the crowd is already at fire-code capacity, and would-be crooners are forming a line outside. At around 12:30 a.m., a set of famous piano chords begins to play, and the place explodes. Friends stand together on tables; the people stuck in line outside press against the windows. For a fleeting moment, everyone's on the same midnight train going anywhere.

Twenty-somethings Matt Malone and Shilpa Gangisetty are tonight's lucky performers of Journey's " Don't Stop Believin' ," for which the DJ has received as many as five requests — though you can't exactly hear their singing beneath the overflowing crowd shouting along. When they're done, Gangisetty, who is Indian American, says she loves the song because it's something she can enjoy with her immigrant parents.

"This came out right before my parents came to this country," she says. "There aren't too many cultural things that we can relate on."

"It's like the 'Itsy Bitsy Spider' of, like, middle school," Malone chimes in. "You have to know it. Everyone hates to love it."

Thirty-eight years after it debuted on the album Escape, "Don't Stop Believin'" is the go-to anthem for perseverance that has itself persevered, successfully riding wave after new wave of media. Though born in the era of rock radio and cassette mixtapes, the song found its real glory at the dawn of binge TV and the smartphone, and it has woven its way into weddings, bar mitzvahs, graduations, the 2005 World Series, The Sopranos and Glee .

Its fate was hardly a given. Critic Deborah Frost didn't even mention "Don't Stop Believin'" by name in her October 1981 review of Escape in Rolling Stone, which gave the album two out of five stars. "Maybe," she wrote, "there really are a lot of 'streetlight people' out there. If so, my guess is that they'll soon glow out of it." They didn't: According to Nielsen Music, "Don't Stop Believin'" holds the record as the most downloaded 20th-century song, and it has nearly 700 million streams on Spotify, at last count. What is it about this track that just won't stop?

The story of the song itself begins with Journey keyboardist Jonathan Cain. In the late 1970s, he was a struggling rocker who was ready to quit SoCal and move back to Chicago. Cain says everything had been going wrong: He and his girlfriend had split up, and he'd had to pay a costly vet bill to save his dog after it was hit by a car.

"I called my father for some money," he says. "I said, 'Dad, I'm out of cash here. ... Should I come home? Is this thing just not, you know, panning out?' And he told me, 'We've always had a vision, son. Don't stop believing.' I had a lyric book next to me, and I wrote it down."

Things started looking up for the musician after that. Cain found himself in a band opening up for mega-act Journey. Then, Journey itself poached him.

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In 1981, when the band was recording Escape, lead singer Steve Perry asked Cain to come up with a final track. Cain still had his dad's advice in the dog-eared lyric book and from it drew inspiration for the pedaled, keep-the-faith piano part that builds and releases over and over until the phrase itself arrives in the chorus, more than three-quarters of the way into the track.

The characters introduced in the first verse, a small-town girl and a South Detroit city boy, are familiar by now — enough so that it's rarely addressed that there is no such neighborhood as South Detroit, apart from Perry needing an extra syllable. As for the singer in the smoky room with wine and cheap perfume, that tableau evokes the desperation Cain says he felt at the Sunset Strip's Whisky a Go Go during his rough Los Angeles days.

"I really believe this song is about wanting to make it," he says, "Where you think you're stuck in life — that you're able to get out, the same way I got out of Chicago."

The fictional William McKinley High School's glee club sang "Don't Stop Believin'" in a 2009 episode of Fox's Glee . FOX Image Collection/Getty Images hide caption

By the late 1990s, Perry had left Journey, and the band's career was in the wilderness. But the requests for "Don't Stop Believin'" kept coming.

Charlize Theron roller-skated to the song in her Oscar-winning turn as a serial killer in 2003's Monster . Four years later, The Sopranos ended its pioneering six-season run on HBO with — spoiler alert — a tense sequence involving a diner and parallel parking, soundtracked by "Don't Stop Believin'." Downloads of the track on iTunes soared. In 2009, the earnest high school show choir on Glee covered the song for the first of several times throughout the series' run, sending its download numbers through the roof again.

