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"Don't Stop Believin'" is a popular song by the American rock band Journey, originally released as a single from their 1981 album Escape. Often considered the band's signature song, the power ballad became a top ten hit on the US Billboard Hot 100, the UK Singles Chart and the Australian Singles Chart. As digital downloads became prominent in the late 2000s it enjoyed a resurgence in popularity, partly due to being featured on several television shows. Allmusic has described the song as "an anthem for the young who wanted to feel free and unrestricted", featuring "one of the best opening keyboard riffs in rock."
The song reached #8 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock chart, and #9 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The song was originally released in the United Kingdom in February 1982 and managed to peak only at #62. However, the song retained a cult following and re-entered the UK Singles Chart in February 2009 at #94, due to digital downloads. On December 22, 2009, it reached #9 in the Christmas chart due to a Facebook campaign. The song remained in the top 10 well into 2010, hitting a peak of #6.
It topped downloads in the iTunes Music Store amongst songs not released in the 21st century, and was also the 72nd most downloaded song of 2008, and 84th most downloaded song of 2009 in the store, over 27 years after its release. On 31 August 2009 the song had topped the 3 million mark in paid downloads.
The song is one of the most popular rock tracks in Ireland (wohoo!) and continues to remain in the top ten most downloaded songs.
The song has appeared in a number of film and television series, including The Wedding Singer, Family Guy, Monster, Shrek the Halls, Bedtime Stories, Yes Dear, King of the Hill, The Comebacks, View from the Top, South Park, Cold Case, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, My Name Is Earl, Just Shoot Me, Laguna Beach, American Idol, Australian Idol, X Factor, Scrubs, The Sopranos, and Glee.
In 2007, the song gained press coverage for its use in the final scene of HBO's The Sopranos from the series finale "Made in America". Steve Perry was initially hesitant in allowing the song to be used in The Sopranos but later agreed. The Sopranos ending was later parodied by The Daily Show, ESPN, WCBS-FM (when flipped from Jack FM back to Oldies), Celebrity Apprentice, a campaign video for Hillary Clinton and for the final episode of Tony Martin's Get This radio show.
The song was released as downloadable content for the music video game series Rock Band on March 31, 2009. Unlike the album version which slowly fades to quiet, the Rock Band version ends with "Don't Stop", which is the same way it ended in the final episode of The Sopranos and in the pilot episode of Glee as well as how Journey ends the song live.
A cover of the song was made for the Fox musical-comedy, Glee, which debuted at number four on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It sold 177,000 downloads in its first week and charted higher than Journey's version, which peaked at number nine. Meanwhile on the ARIA Charts it has reached number 5. On the UK Top 40 Singles Chart its peak position was number 2.
The 2005 Chicago White Sox played Don't Stop Believin' prominently during their championship run and Steve Perry sang the song with White Sox players AJ Pierzynski, Joe Crede among others during their championship celebration. In 2008, in a tight battle for first place with the Arizona Diamondbacks in the National League West, the Los Angeles Dodgers began to play Don't Stop Believin' in the middle of the 8th inning at all of their home games. Subsequently, the song was played at Dodger home games throughout the 2009 season, much to the chagrin of Steve Perry, a self-proclaimed San Francisco Giants fan. The song is also commonly played at Detroit Red Wings, Washington Capitals and Wimbledon Men’s 4s' hockey games.
While most popular songs have a refrain or "chorus" that is repeated several times throughout the song, the true chorus to "Don't Stop Believin'" (as well as first mention of its title) isn't heard until the end of the song with only 0:50 left. The song's writers designated the musically similar sections before the chorus as the "pre-chorus”.
The song's structure is:
1. Introduction (instrumental) (0:00-0:17)
2. Verse 1 (0:17-0:49)
3. Instrumental (0:49-1:05)
4. Verse 2 (half-length) (1:05-1:20)
5. Pre-Chorus 1 (1:20-1:54)
6. Instrumental (1:54-2:01)
7. Verse 3 (2:01-2:33)
8. Pre-Chorus 2 (2:33-3:05)
9. Instrumental (Chorus) (3:05-3:21)
10. Chorus until fade (3:21-4:11)
The song is played in the key of E Major at a tempo of 116bpm. The vocal range is B4-C#6
Don’t Stop Believin!
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