Journey and Steve Perry have become synonymous, even though they’ve gone long periods (and had some notable successes) without him. There’s a reason for that, as the following look at the ‘Big 4’ of Journey Albums makes clear.
Neal Schon, the band’s only consistent member, was part of a co-founding lineup that included his former Santana bandmate Gregg Rolie. Together with Ross Valory and Aynsley Dunbar, they released three pre-Perry records that focused more on jam-band pyrotechnics than songcraft. They’ve released some half dozen studio projects since Perry’s late-’90s departure, including 2008’s platinum-selling Revelation.
Rolie served as their initial lead singer, then shared vocals with Perry for three albums. He was replaced by Jonathan Cain as Journey became a stadium-filling pop-rock juggernaut. Their next four albums, each featuring Perry, racked up almost 20 million sales in the U.S. alone.
Looking Back at the Most Important Journey Albums
After the split with Perry, Journey moved forward with Steve Augeri (1998-2006) and Jeff Scott Soto (2006-07), before Schon discovered Arnel Pineda on YouTube. The big-voiced Filipino would go on to become Journey’s longest-serving frontman.
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Journey was finally inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2017, and the ceremony included performances by the early-’80s lineup with Pineda and Rolie – but not Perry. Still, he loomed large over the event, giving the final acceptance speech after an emotional first meeting with Pineda backstage. Every other inductee had played on a studio project featuring Perry’s voice.
The ‘Big 4’ of Journey Albums are the same. They had other hits, including 2011’s Top 15 album Eclipse and 2008’s Top 10 adult-contemporary song “After All These Years.” But their legacy had already been built by then – thanks in no small way to Steve Perry.
Journey has released 15 albums since their debut in 1975. (Columbia / Sanctuary / Nomota / BMG)
‘Evolution’ (1979)
At the time, this Roy Thomas Baker-produced LP represented the best Journey had ever done, with three million in sales and their first Top 20 hit in “Lovin’, Touchin’, Squeezin.'” The song had a different feel than anything from before, thanks in part to the arrival of longtime jazz drummer Steve Smith.
He helped them take another huge musical leap forward. “The swinging part, the groove factor, having a nice swing feel – that is a universally accepted ingredient of what makes music groove,” Smith told me in Journey: Worlds Apart. “That was one of the things they liked about my playing.”
Elsewhere, “Just the Same Way” found Perry and Rolie blending voices once more, creating a memorable fission that was frankly missing in their biggest-selling era to come. “Too Late” and “Do You Recall,” written by Perry with Schon and Rolie respectively, are delicately conveyed moments, while “City of the Angels” holds a suitably anthemic sweep.
Listen to Journey’s ‘Just the Same Way’
‘Departure’ (1980)
The final studio effort featuring Gregg Rolie, Departure leaped into action with radio hits “Any Way You Want It” and “Walks Like a Lady” before settling into a mature mix of tracks that balanced the elegance of “Good Morning” and “Stay Awhile” with the ferocious stutter of “Line of Fire.”
It was a time of consolidation, as they gathered for the next steps in a path toward superstardom. And that’s just where founding Journey manager Herbie Herbert envisioned this project taking them. Never one to shy away from hyperbole, he called Departure a “pivotal career masterpiece stepping stone” in a 1980 conversation with San Francisco music writer Joel Selvin.
The touchingly hopeful “Someday Soon” also finds Rolie and Perry trading vocals for a final time. Like both of its Perry-led predecessors, Departure sold three million copies. The pending arrival, however, of Jonathan Cain created a new alchemy that would quickly race past those very respectable numbers.
Listen to Journey’s ‘Any Way You Want It’
READ MORE: Jonathan Cain’s Best Songs With Journey, the Babys and Bad English
‘Escape’ (1981)
As successful as Perry and Schon had been in their time together, the pop-smart Jonathan Cain gave them another dimension — one to the tune of 10 million in sales and counting for his debut LP. Journey went supernova with a quartet of Top 20 hits, including its soaring power ballad “Open Arms” and the similarly age-defying anthem “Don’t Stop Believin’.”
“I went to the listening party at Fantasy Studio A,” veteran San Francisco Chronicle music critic Joel Selvin said in Journey: Worlds Apart. “They brought us all in there, and they put on ‘Don’t Stop Believin’.” ‘Street light people’ comes out and it didn’t even get to the chorus and I’m going, ‘Wow. This is gonna work.'”
It did. A deft combining of quiet (“Still They Ride”), mid-level (“Who’s Crying Now”) and full-on (“Stone in Love”) tempos kept this album interesting, even as Journey became one of the most reliably profitable arena acts of the age. If some of it felt a little more blatant than what had come before, well, there was certainly no denying its sales punch.
“Jonathan Cain brought in a more universally appealing songwriting approach,” drummer Steve Smith told me. “There was a special kind of magic with him in the band.”
Listen to Journey’s ‘Don’t Stop Believin’’
‘Infinity’ (1978)
Journey’s fourth release saw a wholesale shift in the way they operated, and that only begins with the addition of Steve Perry. With Roy Thomas Baker installed as producer, the band began sharpening its craft in a fashion that launched Infinity — and Journey — to never-before-imagined plateaus.
“When Steve Perry entered the band, I welcomed it,” Rolie said in Journey: Worlds Apart. “I was spread pretty thin, playing three or four keyboards, harmonica, and singing lead. I thought this would be good, and we started writing songs in a different way.”
There was a new sophistication, even on towering rockers like “Winds of March” and “Opened the Door.” The biggest hit, “Wheel in the Sky,” lays the foundation for everything to come, while “Something to Hide” simply weeps with emotion. Then there was “Feeling That Way” and “Anytime,” and that honeyed blending of Perry and Rolie. It arrives for the first time like a bolt out of the blue.
“We were a jam band early on and Perry came in, and we started designing songs,” Rolie told me. “I’d never really done that before, where the song came first. It was a song and then we’d elaborate. It became harmonies and it was an eye opener. It actually made me a better writer, because it opened my eyes to the fact that we could do this and continue that way.”
Going forward, Journey certainly released better-selling albums, but they never made a more complete one.
Listen to Journey’s ‘Wheel in the Sky’
The Best Song From Every Journey Album
Singers may come, and singers most certainly may go, but some great songs remain.
Gallery Credit: Nick DeRiso
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