Musicopedia: Journey

Most women of the 70s wildly screamed while he was running across the stage in tight jeans singing, but it was 1981 when they released their biggest single ever Don’t Stop Believin’ and female fans all over the world couldn’t resist throwing underwear parts at him at concerts. With Rolling Stone’s no 76 Best Male Singer Steve Perry Journey began their journey in early 70s formed from ex band of Santana.

Slight mix of rock and jazz with rhythm and blues did not any good to the band as their first eponymous album was minor, and so was the second album. The band decided to go slightly mainstream in pop/rock department and in 1977 Steve Perry joined Journey as lead singer. With Steve’s powerful voice the band quickly became highly popular and was often compared with Foreigner. With Perry on board Journey’s album Infinity (’78) was top seller and their hits like Wheel In The Sky scored high ranks in charts.

With next album, released in 1979 Evolution was ranked even higher than Infinity and for the first time Journey scored Billboard’s Top 20 singles with ‘Lovin’, Touchin’, Squeezin’, followed by ‘80s Any Way You Want It as number 8.

But, it was 1981 when Journey released their best selling album Escape - full of chart topping hits like Don’t Stop Believin’... 'just a small town girl, living in a lonely world ...', Who’s Cryin’ Now and one of the best ballads of all time, Open Arms (no, Mariah wasn’t first to record that song!) that is their highest ranked single ever. It were the glory days for Journey as the band toured all over the world with sold-out shows. However, being head over heels with their fame Journey made some mistakes as their sold the rights to their songs for commercials, games that caused a lot of criticism from the media which rapidly went from calling them the best band to dead end. They were all proven wrong in 1983 when Journey released their second best album Frontiers with memorable single Faithfully, while becoming the best album selling and touring band of the world (at the time). All well shown in documentary Frontiers And Beyond with backstage footage and live performances for over 80 000 people.

After finishing Frontiers tour the band was on a break as individual members focused on solo projects, but were back two years later (1986) to record new album Raised on Radio. Despite some changes in band members the band was backed up by Randy Jackson (American Idol judge these days) in vocals. Multiplatinum album brought hits like Girl Can’t Help it and other Top 20 hits.

Back on a break, Journey was inactive till 1994 and reunited in 1995. For the next 3 years the band perfored with the same members as previously, but in 1998 Steve Perry left Journey due to his hip replacement surgery after having a hike in Hawaii and was unable to perform. Perry was replaced by Steve Agueri with whom the band recorded next album in 2001, but it was not as successful as previous ones with Perry. In 2005 Journey was honored Hollywood Walk Of Fame and to fans surprise, Steve Perry showed up at the event. Agueri’s throat problems led Journey to seek for another lead singer and Jeff Soto took his place in winter 2006. As Journey was looking for a new direction they hired new lead singer Arnel Pineda who was somewhat a YouTube sensation for singing Journey covers. With Pineda Journey released new album Revelation in 2007 that was a hit. One year later they went on tour, one of their most successful and grossed over 35 million dollars, making it a platinum album. Their new album will be out May 2011.
Let's all recall some great songs from Journey!




xoxo,
Kasia