"Don't Stop Believin'" has been heard on Scrubs, South Park and Family Guy. A string ensemble played it in the Adam Sandler comedy The Wedding Singer. It was the rally song for the Chicago White Sox in the team's 2005 World Series run, and it was the climax of the hit Broadway jukebox musical Rock of Ages. On social media, you can find plenty of photos of stop signs playfully defaced with the title exhortation.

For all its new success, Journey still needed a new lead singer who had something approximating Perry's trademark high tenor altino . Desperate, guitarist Neal Schon turned to searching for singers on YouTube — where, late one night, he discovered Arnel Pineda, a formerly homeless kid in the Philippines who was covering the band's ballads at smoky venues that reeked of wine and cheap perfume.

In 2007, Journey flew him to the U.S. for a tryout and hired him — a fairy-tale story chronicled in the 2009 documentary Don't Stop Believin': Everyman's Journey .

Pineda told CBS News in 2012, "Even before I discovered 'Don't Stop Believin,' it has been my motto — you know, to never stop believing in myself. The life that I've gone through, all those hardships, I never stopped believing that someday there is something magical that will happen in my life."

As for Frost — the critic who originally panned Escape in Rolling Stone — she tells NPR that four decades later she's still not a fan but that maybe those streetlight people might — might — have a point.

"You know, I think maybe it helps them celebrate their high school years — or their hopes," she says. "And if it does, what can I tell you? Good for them."

Roben Farzad is the host of Full Disclosure on NPR member station VPM.

Walter Ray Watson produced this story for broadcast. Daoud Tyler-Ameen adapted it for the Web.

Greatest Hits (2024 Remaster)

In the ’80s, Journey was high on the list of bands loved by fans and reviled by critics. But today, they’re still heard and embraced – sometimes by the kind of people who sneered the first time around. (Witness the in-concert cover of “Lights” by fellow Bay Area stalwarts Green Day.) With frontman Steve Perry applying lessons learned from Sam Cooke, Journey’s Greatest Hits often sounds like a primer in pop idealism. “Lights” is a mellow smile about the joys of city life, “Any Way You Want It” a tip of the hat to Everygirl. And though “Don’t Stop Believin’” places itself on a scale with the songs that open Olympic games, it’s really all about that one small-town escapee on “the midnight train to anywhere”.

November 29, 1988 16 Songs, 1 hour, 5 minutes ℗ This compilation (P) 1988 Sony Music Entertainment

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Rewinding the Charts: In 1981, Journey Didn’t ‘Stop’ on Its Way to No. 1

The band earned its lone No. 1 album, 'Escape,' featuring 'Don't Stop Believin',' which has become the biggest-selling digital song recorded in the '80s.

By Keith Caulfield

Keith Caulfield

Few songs have found a second life in pop culture and perhaps even bigger relevance the second time around than Journey’s 1981 hit single, “Don’t Stop Believin’.”

Nearly a quarter-century after its initial impact, the song returned to wide prominence when The Chicago White Sox adopted it as a rallying anthem during the team’s 2005 march to its first World Series victory since 1917. The song served as the closing number for both the Broadway and film versions of the musical Rock of Ages , was covered by the cast of Fox’s Glee and, most famously, played on a jukebox during the controversial final scene of the series finale of HBO’s The Sopranos in 2007.

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Twenty-six years earlier, the track, co-written by lead singer Steve Perry, keyboardist Jonathan Cain and guitarist Neal Schon, enjoyed its first run of success when it became one of four hit singles from the San Francisco band’s first and only No. 1 album, Escape , which topped the Billboard 200 on Sept. 12, 1981.

Cain, who was 31 at the time (Perry and Schon were 32 and 27, respectively), tells Billboard that the tune was “inspired by a dare-to-dream idea that there’s a destination in your life greater than you can imagine, ‘on a midnight train going anywhere,’ ” a reference, of course, to the song’s lyrics.

