Some songs are so iconic that they become an anthem. It’s certainly the case of Journey’s ‘Don’t Stop Believin’. The American band released the song on their 1981 album ‘Escape’ and it quickly became the group’s signature song. In this article, I will dive into the meaning, story, and legacy behind ‘Don’t Stop Believin’ by Journey.
The Meaning of the Song
‘Don’t Stop Believin’ is a song about the pursuit of dreams, hope for love, and the search for something better in life. The verses of the song describe people who are lost and in search of something meaningful, and the chorus encourages them to never stop believing in finding it.
The song famously starts by introducing two individuals from different backgrounds. A small-town girl and a city boy from South Detroit. Funnily enough, South Detroit doesn’t really exist, as the south of Detroit is commonly referred to as ‘Downriver’.
“I ran the phonetics of east, west, and north, but nothing sounded as good or emotionally true to me as South Detroit,” lead singer Steve Perry reflected. “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.”
Both the boy and the girl take a midnight train without an intended destination. It symbolizes a desperate escape from their current position and a leap into the unknown with the hope of finding something better.
“We felt that every young person has a dream and sometimes where you grow up isn’t where you’re destined to be,” keyboardist Jonathan Cain said to Mix magazine about the song’s first verse.
The rest of the verses and pre-choruses describe dissatisfied people in poor places. They seem to be failing in their search for something meaningful, and as a result, give into cheap meaningless desires. It is interesting to note that the chorus of ‘Don’t Stop Believin’ – that encourages people to hold on to their dreams – only appears at the end of the song.
The Story Behind the Song
The story of ‘Don’t Stop Believin’ started with Journey’s keyboardist Jonathan Cain. Cain struggled to make a name for himself in Hollywood and was on the verge of giving up on his dreams. His father, however, believed in him and provided the encouraging words: ‘Son, don’t stop believin’.
I was like, “That’s beautiful, Dad,” Cain reflected. “I had my little lyric book, and I’m doodling ‘Don’t stop believin’.”
The encouraging words of Cain’s father turned out to be fruitful. In 1980, Jonathan Cain joined Journey to work on the band’s seventh studio album Escape. The album features some of Journey’s most successful songs, such as ‘Open Arms’, ‘Who’s Crying Now’, and of course ‘Don’t Stop Believin’.
Upon joining, Jonathan Cain introduced the song’s idea to the other members of Journey – Steve Perry, Neal Schon, Steve Smith, and Ross Valory. In a rented warehouse in Oakland, California, the band started developing an arrangement for ‘Don’t Stop Believin’.
It resulted in the famous composition of the song, with its iconic piano intro, bass line, and guitar parts. Most of the lyrics – aside from the chorus line – were written by Steve Perry, but the idea behind the song was a collaborative effort between Jonathan Cain and Steve Perry.
The Legacy of Don’t Stop Believin’
‘Don’t Stop Believin’ was released as a single on 19 October 1981. Given the greatness of the song, The single performed surprisingly ‘poorly’ on the charts. It peaked at number 9 on the US charts and only reached number 62 on the UK charts.
Over the years, ‘Don’t Stop Believin’ grew out to be one of the most iconic rock songs of all time. The usage of the song in Glee and the final episode of The Sopranos gave ‘Don’t Stop Believin’ renewed popularity, making it the best-selling digital track from the twentieth century.
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