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Journey’s 10 Best Songs

Sure, "Don't Stop Believin'" -- but there's a whole lot more.

By Gary Graff

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Though it arrives amidst lawsuits , social media sniping and infighting, Journey is turning 50 this year.

During that half century, the group has sold more than 100 million records worldwide, logging 11 platinum-or-better albums (including Diamond certifications for 1981’s Escape and 1988’s Greatest Hits) , earning eight top 10 albums on the Billboard 200 and 25 hits on the Billboard Hot 100. It’s also been a reliable ticket-selling act for most of its career, and in 2017, the band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Journey’s is the story of eras. When the group originally formed in San Francisco in 1973, original manager Herbie Herbert helped bring together guitarist Neal Schon and keyboard player/vocalist Gregg Rolie from Santana, bassist Ross Valory and rhythm guitarist George Tickner from Frumious Bandersnatch and drummer Prairie Prince from The Tubes. Prince would be replaced by David Bowie/Frank Zappa skins man Aynsley Dunbar, while Tickner would leave after Journey’s self-titled first album in 1975. The remaining quartet recorded two more albums before Steve Perry came on board for 1978’s Infinity, which began the band’s run of multi-platinum smashes — also marking the first appearance of Alton Kelley and Stanley Mouse’s iconic scarab logo for the band. Dunbar was replaced by Steve Smith for 1979’s Evolution , and Rolie would leave in 1980 with Jonathan Cain of The Babys joining to help elevate the band to even greater fortunes on Escape and Frontiers .

The palette has been diverse, but there are common elements among Journey’s best songs — sturdy melodies and sing-along choruses, usually leading into one of Schon’s majestic guitar solos. But within that mold there’s also been plenty of invention and clever arrangements that have never been as formulaic as some of the band’s detractors (particularly during their early ‘80s heyday) would have you believe.

Journey has gone through its fair share of lineups, with singer Arnel Pineda on board since 2007 — the longest continuous tenure of any Journey frontman. The group released Freedom , it’s first new studio album in 11 years, in 2022, and despite the current legal fractures (which you can read about in detail here ), still they ride, as the Escape track says — and may they keep on runnin’ for a long time.

With all that in mind, here are our picks for Journey’s 10 best songs — not all of which come from the biggest hits.

"Someday Soon" ( Departure , 1980)

This album track from Rolie’s finally studio effort with the band is a hypnotic tone poem, with a ringing, cushy ambience and a hippie kind of optimism – not to mention the best give-and-take Perry and Rolie achieved during their time together in the band. It’s of course been eclipsed by Journey’s myriad hits (“Any Way You Want It” is the enduring top 40 Hot 100 hit from Departure ), but it’s a gem worthy of discovery.  Listen here.

"Escape" ( Escape , 1981)

The title track from Journey’s Billboard 200-topping studio album straddled the hard rock/pomp attack of the group’s mid-‘70s output with the melodic sensibility of the Perry-Cain axis. Its five-minute length provides room for the arrangement to stretch out and flow from one song part to the next, with a crunch that was part of Journey’s palette at the time. Listen here.

"Of a Lifetime" ( Journey , 1975)

The Journey of 1973-77 was certainly a different creature than the hitmaking colossus so many know and love. The group’s initial lineups flexed instrumental muscles, smoothly knitting together a number of styles more interested in the journey (ba- dum ) than any commercial destination. The first track from its first album is a prototype, leaning into blues, psychedelic rock and a touch of Latin, with the first of what would become many standout Schon solos, and a tuneful sturdiness delivered by Rolie’s soulful vocal. Listen here.

"Faithfully" (Frontiers , 1983)

The melody of this top 20 Hot 100 hit came to Cain in a dream on a tour bus, and his paean to the struggle between home and the road was written in a half-hour. The result was a swoon-inducing ballad tailor-made for a sea of lighters (back then) and cellphone flashlights (now), capturing one of Perry’s best recorded performances and one of Schon’s most inspired solos. One of its great side stories is that Prince contacted Cain after he wrote “Purple Rain,” concerned that it might be too similar to “Faithfully.” Cain determined it wasn’t, but joked to Billboard that, “After seeing what it became, I should have asked for a couple of points….”

"Ask the Lonely" (single, 1983)

Recorded for Frontiers , this one wound up in the romcom Two of a Kind (starring the Grease duo of John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John) and rocked its way to No. 3 on the Mainstream Rock Airplay chart. Like “Only the Young,” which wound up in Vision Quest two years later, it showed that Journey was on roll – and well-suited for big soundtrack moments. Listen here.

"Who's Crying Now" ( Escape, 1981)

The best of Journey’s swoon songs — started by Perry while driving into Los Angeles and finished with Cain — has a subtlety and dynamic build that sets it apart from the many others of its ilk they’d create. The verse slips into the chorus with a soulful ease, and Schon’s guitar accents deftly build up to his searing solo at the end. The Escape single reached No. 4 on the Hot 100. Listen here.

