Journey could rightly be compared to a shooting star. They made nearly 20 trips into the Billboard Top 40, and all but two of them happened in the ’80s.
Which ones didn’t? The double-platinum Steve Perry-sung single “Lovin’, Touchin’, Squeezin,'” their first-ever Top 40 hit, reached No. 16 in the fall of 1979. The million-selling “When You Love a Woman,” Journey’s last-ever Top 40 hit, went to No. 12 in 1996.
In between, they were a chart phenomenon over a single decade. But what a decade it was.
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Journey started the ’80s at a fast clip: “Any Way You Want It” arrived in February 1980 then soared to No. 23. “Walks Like a Lady,” the follow-up single from 1980’s Departure, quickly returned Journey to the Top 40.
They were picking up momentum: The stand-alone single “The Party’s Over (Hopelessly in Love)” was released as a stopgap before Journey retooled with Jonathan Cain after co-founder Gregg Rolie’s exit. It reached the Top 40, too. Then the floodgates opened.
A band with just four previous Top 40 songs was suddenly reeling them off. The first four singles from 1981’s Escape were smash hits. They released three straight Top 10 songs – including “Open Arms,” Journey’s highest charting single, and the now-ubiquitous “Don’t Stop Believin.'”
Similarly, the first four singles from 1983’s Frontiers soared into the Top 40, led by the four-million-selling No. 8 smash “Separate Ways (Worlds Apart).” They even made Top 40 hits out of leftovers like “Only the Young,” released on 1985’s Vision Quest soundtrack after being left aside during sessions for Frontiers.
How One Journey Song Emerged From the Pack
Journey only released one more album in the ’80s, but they made it count: The decade ended with a fourth consecutive multi-platinum album, 1986’s Raised on Radio. The LP’s three Top 40 singles were led by the No. 9 hit “Be Good to Yourself.”
Despite dominating the charts for such a short amount of time, Journey’s biggest songs have proved to be timeless. One of them, “Don’t Stop Believin,'” has taked on a life of its own. Long after trailing both “Open Arms” (No. 2) and “Who’s Cryin’ Now” (No. 3) in Billboard magazine, the former No. 9 single became a favorite for soundtracks, stadium singalongs and modern-era streaming. It’s now gone 18-times platinum.
But how do they all stack up? Here’s a ranked look back at all 18 Journey Top 40 hits:
No. 18. “When You Love a Woman”
Hot 100: #12
From: Trial by Fire (1996)
Featuring a saccharine sentiment with a too-sweet string section to match, this is Journey balladry at its limpest. Still, “When You Love a Woman” became a gold-selling Top 20 smash. Because, Steve Perry.
No. 17. “Suzanne”
Hot 100: #17
From: Raised on Radio (1986)
If Perry sounds a little overwhelmed on the second single from this album, there’s a reason for that. This atmospheric then fleet pop-rocker was written in tribute to an actual crush. He refused to kiss and tell, only describing his love interest as a film star who also have a second career in music. “Real or not,” Perry added, “she’s real in the track.”
No. 16. “Walks Like a Lady”
Hot 100: #32
From: Departure (1980)
A great example of the way Journey songs evolved in the studio. Perry brought in a rough sketch, Neal Schon added a blues-inspired riff, then Steve Smith picked up his brushes. All that was left to complete things was Gregg Rolie’s greasy Hammond B3 groove, reportedly one of his favorites.
No. 15. “Be Good to Yourself”
Hot 100: #9
From: Raised on Radio (1986)
A throwback rocker, the gold-selling “Be Good to Yourself” had little in common with the sleeker, more adult-contemporary material found elsewhere on this LP. It didn’t make for the most representative lead single, but manager Herbie Herbert prevailed. He said one of the those pushing back the hardest was Perry, who’d assumed a more central role as producer. But without songs like “Be Good to Yourself,” Herbert believed that Raised on Radio risked sounding “too much like a glorified Steve Perry solo record.” He was right.
No. 14. “I’ll Be Alright Without You”
Hot 100: #14
From: Raised on Radio (1986)
Schon earned a co-writing credit after trying out a new guitar in search of something more distinct. Best known for using a 1963 Fender Stratocaster, Schon experimented with a graphite Roland 707 to see if he could get a different, more even tone. It worked: “I’ll Be Alright Without You” remains Journey’s penultimate Top 20 hit, followed by 1996’s “When You Love a Woman.” Cain, like Perry, was going through a breakup and called this track the other half of the emotions expressed in “Once You Love Somebody.”
No. 13. “Faithfully”
Hot 100: #12
From: Frontiers (1983)
Jonathan Cain has said this power-ballad smash, written in tribute to a happily married musician’s life on the road, came from nowhere – literally. “He told me he got the melody out of a dream,” Schon later mused in the Time3 liner notes. “I wish something like that would happen to me.” Cain wrote it in his own key, and that allowed Perry to explore a different vocal timbre. They finished the song with a memorable back-and-forth between Perry and Schon, also completely unrehearsed.
No. 12. “Girl Can’t Help It”
Hot 100: #17
From: Raised on Radio (1986)
Perry essentially took control of Journey in the run-up to this album, switching out band members for sidemen with whom he’d worked before then serving as the project’s de facto producer. That led them to some song treatments that moved well away from anything Journey had done before, or since. The gold-selling “Girl Can’t Help It,” one of three Top 40 singles from Raised on Radio, was the exception. This was classic Journey, spit-shined up for a new era.