“Don’t Stop Believin’ ” peaked at No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 in December 1981, and though it wasn’t the album’s highest-charting single – “Open Arms” hit No. 2 in early 1982 – its continued relevance in the 2000s helped it become the biggest-selling digital track recorded in the 1980s, with 7.3 million downloads sold, according to MRC Data.

Although Perry left Journey in 1998 and the group has undergone numerous personnel changes, “Don’t Stop Believin’ ” remains a concert staple. The band wrapped its latest tour, a co-headlining trek with Def Leppard, in 2018, but the chances releasing a new album with Perry, or even reuniting with him, are slim, Cain told Billboard in May 2016. “We’ve got an open chair for him if he wants to sing a song [or] whatever he wants.”

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Journey’s Jonathan Cain on the impact of radio, unexpected lineup changes, and ‘Don’t Stop Believin’’ being named the biggest song of all time

By: Nicholas Kobe Posted on: Wednesday, April 17, 2024

CHARLESTON, West Virginia (WOUB) – Journey is one of the most successful bands in the history of rock ‘n’ roll.

They’ve released 14 studio albums, played the biggest venues imaginable, and can lay claim to many of the most iconic songs of the ’80s, and rock as a whole. From the pumping Anyway You Want It and Separate Ways (Worlds Apart) , to their signature power ballads like Faithfully and Open Arms, the band has reached an echelon of musical and pop cultural influence very few artists ever do.

This objectively solidified in January when Forbes reported that the RIAA certified Journey’s Don’t Stop Believin’ as 18 times Platinum – making it the most successful song ever in America. It shares this title with with Post Malone and Swae Lee’s Sunflower,  which reached this same milestone last May.

Journey is celebrating their 50th anniversary with their Freedom Tour 2024 with special guest Toto.

WOUB’s Nicholas Kobe spoke to Jonathan Cain, Journey’s keyboardist since 1980 and co-writer of a majority of the band’s hits, before Journey plays the Charleston Coliseum (200 Civic Center Drive) Saturday. Find a transcript of their conversation, edited for length and clarity, below. 

Nicholas Kobe: If you had to describe Journey in one sentence, what would you say?

Jonathan Cain: I would say it’s a blend of all of the American styles of popular music, blues, rock, soul, and pop. So I would say it’s a sort of a gumbo of American music. We’re sort of a hybrid of the radio of the ’60s. It’s funny because the ’60s stations played all of that on one station. So you had these stations like in Chicago, WCFL, WLS, where you would hear soul, rock, and blues all in one hour. When I joined Journey, Steve Perry and I talked about how we weren’t just waned on one sound, we were pulled in the directions of Motown, The Who, Deep Purple, Al Green, Tina Turner and so many great vocal bands of the time.

We had The Lettermen and The Vogues. I don’t think we were country music fans as much, but then we heard Johnny Cash singing Ring of Fire and Rosemary Clooney, all of those wonderful songs she recorded. So growing up with that sort of hit parade and then going into the ’60s, we were torn between, well, ‘are we rock, or soul, or what are we?’ I think we dabbled, more so than The Beatles, but they were actually dabbling too.

You could go back to Meet the Beatles and you could say, ‘Well wait a minute, there’s Little Richard, there’s Chuck Berry, there’s The Lettermen.’ They weren’t confined to one sound of one song. A lot of modern music sounds like the same song reimagined over and over again. For us, I think we were just raised with a different musical appetite. So a song like Open Arms , is very pop sounding, but then very soulfully sung by Steve Perry and played by an amazing band. We were sort of like that. We broke the mold.