"Feeling That Way" ( Infinity , 1978)

If fans at the time wondered how Steve Perry and Gregg Rolie would co-exist, this was the answer — an ebb-and-flow tradeoff that proved they could complement each other as lead singers as well as harmonize smoothly together (first evidenced by Infinity ‘s lead track “Lights”). Its medley-like pairing with the next track, “Anytime,” was gravy that would become a motif on the next few Journey albums. Listen here.

"Just the Same Way" ( Evolution , 1979)

Journey’s fifth album had a punchier sound than Infinity — though they shared producer Roy Thomas Baker — which worked to the benefit of the album’s first single. Led by Rolie’s piano and muscular lead vocal, with Perry responding on the choruses and bridge, it reached No. 58 on the Hot 100 in 1979. In a perfect world this would have been as big as anything from Escape or Frontiers, but it’s still a convincing introduction to the Rolie era of the band. Listen here.

"Don't Stop Believin'" ( Escape , 1981)

More than a billion Spotify streams, a Library of Congress National Recording Registry placement and plays at virtually every sporting event around the world don’t lie — this one is Journey’s pinnacle of success. Created during a rehearsal at the group’s warehouse HQ in Oakland, Calif., it gave us the “streetlight people” of Hollywood’s Sunset Strip and put the non-existent South Detroit on the map. And it saves the chorus for the song’s end, after the guitar solo. A cross-generational hit? Believe it, gleefully.

"Stone in Love" ( Escape , 1981)

Schon reportedly called this “Stoned in Love” when he wrote the riff, and it’s certainly an addictive track that’s the best roll-down-the-windows-and-crank-it-up Journey fix you could ask for — not to mention a frequent show opener. A No. 13 Mainstream Rock Airplay hit in 1981, the song is practically a deep cut today. But its anthemic chorus is a spirit-lifter and the dynamic breakdown that segues into the song-closing guitar solo harks back to the ambitious musicality of the first few albums. “Stone” is a gem that still shines bright. Listen here.

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How Journey Tweaked Their Lineup and Went Supernova With ‘Escape’

Journey thought they were on the verge of something big in 1980. And they were – but only after a period of sudden adversity.

Their first three studio albums with Steve Perry had each sold millions, followed by another multi-platinum live project, Captured . “The band had already exploded on tour, and the Captured record was exploding and the energy on that record was something you couldn’t deny,” co-founder Neal Schon told Goldmine in 2013. “And so, I felt that at any point that whatever we came with, as long as there were good songs, it was going to be big.”

But  Gregg Rolie , who'd started Journey with Schon after both left Santana , wanted out. When it came time to add a new studio cut to Captured , they had to turn to a sessions player, Steve Roseman. "The Party's Over (Hopelessly in Love)" went Top 40, but Journey was abruptly in disarray.

Certainly nothing pointed to the successes of Escape , which arrived on July 31, 1981 after the addition of Rolie's replacement,  Jonathan Cain . Yet, it became Journey's first-ever No. 1 album amid an amazing run of four Top 20 hit singles, including "Don't Stop Believin',' "Who's Crying Now," "Open Arms" and "Still They Ride" – along with the rock-radio favorite "Stone In Love."

"I have to attribute that to Jonathan coming in and joining the writing team," Perry told the New Haven Register in 2012. "Jon had so many creative ideas, and he and I did a lot of lyrics back then, too. It just turned another corner ... though at the time it felt like we were just doing more music the same way we always had. But time has shown it to be more of a quintessential album than some of the others."

Watch Journey Perform 'Stone in Love'

Cain, who favored a modern synthesizer sound versus Rolie's sturdy Hammond B-3, had been featured on a pair of Babys albums released in 1980 before joining Journey. They met when the Babys served as opening act on a tour in support of Journey's 1980 studio effort Departure .

Something immediately clicked between Cain, Perry and Schon. Escape was made with remarkable efficiency, and cost just $80,000 in total. Perry, whose mantra was reportedly "time is money," rarely did more than two takes. Despite the dramatic shift in sound, the album seemed to glide onto store shelves.

“When Jon came in, he brought in a whole different thing,” Schon told Goldmine. “It was like, he’s an accomplished songwriter ... and an accomplished keyboardist, a classical keyboardist like on piano. Gregg was more of a bluesy guy, someone from a B3/Jimmy Smith school of organ playing, which was a completely different thing. So we went more with Jon ... and there was always more of a classical vein to what we were doing, as opposed to what we were doing with Gregg.”

They emerged with a new signature song. No, not " Don't Stop Believin' ." In fact, back then, "Open Arms" – a song that set a template for '80s power ballads – was considered the album's stand-out single. The track soared to No. 2, and remained there for six weeks in early 1982. It had followed the opening single success of "Who's Crying Now," which topped out at No. 4.

In between was "Don't Stop Believin'," a single that barely crept into the Top 10. Today, it's undoubtedly the best-known thing about Escape , a track that became the adopted anthem of not one but two World Series teams (2005's White Sox and 2010's Giants), a fixture on TV (including memorable appearances on The Sopranos and Glee ), and one of the best-selling catalog items ever on iTunes. The song actually roared back into the Top 10 twice in the U.K., almost 30 years after its initial release.

