"It's a song that continues to build throughout. As soon as you hear those piano notes, you know it's Don't Stop Believing," he told Q. "First of all it starts off with probably the most distinctive two or three notes on a piano that have ever been played. Petersburg Times, and the blogger behind Stuck in the 80s, said there are several elements that are making the song a cultural touchstone for successive generations of listeners. Steve Spears, entertainment editor of the Florida newspaper the St. "One of the things that did happen is that people did get interested in hearing Journey again," Perry said.
The result was a surge of iTunes sales the following day.
((Jim Ruymen/Reuters))The producers, who had been keeping a tight lock on the final storyline for fear it would be leaked, finally told Perry what would happen on the TV series. He says he always thought Don't Stop Believing, which is enjoying massive popularity today, had potential as a single. Steve Perry, former lead singer in the rock band Journey, signs autographs in Los Angeles in January 2005. I didn't wanted to have a Scorsese moment at the end of the film and someone being whacked with an Uzi with the song playing," he said. Perry said he held back permission for using the song in the famous last episode of The Sopranos because he was afraid he had heard the rumours someone was going to be killed. 'I didn't want to have a Scorsese moment' It's also banged out during Detroit Red Wings NHL games.
The song also turned up in TV series Orange County, Family Guy (with the cast singing), Scrubs and Laguna Beach, and the films The Comebacks and Bedtime Stories.ĭon't Stop Believing is also a popular group song on the current American Idols tour that comes to Hamilton, Ont., next month, and just played Vancouver. The scene in 2003's Monster with Charlize Therone was just the beginning. "When we were doing the song in 1981, I knew something was happening, but honestly, when I saw it in the film Monster with Patty Jenkins, I started think, 'Oh my goodness there's really something,'" he said in an interview with CBC's Q cultural affairs show aired Monday. It was always a hit with live audiences, though it didn't get great radio play at the time it was issued, he said.
Perry, now working on a solo album in Los Angeles, said he always thought Don't Stop Believing had potential as a single. It is sung by Steve Perry, lead singer of Journey from 98, and one of Rolling Stone magazine's 100 top rock singers of all time.
The 1981 rock power ballad is the top-selling digital download of a track not originally released in this century, according to Nielsen SoundScan, selling 2.8 million units since 2003. Its famous appearance in the final episode of The Sopranos is just one of a series of uses of the song on TV and in film that has reintroduced it to successive generations of listeners. ((Associated Press))With its re-emergence in a version by the cast of the TV series Glee, the Journey song Don't Stop Believing is gaining a reputation as the song that won't go away. The song Don't Stop Believing was very popular in live performances, but didn't get radio play, Perry says. A 1987 photo of Journey, from left, Steve Perry, Jonathan Cain and Neal Schon.