The Rolling Stone hated us because we were all over the map and we didn’t have that one album where we had just played the same stuff over and over again. It was maybe to our advantage to have different styles because we had different genres of radio to appeal to. If you think about it, we were lucky to have Who’s Crying Now come out and be on adult contemporary radio, Stone In Love and Wheel in the Sky on rock radio, and then you have Lights and Don’t Stop Believin’ ending up across-the-board.

We were able to bridge the gap and make Journey sort of a household name with an amazing management and record company. Columbia, which became Sony, was instrumental along with all the program directors who appreciated Journey even though the critics hated us all the time.

I mean, you kind of hit on this, but do you think the way that you guys came about and then got big, do you think that’s inseparable from the age of radio

Cain: Yeah, it is. Definitely. Radio really was such an influencer. Not so much now anymore. All these streaming services have sort of replaced it, although we still have powerhouse stations that matter and that serve the community so well and are still listened to and loved. I think that we just weren’t afraid to do things and release a song like Open Arms and Separate Ways – and it’s all Journey. When we play concerts, the people get a break. They get a break from the same sounds. So it’s a potpourri of styles and sounds, and textures. Steve Perry was such a nimble singer being influenced by Sam Cooke, Jackie Wilson, and then Steve Marriott [Small Faces, Humble Pie] at the same time.

You had to love that, too. So he got it, but I think his wheelhouse was R&B. We made Raised on Radio . It was funny as a tribute to the R&B we listened to growing up. That was our plan, do just a whole different kind of album, and people either loved it or hated it because we didn’t have enough of what they considered to be the sound of Journey. So we were restricting it a little bit with that record. When I listened to it, it was quite an accomplishment if a cool album is different. Similar to what The Beatles did. They kind of dabbled in everything, they went this way and that way and ended up with Let It Be .

But then there was the White Album and Helter Skelter . Then you have Elton John, my goodness, and his diverse catalog. He went all around with Bernie [Taupin] just doing every musical style you could think of, starting with Your Song and then he did Saturday Night’s All Right for Fighting . Two extremes, and I got to see that. He was my first big influence in the ’70s when I went to see him live. I was so encouraged by his acceptance and that he was accepted for those styles and exploring really cool lyrics and going with it. Then you had that piano in there.

When I came to Journey, the piano was kind of dead. There wasn’t anybody playing the piano, and that was the signature I brought into the band. Gregg Rolie had Feeling That Way and Maybe Just The Same Way ,  which had a piano in it, but, I felt like we needed to bring that sound to the forefront, and we did. Perry loved the way I played and I loved the way he sang, and it was a mutual admiration society between all of us. We were just happy to be the band we were. Neil [Schon], of course, had all of his amazing ideas and I was able to be the glue for him and Steve at the time and the classical prog rock that he wanted to do.

I found a niche and helped Steve carve some melodies into some of it, and we did some amazing stuff together. When I see some of The Beatles’ studio movies, I watched one the other night, it reminded me of us in so many ways. We were prepared to try anything and had the songs ready. We were well rehearsed. I guess The Beatles were probably not as rehearsed as we were, they kind of made stuff up on the fly, which is great because they had George Martin and the genius of his production. You take him away – I don’t know what we would’ve had. You know what I mean? You forget how great he was with those guys. It just all worked and there’s that little tension there, competition, maybe. I think for us it was just we wanted to write great songs and get on the radio as much as possible. That was what Steve Perry told me he wanted to do when I joined: ‘I want to be on the radio as much as I can, so help me with that,’ and I’m like, ‘Well, I get the same juice. I love being on the radio too.’ We wrote a couple of great songs that still stand the test of time after 40-some years.

Going right off of that, one of the big things that came out recently is Don’t Stop Believin’ being named the biggest song of all time according to the RIAA. What was your reaction to finding that out? Would you point to anything specific about the song that made it hit that goal?