Listen to Journey Perform 'Don't Stop Believin"

"Don't Stop Believin'" had much humbler beginnings. Cain brought the chorus melody and lyric into a rehearsal for the album being held at an Oakland warehouse. “The phrase came from my father,” Cain told the New York Post in 2010. “I had a tough time trying to get down the road in the music business, and he used to tell me that stuff, 'Don’t stop believing.'" Perry asked for some "rolling piano" to get things started, and he and Schon started tracking the music. That arpeggiated guitar riff, for instance, followed Perry's suggestion that Schon approximate the sound of a train.

Perry and Cain finished the lyrics later, including a line about a non-existent place called "South Detroit." "I ran the phonetics of east, west, and north, but nothing sounded as good or emotionally true to me as South Detroit," Perry told Vulture in 2012. "The syntax just sounded right. I fell in love with the line. It's only been in the last few years that I've learned that there is no South Detroit. But it doesn't matter."

Indeed, Schon says "Don't Stop Believin'" earns Journey as much as three times the amount of any other catalog song. That belated success underscores Schon's consistent, though at-first largely unheard, assertion that there was more to Journey's tour-de-force Escape than the soaring romanticism of its blockbuster ballad.

“I listen to it now and it’s a great record, but it’s all over the map,” Schon told Goldmine . “You’ve got a song like ‘Dead or Alive’ on it, which is like really musical punk. I don’t know what you’d call it. It had tight time changes and drum lines that Steve Smith had to sort out. And then you have ‘Open Arms’ on the other side of the spectrum, and so it was like everything between A and Z and everything in the middle.”    

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Journey - Escape Lyrics

Artist: Journey

Album: Escape

Genre: Rock

He's just a young boy out of school Livin' his world like he wants to They're makin' laws but they don't understand Turns a boy in to a fightin' man They won't take me They won't break me No one could tell him what to do Had to learn everything the hard way He's on the street, breakin' all the rules I'm tellin' you, he's, nobody's fool They won't take me They won't break me Now he's leavin', gettin' out from this masquerade Oh gotta go I'm finally out in the clear and I'm free I've got dreams, I'm livin' for I'm movin' on where they'll never find me Rollin' on to anywhere I'll break away, yes I'm on my way I'm leavin' today, yes I'm on my way Just when you think you had it all figured out Runnin' scared can change your mind I never knew I had so much to give How hard times can fool you Oh I'm okay, I'm alright Feelin' good out on your own I'll break away, I'll break away tonight I've got dreams I'm livin' for I'll break away Yes, I'm on my way I'm leavin', leavin' today Yes, I'm on my way This is my escape Yes, I'm on my way I'll break away Down the staire I'll break away Yes, I'm on my way Yes I'm leavin', leavin' today Yes, I'm on my way This is my escape Yes, I'm on my way I'll break Yes, I'm down the staire

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ESCAPE Lyrics

He's just a young boy out of school Livin' his world like he wants to They're makin' laws, but they don't understand Turns a boy in to a fightin' man They won't take me They won't break me No one could tell him what to do Had to learn everything the hard way He's on the street, breakin' all the rules I'm tellin' you that he's nobody's fool They won't take me They won't break me Now he's leavin', gettin' out from this masquerade Oh gotta go I'm finally out in the clear and I'm free I've got dreams I'm livin' for I'm movin' on where they'll never find me Rollin' on to anywhere I'll break away, yes I'm on my way Leavin' today, yes I'm on my way Just when you think you had it all figured out Runnin' scared can change your mind I never knew I had so much to give How hard times can fool ya Oh I'm okay, I'm alright Feelin' good out on your own I'll break away, I'll break away tonight I've got dreams I'm livin' for I'll break away Yes, I'm on my way I'm leaving', leavin' today Yes, I'm on my way This is my escape Yes, I'm on my way I'll break away Yes, I'm on my way

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Journey is an American rock band formed in 1973 in San Francisco by former members of Santana and Frumious Bandersnatch. The band has gone through several phases; its strongest commercial success occurred between 1978 and 1987, after which it temporarily disbanded. During that period, the band released a series of hit songs, including 1981's "Don't Stop Believin'", which became in 2009 the top-selling catalog track in iTunes history. Its parent studio album, Escape, the band's eighth and most successful, reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and yielded another of their most popular singles, "Open Arms". Its 1983 follow-up, Frontiers, was almost as successful in the United States, reaching No. 2 and spawning several successful singles; it broadened the band's ap… more »

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Written by: John Friga, Neal Schon, Stephen Perry

Lyrics © Wixen Music Publishing, WORDS & MUSIC A DIV OF BIG DEAL MUSIC LLC

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• #1 Don't Stop Believin'
• #2 Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)
• #3 After the Fall
• #4 Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin'
• #5 Faithfully
• #6 Who's Crying Now
• #7 Any Way You Want it
• #9 Stay Awhile
• #10 Open Arms
• #11 Send Her My Love
• #12 Still They Ride
• #13 Stone in Love
• #15 Line of Fire
• #16 Wheel in the Sky

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