The part about the guitar solo heralding the chorus was cool beans - I did not know.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-journeys-dont-stop-believin-got-started-11635253200ANATOMY OF A SONG
‘Don’t Stop Believin’ ’: Journey’s Smash Hit Started as a Pep Talk
The No. 9 hit in 1981 remains an underdog anthem thanks to sports events, ‘Glee’ and Tony Soprano
By Marc Myers
Oct. 26, 2021 9:00 am ET
Journey’s power ballad “Don’t Stop Believin’ ” wasn’t the highest-charting single from the band’s 1981 album, “Escape.” It only reached No. 9 on the Billboard pop chart.
But somehow it became a go-to power anthem at sports events and karaoke bars world-wide. The song also crossed over to television, winding up as Tony Soprano’s jukebox choice in the final episode of “The Sopranos” in 2007 and on “Glee” two years later.
Recently, Journey keyboardist-guitarist Jonathan Cain and lead guitarist Neal Schon looked back at co-writing the song with former band vocalist Steve Perry, who left the group in 1998. Messages left for Mr. Perry weren’t returned. Journey will perform in Las Vegas in December at the Virgin Hotels and Caesars Palace. Edited from interviews.
Jonathan Cain: Everything was caving in on me in 1977. I had my own band in Los Angeles, but our record deal fell through. I also couldn’t get to first base as a singer-songwriter, my dog got hit by a car and needed surgery, and my girlfriend, who lived with me and split the rent, left. I called my dad for a loan.
On the phone, I told him nothing was working out and that maybe I should just give up on music. He wouldn’t hear of it. He said, “Your blessing is right around the corner. Sit tight. Don’t be discouraged. And don’t come home to Chicago. Don’t stop believing.” He also said he’d send me the money.
While on the phone, I grabbed my song-idea notebook to jot down his last phrase—“Don’t stop believing.” I wanted a reminder. Then I closed the notebook and forgot about it.
Motivated by my father’s advice, I kept at it. In San Francisco in ’79, I joined the Babys, an English band, and recorded on two of their albums. In ’80, I came to the attention of Journey when their keyboard player, Gregg Rolie, decided to leave.
Neal Schon: I first met Jonathan when the Babys opened for Journey on tour. We hung out. He was a super songwriter and played both piano and rhythm guitar. Our manager, Herbie Herbert, brought him to Gush Studios in Oakland, Calif., our rehearsal space, where we were working on new songs for our next album, “Escape.”
Mr. Cain: On the last day of rehearsal, we needed another song. Steve Perry asked if I had one that was catchy.
That evening, while leafing through the pages, I came across my father’s phrase. I came up with chords for a chorus and a melody that I could imagine Steve singing: “Don’t stop believin’/ Hold on to that feelin’.”
Mr. Schon: Jonathan had the chords for the opening and the chorus. He also had the lyric that his dad had given him. As he played the chords, I started messing around with a countermelody bass line that didn’t stay in one place.
I also came up with chords for the pre-chorus and counter-bass part for the section that would become: “Strangers, waitin’ / Up and down the boulevard / Their shadows, searchin’ in the night.”
The most unique thing about the song was its structure. We had these verses followed by a guitar solo and then the chorus appears at the very end.
Mr. Cain: Steve thought the chords were great and said we should use them for the verses, too. He had me play rolling eighth notes on the piano while he scatted the melody to the first verse to see how it would sing.
Then he did the same on the second and third verses. At this point, I wondered when we were going to use the chorus. Steve wanted to save it until the end of the song.
Mr. Schon: I played the guitar solo using the chorus’s melody that Jonathan had written. At first, Steve wasn’t keen on it. He was concerned I was giving away the melody before he sang it. I said, “Sure, why not implant it in the listener’s mind just before you sing it?” Steve loved that.
Mr. Cain: Steve thought it was brilliant. It broke all the rules of songwriting. Then drummer Steve Smith added this wild and crazy beat. After Steve Perry finished scatting all the parts so he had a form for the song, I took what he did home on a cassette tape. The next afternoon, I went to Steve Perry’s house in Marin County to work on lyrics.
Neal’s guitar solo the day before sounded like an oncoming train. It reminded me of Gladys Knight & the Pips’s “Midnight Train to Georgia,” a song I loved. I said to Steve, “What if we have a midnight train going somewhere.”
I told Steve I was on the Sunset Strip a few nights earlier and saw crowds of young kids waiting to get into clubs. I said, “What if we have two kids heading West by train to see if they could make it in L.A. or Las Vegas?”
It would be a song about every dreamer. Some go to Vegas to “roll the dice,” while others in L.A. “were born to sing the blues.” The song said everyone has a shot.
The girl in the song came from a “small town,” while the “city boy” had to come from somewhere. Journey had just come off a live album with tracks recorded at Cobo Arena in Detroit.
Steve wanted the boy to be born in Detroit. But the line needed an extra word. To see what sang best, we tried East Detroit, West and North but they didn’t sound comfortable. South Detroit did. Of course, we learned after the song came out that there is no South Detroit. South of Detroit is Windsor, Ontario.
At Fantasy Studios in Berkeley, Calif., “Don’t Stop Believin’ ” was the last song we recorded for the album. The intro’s basic track is two instruments—the piano and bass.
Steve [Perry] had this idea of having me play the chorus on the grand piano over and over. We did a similar thing with bassist Ross Valory, who recorded Neal’s bass idea. He decided to play it in the midrange, so it sounded more like a cello.
Mr. Schon: In the studio, I overdubbed my guitar solo using my 1978 Les Paul Pro. To make the solo sound fuller, I doubled it note for note. Doubling made it sound fractionally uneven and human.
At the very end of the solo, I played a harmony line against my original solo line. I then overdubbed my high note by stretching it way up.
Mr. Cain: Steve’s vocal had a lot of the same characteristics as the bass line. It’s kind of swinging and dancing around a steady rhythm. So we have this steady rhythm track with a syncopated bass and Steve’s playful, conversational story being sung at full force.
In 1982, my parents came to Chicago to see Journey perform at the Rosemont Horizon theater. I surprised them with the song. After, when I went up to see them, my father said, “Very clever, son. Good thing you didn’t stop believing.”
In 2007, I knew our song was going to be used on the last episode of “The Sopranos,” but I kept it a secret for an entire year. The night of the final episode, I got my kids to watch. They weren’t sure why. They said, “Dad, people get run over and shot on this show.”
I said, “Wait until the end.” I made them sit through it. In the final minutes, Tony Soprano puts coins in a restaurant jukebox and selects “Don’t Stop Believin’.” My kids went wild.