Cain: I think it’s a generational song. I think there’s always going to be small-town girls and city boys wanting something more. It’s a song of permission to dream. South Detroit isn’t a real city, it’s an imaginary city of possibility. You’re not stuck where you are. That’s the message of that song. If you don’t like your situation, then move on. That’s kind of what I did and what Steve did. We both moved on from our hometowns and went to this city to wing it, and we weren’t going to take no for an answer. He left Hanford and went to LA and then of course ended up in Journey. I was in Chicago and I knew that I had to get on that midnight train head to LA and the rest all worked out. It was interesting that at the time, I think it only went to number nine when it was released.

It wasn’t a number one song, and yet it still hung around and then sort of got rediscovered when Rock of Ages pumped it up. Adam Sandler had it in The Wedding Singer as an instrumental. Then of course you had The Sopranos , David Chase. They thought he was crazy for that last scene. We knew about it a year before the thing came out, and yet his producers were like, ‘are you sure it’s going to be Journey?’ And he said, ‘it’s Journey or bust.’ It was kind of just a song that built and built and built.

I think it got us in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame – quite by accident. Bruce Springsteen and Elton John were singing it at some kind of gala or something. The story that I heard was that Springsteen had just learned it and was singing it on stage with Elton and Lady Gaga. All of a sudden Bruce leaned over and said, ‘this is a pretty good song, is this Journey?’ Elton was like, ‘Yeah Bruce, it might be Journey.’ They were resistant to put us in the Hall, then we received the 500 million download, RIAA certificate. Then the billion that came with Spotify. I think that many plays warrant another look at Journey. They went in and they pitched it to the board of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and we were considered finally, and thanks to Bruce for having fun with our tune and recognizing something that maybe everybody else was overlooking. So we’re grateful to have been nominated and to have been the number one chosen band. We went into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame number one, which is quite an honor. I’ll always remember that night, it was a great night.

“I think there’s always going to be small-town girls and city boys wanting something more. It’s a song of permission, to dream. “South Detroit” isn’t a real city, it’s an imaginary city of possibility. You’re not stuck where you are. That’s the message of that song. If you don’t like your situation, then move on.” – Jonathan Cain on Don’t Stop Believin’

I think you’re absolutely right about the impact of that song in particular. “South Detroit” can be anywhere, the “Midnight Train” goes anywhere. It’s interesting how many different times that song has re-entered the popular culture.

Cain: Right? It’s funny, when I went to finish the lyric with Steve because he had scattered the verse, I came in with a chorus and the melody, it was Neil’s guitar part that came up with a train idea. In between verses he played this staccato thing, and I looked at Steve and I said, ‘it sounds like a train!’ So I go, ‘oh, midnight train to Georgia, midnight train going…. anywhere,” and he goes, ‘Yeah! Like that!’

I had witnessed the explosion of rock ‘n’ roll in LA in the ’70s on Sunset Boulevard where Elton had come with Honky Château and played at the Troubadour. David Geffen, Casablanca Records, setting up shop right there on Sunset. You had Lago and the Rainbow Barn Grill. My brother and I lived in Laurel Canyon for eight years, and when we were not working, we would go down on a Friday or Saturday night and witness the menagerie of hustlers and just street people walking around trying to make deals with each other, just hustling and cruising.

I said, ‘it was kind of like a little circus.’ There was something happening every weekend. Somebody was beating somebody up at The Rainbow. There were so many fist fights at The Rainbow, and famous people were in ’em. I guess drugs, rock ‘n’ roll, sex, drugs, rock ‘n’ roll. That’s kind of what was going on. And I said, ‘what if we had this as a backdrop for a song?’ And he [Steve] said ‘I love that idea.’

He left Hanford, CA and the turkey farm he was working on to become lead singer of Journey. He wasn’t there, but it was fresh in my mind. That’s why it was strangers waiting up and down the boulevard and we just tried to paint this sort of Americana picture of the a hotspot of rock ‘n’ roll, which it was probably never before or never again. You had Van Halen playing Whiskey a Go-Go, Aerosmith at the Starwood, and David Bowie at the Hollywood Bowl with his Diamond Dogs thing. It was quite a time.

