Remembering Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’”

Although it has become an anthem for the New Directions on “Glee” and the death knell of Tony Soprano, Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’” has its roots in the 1980s.

The small town girl living in a lonely world and the city boy born and raised in south Detroit got their start in 1981, on an album that got popular enough it had its own video game.

The song
“Don’t Stop Believin’” was released in 1981 by Journey as the second single from their album “Escape”. It was written by lead singer Steve Perry, keyboardist Jonathan Cain, and guitar player Neal Schon.

It went all the way to number nine on the Billboard Hot 100, and number nine in Canada.

“Don’t Stop Believin’” is oe of the top power ballads of the decade, and an amazing rock anthem.

The album
“Escape”, released in July of 1981, was Journey’s seventh album, but the first one of Journey’s I had ever heard about. The first single released was “Who’s Crying Now” which went all the way to number four on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

“Don’t Stop Believin’” followed, going to number nine, followed by Journey’s biggest single from the album, “Open Arms” which went all the way to number two on the Bilboard Hot 100 chart.

The album itself went all the way to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 album chart.

The game
Unlike any other album in my life, I heard about “Escape” initially not from someone who had it, or by reading a review of it, or seeing it on TV.

I heard about “Escape” through a video game.

Back then, I was big into Intellivision, so I read every magazine about video games that I could find. There weren’t very many, and the ones I found talked about Atari as much as Intellivision, which was fine by me. They had articles on tricks to use playing various games, interviews with designers, reviews of games, and previews.

That’s where I first read about this game called “Journey Escape”. It was for the Atari 2600, which was the standard system of the time, and Intellivision’s main competitor.

“Journey Escape”, the article explained, was about the band Journey and their efforts to evade fans, photographers, and promoters, if memory serves.

Back then, the games were pretty rudimentary, so the graphics were simple, or at least what I saw in the magazine.

I also saw the artwork on the box for “Journey Escape”. It was the same as the cover of the album itself.

So, years later, when I finally saw the actual album cover for “Escape”, I had already seen it, and had to remind myself the album came first.

Sadly, I never did get to play “Journey Escape”.

Seeing is believing
My introduction to the album was in 1985 when my friend David Perlich had come across a copy of “Escape” and had it at school. I immediately recognized the cover art.

By then, I was heavy into music, so when I read the back I could not get over how many songs I knew and how many good songs Journey had put out.

Back then I was partial to “Open Arms” more than “Don’t Stop Believin’”.

Parting thoughts
“Don’t Stop Believin’” has had staying power like few other songs. Boosted by the popularity of “Glee”, “The Sopranos” and a variety of cover versions, it has transitioned into the digital age, had millions of downloads, and been an international chart success all over again in the 21st Century.

It is a song that resonates with generation after generation.

And it all started in the 1980s.