No. 11. “Open Arms”
Hot 100: #2
From: Escape (1981)
If you dislike power ballads, blame Cain. He brought this seminal example of the genre to Journey after John Waite, the frontman in Cain’s former band the Babys, rejected an early version. Schon didn’t really want “Open Arms,” either. But Perry intervened, and they turned it into a soaring paean to renewal. Oh, and Journey’s highest-charting single ever.
No. 10. “After the Fall”
Hot 100: #23
From: Frontiers (1983)
Perry began this song on the bass, perhaps an early indication of the changes in store for Journey. By the time they released 1986’s Raised on Radio, Ross Valory had been replaced by Randy Jackson, later of American Idol fame. Smith departed too, but not before proving himself utterly invaluable here.
No. 9. “Still They Ride”
Hot 100: #19
From: Escape (1981)
A touchingly emotional trip back to Perry’s San Joaquin Valley youth, “Still They Ride” showed that the seemingly ageless Escape could still produce a Top 20 single, more than a year after its release.
No. 8. “Lovin’, Touchin’, Squeezin'”
Hot 100: #16
From: Evolution (1979)
A song with a real-life storyline, “Lovin’, Touchin’, Squeezin'” came to life in another Journey jam session, then went on to become their very first Top 20 hit. Gregg Rolie’s Nicky Hopkins-esque honky tonk piano rides atop a stuttering, 12/8 rhythm, building inexorably toward a cloud-bursting nah-nah-nah conclusion. Smith has compared that blues shuffle to “Nothing Can Change This Love” by key Perry influence Sam Cooke. The heartbroken Perry, who’s this song as “love justice,” again played the bass on the initial sessions. The results opened the pop-chart floodgates.
No. 7. “The Party’s Over (Hopelessly in Love)”
Hot 100: #34
From: Captured (1981)
“After I left,” Rolie told me, “it became more pop rock. It was a little heavier when I was in it.” That transformation started with “The Party’s Over,” a Top 40 studio song tacked onto a live project which marked Rolie’s exit. Journey’s original keyboardist doesn’t even appear on the track. Instead, the session featured Stevie “Keys” Roseman, who was later part of VTR with Ross Valory and George Tickner.
No. 6. “Who’s Crying Now”
Hot 100: #4
From: Escape (1981)
The initial single from Escape perfectly illustrates how Cain’s new presence changed Steve Perry’s writing style, then forever changed Journey. The first inklings of the track came to Perry as he was driving up to San Francisco on Route 99. But “Who’s Crying Now” was a song with no real direction until Cain suggested the title. They worked out a cool b-section featuring only voice and keyboard, and their very first co-written composition was completed. Inspired, Perry also fought to keep Schon’s extended guitar solo on the single.
No. 5. “Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)”
Hot 100: #8
From: Frontiers (1983)
Cain and Perry looked on, feeling a little helpless, as Valory and Schon endured painful divorces. “There’s got to be a more soulful way of looking at this,” Perry countered in the Time3 liner notes. Just like that, the pair had the makings of the Top 10 opening single from Frontiers. “Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)” so energized Journey that they began performing it onstage before Perry had completely learned the words.
No. 4. “Send Her My Love”
Hot 100: #23
From: Frontiers (1983)
One of four Top 40 hits found on this album, the lonesome anthem “Send Her My Live” is notable for an ambient turn by Schon (he used a high-end Lexicon 480L echo unit) and perhaps the most intriguing drumming contribution on Journey’s string of familiar ballads from Steve Smith. A jazz lover who later founded his own combo, Smith added a slyly involving polyrhythm lifted from Miles Davis’ “In a Silent Way.” “The drummer on that was Tony Williams,” Smith told me, “and he played quarter notes with a cross-stick on the snare drum — a very hypnotic groove.” Same here.
No. 3. “Only the Young”
Hot 100: #9
From: Vision Quest (1985)
Another song that, had it been included, might have pushed Frontiers past Escape as Journey’s best Cain-era album. Instead, “Only the Young” appeared much later on this soundtrack, and by then Kenny Sykaluk – a 16-year-old fan suffering from cystic fibrosis – had already died after becoming the first person to hear it. “Only the Young,” which opened every concert on Journey’s subsequent tour, will be forever associated with his brave fight.
No. 2. “Any Way You Want It”
Hot 100: #23
From: Departure (1980)
Perry said the vocal and guitar interplay on “Any Way You Want It” was inspired by the performances of Phil Lynott, after Thin Lizzy opened for Journey. “I loved his ability and phrasing,” Perry revealed in Open Arms: The Steve Perry Anthology. “This guy is one of the more under-recognized geniuses of that era.” Perry and Rolie brought a tight focus to the bursts of shared vocals that close things out, fashioning Journey’s second-ever Top 40 hit.
No. 1. “Don’t Stop Believin'”
Hot 100: #9
From: Escape (1981)
It wasn’t the biggest song of the year. In fact, “Don’t Stop Believin'” finished at No. 72 on Billboard magazine’s year-ending Hot 100 singles of 1982. It wasn’t even the biggest song from Escape, which spun off two singles that finished higher on the charts. It didn’t have a typical song structure, not referencing the title until after three verses, two pre-choruses, and some abbreviated instrumental passages. It’s set in a place — South Detroit — that doesn’t actually exist. So how did this become Journey’s defining moment? “Who wants to keep believing? That would be everybody, you know?” Jonathan Cain told me. “From the beginning piano line, it speaks — and it speaks to hope. I think people are looking for hope.”
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Gallery Credit: UCR Staff
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