“DON'T STOP BELIEVIN" 

ARTIST/BAND: JOURNEY
WRITTEN BY: NEAL SCHON, STEVE PERRY & JONATHAN CAIN
TAKEN FROM ALBUM: ESCAPE
RELEASE DATE: 1981
LENGHT: 4:11
GENRE: ROCK, MELODIC ROCK
RECORDED: 1981
PRODUCED BY: KEVIN OLSON, MIKE STONE 

Journey is an American rock band formed in 1973 in San Francisco, California with former members of Santana. The band has gone through several phases, but its strongest commercial success came in the late 1970s to the early 1980s. During this period, they had hits with a series of power ballads and rock songs, including "Don't Stop Believin'", "Separate Ways", "Faithfully", "Any Way You Want It", "Open Arms", "Send Her My Love", "Wheel in the Sky", "Who's Crying Now", "Stone In Love", "Lovin,' Touchin,' Squeezin;'", and "Lights". The group enjoyed a successful reunion in the mid-1990s with a major Grammy-nominated hit, "When You Love a Woman." Throughout Journey's three decades of existence, their albums have achieved gold status twice, platinum status three times, multi-platinum plateau eight times, and Diamond once. These include seven consecutive multi-platinum albums, stretching from 1978 to 1987. They had 18 Top 40 singles, six of which reached the Top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Their signature song, "Don't Stop Believin'", is the top-selling catalog track in iTunes history, at more than two million downloads.

 "Don't Stop Believin'" is released as a single from Journey's 1981 album Escape. Often considered the band's signature song, the power ballad became a top ten hit on the US Billboard Hot 100, the UK Singles Chart and the Australian Singles Chart. The song has been described as "an anthem for the young who wanted to feel free and unrestricted", featuring "one of the best opening keyboard riffs in rock."

Song structure and references
While most popular songs have a refrain or "chorus" that is repeated several times throughout the song, the true chorus to "Don't Stop Believin'" (as well as first mention of its title) isn't heard until the end of the song with only 0:50 left. The song's writers designated the musically similar sections before the chorus as the "pre-chorus."

The song's structure is:
Introduction (instrumental) (0:00-0:17)
Verse 1 (0:17-0:32)
Verse 2 (0:32-0:49)
First Solo (0:49-1:05)
Verse 3 (1:05-1:20)
Pre-Chorus 1 (1:20-2:01)
Pre-Chorus 2 (2:01-2:33)
Pre-Chorus 1 (2:33-3:05)
Solo (3:05-3:21)
Chorus until fade (3:21-4:11)

Personnel
Steve Perry - lead vocals
Ross Valory - bass guitar, background vocals
Jonathan Cain - piano, keyboards, background vocals
Neal Schon - lead and rhythm guitars, background vocals
Steve Smith - drums and percussion

Popularity
The song reached #8 on USA Billboard's Mainstream Rock chart, and #9 on the USA Billboard Hot 100 chart.
The song was originally released in the United Kingdom in February 1982 and managed to peak only at #62. However, the song re-entered the UK Singles Chart in February 2009 at #94, due to digital downloads. On December 22, 2009, it reached #9 in the chart, and peaked at #7 the following week (27 years after its initial release).

Original chart positions
Chart                          Year   Peak Position  
U.S. Billboard Hot 100  1981      9
Dutch Singles Chart     1982     50
UK Singles Chart         1982     62

Recent chart positions
Chart                              Year  Peak Position
Australian Singles Chart      2009          5
Canadian Hot 100               2009         50
New Zealand Singles Chart  2009        16
UK Singles Chart                2009         7
U.S. Billboard Hot 100        2009          4
Irish Singles Chart              2009        14

In popular culture
The song has appeared in a number of film and television series, including The Wedding Singer, Family Guy, Monster, Shrek the Halls, Bedtime Stories, Yes Dear, King of the Hill, The Comebacks, View from the Top, South Park, Cold Case, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, My Name Is Earl, Just Shoot Me, Laguna Beach, American Idol, Australian Idol, X Factor, Scrubs, The Sopranos, and Glee.

In 2007, the song gained national press for its use in the final scene of HBO's The Sopranos from the series finale "Made in America". Steve Perry was initially hesitant in allowing the song to be used in The Sopranos but later agreed. The Sopranos ending was later parodied by The Daily Show, ESPN, WCBS-FM (when flipped from Jack FM back to Oldies), Celebrity Apprentice, a campaign video for Hillary Clinton and for the final episode of Tony Martin's Get This radio show. The Pittsburgh Pirates parodied the Sopranos ending on their Jumbotron as "the final episode of 'The Parrot'", complete with the Journey hit.

The song was released as downloadable content for the music video game series Rock Band on March 31, 2009. Unlike the album version which slowly fades to quiet, the Rock Band version ends with "Don't Stop", which is the same way it ended in the final episode of The Sopranos and in the pilot episode of Glee as well as how Journey ends the song live.

A cover of the song was made for the Fox musical-comedy, Glee, which debuted at number four on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It sold 177,000 downloads in its first week and charted higher than Journey's version, which peaked at number nine. Meanwhile on the ARIA Charts it has reached number 5.

On the April 1, 2009, American Idol (season 8), the contestants sang this song as a group at the beginning of the results show. The song is used as the closing group song for the American Idol (season 8) tour.

The song is prominently featured as the finale in the Broadway musical, Rock of Ages.

In sports
In 2008, in a tight battle for first place with the Arizona Diamondbacks in the National League West, the Los Angeles Dodgers began to play "Don't Stop Believin'" in the middle of the 8th inning at all of their home games. Subsequently, the song was played at Dodger home games throughout the 2009 season, much to the chagrin of Steve Perry, a self-proclaimed San Francisco Giants fan. The song is also commonly played at Detroit Red Wings hockey games.

Lyrics
Just a small town girl, livin' in a lonely world
She took the midnight train goin' anywhere
Just a city boy, born and raised in south Detroit
He took the midnight train goin' anywhere

A singer in a smokey room
A smell of wine and cheap perfume
For a smile they can share the night
It goes on and on and on and on

Strangers waiting, up and down the boulevard
Their shadows searching in the night
Streetlights people, living just to find emotion
Hiding, somewhere in the night

Working hard to get my fill,
everybody wants a thrill
Payin' anything to roll the dice,
just one more time
Some will win, some will lose
Some were born to sing the blues
Oh, the movie never ends
It goes on and on and on and on

(chorus)

Don't stop believin'
Hold on to the feelin'
Streetlight people