Don't Stop Believin' and Journey's Escape
In honor of Steve Perry's birthday, let's take a closer look at that infamous Journey song and the album it first appeared on.
1. It was Jonathan Cain's first project with the band
Original keyboardist Gregg Rolie departed Journey amicably in 1980 and recommended the band invite Jonathan Cain of The Babys to be his permanent replacement.
2. Cain came up with the song's title and hook
'Don't Stop Believin'' stemmed from something Cain's father told him when he was a struggling musician living in Los Angeles: "Don't stop believing or you're done, dude" he would tell him.
3. A beautiful jumble of instruments
Steve Perry suggested Cain write a driving synthesizer piece to complement the distinctive bass line. (created by guitarist Neal Schon). Meanwhile, drummer Steve Smith instructed Schon to play 16th note arpeggios over the rest of the instrumentation as though he were on a "train" guiding the song in its direction.
4. No South Detroit
"We felt that every young person has a dream and sometimes where you grow up isn't where you're destined to be," Cain said. And of course, there is no place in the Detroit, Michigan area commonly called "South Detroit". Steve Perry said, "I tried north Detroit, I tried east and west and it didn't sing, but south Detroit sounded so beautiful. I loved the way it sounded, only to find out later it's actually Canada." Finally, the lyric "streetlight people living just to find emotion" came from Perry watching people walking in the streets of Detroit at night after a show.
5. Glee and Petra Haden
In 2009, the popular fox series Glee featured 'Don't Stop Believin'' in its pilot episode. Aly Semigan of Entertainment Weekly praised the Glee version stating "Fox's Glee put the ultimate earworm back in its rightful place." She also stated: "even if you aren't one for show choirs (which, is quite frankly, shocking), it's pretty damn hard to resist." I remember it like it was yesterday. Glee was all anyone in sixth grade could talk about!
In the United States, the song debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 on the week of June 6, 2009 with sales of 177,000 copies in its first week.
The Glee arrangement was adapted from Petra Haden's version of the classic Journey song. Listen below:
6. Rock of Ages
Like Glee, "Rock of Ages" also premiered in 2009. The jukebox musical was written by Chris D'Rienzo, directed by Kristin Hanggi and choreographed by Kelly Devine with music supervision, arrangements and orchestrations by Ethan Popp. It featured classic rock songs from the 1980s, including 'Don't Stop Believin''
The film rights for Rock of Ages were later sold to Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema and the "Rock of Ages" movie premiered in 2012.
7. An Atari 2600 game based on the album, Journey Escape, was released in 1982
Who played it!? Comment below!
Happy Birthday Steve Perry!
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