He and I sort of crafted this movie and that’s where the idea of the movie never ends. That goes on and on and on. That’s just an eternal flow of the youth and the kids that are making music today, and they’re dreaming the same dreams. My kids are dreaming about getting into the music business. I’ve got twins, a daughter and a son, they’re in a little duo and they’re working hard on their music. And it reminds me a lot of me trying to break through as this singer-songwriter in LA.

As that movie of you and Journey has gone on and on and evolved over the years, is there anything that kind of shocked you about the direction that Journey has gone?

Cain: I think where the band’s at now is where it belongs. We did experiment and evolve. I mean, I think the biggest shock for me was Steve Perry retiring. I had to scratch my head when that happened, when he just said, ‘I’ve had enough. I’m burned out. I don’t want to go on.’ I would’ve never bet in a million years that I would hear that from him. That was the biggest shocker. He was willing to just let it all go. After a couple of Platinum Records and a successful tour. He had the most fun I think he’s ever had on the Raised on Radio tour in ‘87. That was the last tour. He really had fun. I mean, it’s the first time he didn’t have, Sherrie [Sawfford, Steve Perry’s Ex-Girlfriend] telling him he was lousy and all the stuff she did.

She was a piece of work, but he was free. I remember he sang Elvis Presley’s Jailhouse Rock . I wish I had a movie of that. And he did Stand By Me . He was having fun. So Neil and I were thinking, ‘well, even though we had lost Smith and Ross, let’s make another record, and let’s get down the road.’ But there was this physical thing that came upon him. He had some health issues and they got serious and were holding him back. Then he went and did a solo thing and in ‘95 came back. That was another surprise for me. I was like ‘now he wants to go do some dates after eight years?’ Neil and I had done Bad English, so he was kind of the surprise in Journey. That he was just going to walk away from something he helped build.

Something that he had so much influence on, something where he was an architect, and would just go, ‘well, I’m out’? It just seemed like he was fragile and the fame seemed to consume him. He didn’t like being hounded by fans. I think he really enjoyed that last tour, and that’s why I say that was a shock after such a great run. Then Neil and I looking at each other going, ‘now what?’ So we did other things and then of course, Trial By Fire comes out and, he’s not the same Steve Perry. We knew. We could tell he was a few steps slower there and was struggling vocally with some things. I thought, ‘well, he’ll come back, he’ll come around.’ He had kind of quit for a long time, not doing anything. A couple of years went by, but yet he sang some great things on that record. There were just great songs. When You Love A Woman got nominated for an American Music Award. I think we got nominated for a Grammy, or something like that.

Yet he wasn’t willing to perform anymore. That’s when he just shut it down. So, he kind of did it twice, once in ‘87 and he did it in ‘96. We’re like, ‘well now we got another Platinum record and you’re telling us you don’t want to go out again? You must be kidding.’ So Neil and I are left scratching our heads again, and time went by and we finally figured it out. He came to my door one time and said, ‘I want to get my band back,’ and I said, ‘well, we need a singer,’ So we called him and asked him, ‘come back, let’s record something. We know you’re kind of physically, not all a 100 percent, but we can still write and record and put something out in the meantime.’ He wasn’t having any of it.

That’s when we just decided to move on. Then the big question was, could we, Neil and I create Journey without him? And it turned out we did alright. We did pretty darn good. I got to say, when Arrival came out, I was quite happy with it. It sounded like Journey to me, yet it didn’t get the support it needed. I’d like to remix that record someday, just go back and make it right. It just doesn’t sound like it should. Maybe they’ll give me a budget for that.

Speaking of that, as you guys have continued on, you released an album in 2022, Freedom . Now that it’s been over a year since that record came out, how are you feeling about that one?

