Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’” has many classic and memorable musical moments that have made it a timeless presence music fans’ playlists as well as the radio.
But there’s one key memory and specifically, a “chunky rhythm part” that sticks with Neal Schon when he looks back at the time they spent working on the legendary power ballad, which became a signature entry in the San Francisco band’s catalog. “They said, play something dumb,” the guitarist says in a new interview with Rick Beato. That was the suggestion he received from producers Kevin Elson and Mike Stone. As it turns out, it was a good suggestion.
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‘It’s like a Bachman-Turner Overdrive, ‘Taking Care of Business’ kind of rhythm part. And it just kind of worked,” he says. “When you listen to it, you don’t even really notice it, but if you take it out, then you go, what happened to it? It wasn’t my idea — I came up with the rhythm part. But that’s what a good producer will do for you, [they’ll] make you search a little bit.”
Watch Neal Schon Discuss the Rhythm Guitar Part on ‘Don’t Stop Believin’
Released as part of 1981’s Escape, the band’s seventh studio album, “Don’t Stop Believin'” became a Top 10 hit that same year. In 2012, it was recognized as the best-selling digital track with over seven million downloads and it was also selected for preservation by the Library of Congress in 2022.
It’s been the soundtrack for numerous pop culture events, including the series finale for The Sopranos in 2007 and subsequently, in 2009, it received another big lift when it was used in the pilot episode for Glee. “Don’t Stop Believin'” is played in the eighth inning for every San Francisco Giants home game and memorably, former vocalist Steve Perry, a season ticket holder, led the hometown crowd in a singalong at a Giants World Series game in 2014.
Schon Had a Good Feeling About ‘Don’t Stop Believin”
It’s the classic question — did you know it was a hit song when you wrote and recorded it? For Schon, he had a certain inkling. “It’s crazy, when we wrote it, I thought there was something there, you know, when we were messing around with it in the studio,” he admitted during the conversation with Beato. “When I went back in the studio to listen after we cut it and it was coming together [with the] mix, I looked at the guys, and I go, ‘I think there’s something here that’s special, that’s going to be bigger than this whole record.’ And they go, ‘Oh, you think so?’ And I go, “I do.” And not until this many decades later, did it happen. But it did happen.”
Watch Journey Perform ‘Don’t Stop Believin”
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Singers may come, and singers most certainly may go, but some great songs remain.
Gallery Credit: Nick DeRiso
