Classic Rock is currently testing the waters for the inclusion of Revelation in an updated Journey Buyer's Guide. The page has this article to boot:
Saturday October 04, 2008
Masters of the lighter-waving ballad, the band that music critics have loved to hate remain the undisputed kings of AOR.
When David Chase, the producer of hit TV series The Sopranos, chose Journey’s Don’t Stop Believin’ as the soundtrack to the climactic scene in the final episode, former Journey singer Steve Perry felt deeply conflicted. A huge fan of The Sopranos, Perry admitted: “I was not excited about the possibility of the Soprano family being whacked to Don’t Stop Believin’.” But in the end Chase got what he wanted, and Perry and Journey got what they had been denied for so many years: genuine iconic status.
For all their success – more than 45 million albums sold in the US alone – Journey have always been a band that music critics have loved to hate, and pilloried as the epitome of corporate rock. Perry himself was mockingly nicknamed The Duck due to his high-register voice. But among fans of classic American melodic hard rock, Journey are revered as masters of the art.
Perry joining in 1977 elevated Journey to greatness and, indeed, saved the band’s career. Since forming in San Francisco four years earlier, the band had recorded three albums for the Columbia label, all of which were heavily influenced by the Latino-jazz rock of Santana, the group in which both keyboard player Gregg Rolie and guitarist Neal Schon had previously played. But after all three of Journey’s records stiffed, Columbia delivered an ultimatum. As original drummer Aynsley Dunbar recalled: “We were told: ‘Get a singer, get some hit songs or you’re off the label.’”
After a brief trial with Robert Fleischman (who would later go on to front Vinnie Vincent Invasion), Journey recorded their first album with Perry, 1978’s Infinity. It promptly went platinum.
In the 80s, Journey became one of the biggest bands in America, with the Holy Trinity of AOR (Adult Oriented Rock) albums: Escape, Frontiers and Raised On Radio. But in 1987 Perry quit. Journey ended up on ice until his return in 1995.
When Perry left again two years later, Journey found a new singer in Steve Augeri. But in 2006 Augeri suffered problems with his voice and was replaced by Jeff Scott Soto for a world tour.
Incredibly, the band discovered their latest singer via YouTube. Filipino Arnel Pineda’s performance of Journey songs in covers band The Zoo was enough to secure him his dream job. Pineda sounds uncannily like Perry on the Journey’s single Never Walk Away. But as the band and their fans know only too well, there is only one voice of Journey. And that, of course, is The Duck.
– Paul Elliott