Cain: I was disappointed with the way the record company handled it and promoted it. I don’t think they got it to where it was supposed to be. We had some pretty cool songs on it. I think it was a very cohesive album for a cut-and-paste record made during COVID. Could have been different if we had all been in a studio together, but for what it was, it was a pretty cool record. I have to say it was too long. I don’t think we needed all those songs, but it had moments. I had fun creating with Neil and Randy and all that stuff. But we’re in a lawsuit with Smith and Ross and there’s turmoil in the background, so that was kind of a weird time. But an album is a snapshot of where you are in time and that’s kind of where we were during the time. It is what it is. Again, not a bad record.

Absolutely. I’m calling you guys before one of your shows, out on tour with Toto and Def Leppard. What’s it like touring and seeing how not only you guys have changed over the years, but the way these guys who are your contemporaries have changed over the years?

Cain: I think we’re aging gracefully. I think our music holds up and the fans embrace it the same way. Everybody has stayed fairly healthy, and everybody looks great. It just shows the resilience and the professional excellence over the years. That’s the commitment that each guy makes to his craft and I think we’re all committed to giving the fans the best show and it shows.

Going off that, what motivates you, as a creative to keep touring and even making new music with Journey?

Cain: Yeah, I just wrote a new song.

Oh, really?

Cain: It’s a new song I wrote for the fans. We’re hoping to get a single out and it’s very cool, kind of modern for us. Hopefully, we can get that off the ground. But it’s the fans, it’s the love affair with them and their commitment to us. You can’t help but be committed back to them. You see we’re packing ’em to the rafters in Biloxi and Lubbock, Texas, in these little places. It’s like, ‘are you kidding?’ Yep. Sold out and there it is. ‘So why do you keep doing it?’ ‘Because you’re still relevant and they’re still loving you.’ And when you can’t sell it out, that’s when you know it’s time to hang it up. So as long as there’s a demand, it belongs.

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Journey joins pink floyd and bob marley on the billboard charts.

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NEW YORK, NY - JULY 29: (L-R) keyboard player Jonathan Cain, guitar player Neal Schon, singer Arnel ... [+] Pineda, drummer Deen Castronovo, and bass player Ross Valory of the band Journey performs\ at the 2011 Today Summer Concert series at Rockefeller Plaza on July 29, 2011 in New York City. (Photo by Mike Coppola/Getty Images)

Journey has long been one of the bestselling bands in the U.S. For decades, the rock group has outpaced so many of their competitors in the industry in one specific manner, as Americans never seem to tire of their music.

This week, Journey’s Greatest Hits , the singles-packed compilation from the band, hits 800 weeks on the Billboard 200. It ranks as the third-longest-charting title on the ranking of the most-consumed albums in the U.S., and Journey is in incredible company by reaching this milestone.

Journey is just the third musical act to see one project live on the Billboard 200 for at least 800 weeks. They join a club that includes both Pink Floyd and Bob Marley, two of the most beloved names in music history.

For many years now, Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon has ranked as the album with the most weeks spent on the Billboard 200. The rockers are in a very distant first place, and the public isn’t done with that title just yet.

This time around, Dark Side of the Moon is back on the Billboard 200 after falling away some time ago. As of this frame, the project has lived on the roster for 989 weeks, and that number increases with some regularity.

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In second place on this list of the longest-charting titles in the history of the Billboard 200 is Legend by Bob Marley and the Wailers. That compilation has earned 830 stays on the tally, including this week.

This time around, Journey’s Greatest Hits falls down the chart, though it’s not in danger of disappearing from the tally. The compilation slips from No. 71 to No. 90, tumbling nearly 20 spaces. It shifted 12,376 equivalent units in the past tracking period, which is down a little more than 3% from the period before, according to Luminate.

It will be some time before another album reaches 800 weeks on the Billboard 200, but it certainly will happen again. Metallica’s self-titled project has now spent 746 frames on the list. Behind that title comes Creedence Clearwater Revival’s Chronicle: The 20 Greatest Hits , which has yet to reach 700 stays.

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