When asked to reach for greatness, most musicians dig deep into their soul for inspiration or a brainstorm that will take their performance to the top.
But when Journey were cutting their monster hit “Don’t Stop Believin’,” Neal Schon says the group’s producers had a different sort of direction for him.
“They said, ‘Play something dumb,’” the guitarist reveals in a new interview with Rick Beato.
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It’s not exactly what you’d expect to hear when you’re recording a tune about holding onto faith.
But, sometimes, that’s how hits are made.
“Don’t Stop Believin’” reached the top 10 in 1981, when it was released as a single from Journey’s seventh studio album, Escape. Since then, it’s become a cultural phenomenon. In addition to its use in the 2007 series finale of The Sopranos, the song is played in the eighth inning at San Francisco Giants home games. Former Journey vocalist Steve Perry, who sings on the original, even led the hometown crowd in a singalong during the Giants’ 2014 World Series game.
Today, “Don’t Stop Believin’” is in the Library of Congress National Recording Registry. It’s a credit not only to the song’s sales success — its sold more than 18 million copies — but to its cultural significance as well.
“It’s crazy. When we wrote it, I thought there was something there, you know — when we were messing around with it in the studio,” Neal Schon says.
“When I went back in the studio to listen after we cut it and it was coming together [in the] mix, I looked at the guys, and I go, ‘I think there’s something here that’s special, that’s going to be bigger than this whole record.’
“And not until this many decades later, did it happen. But it did happen.”
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And perhaps that all comes back to that request from producers Kevin Elson and Mike Stone: Play something dumb.
Schon’s response was to come up with what he calls a “chunky rhythm part” — a meat-and-potatoes chord pattern that can be heard as the song starts rolling along in top gear in the third verse.
And to the producers’ credit, it was just what the song needed.
“It’s like a Bachman-Turner Overdrive, ‘Taking Care of Business‘ kind of rhythm part,” Schon says. “And it just kind of worked. When you listen to it, you don’t even really notice it, but if you take it out, then you go, ‘What happened to it?’
“It wasn’t my idea — I came up with the rhythm part,” Schon says. “But that’s what a good producer will do for you — make you search a little bit.”
“Don’t Stop Believin’” was a co-write between Schon, Perry and keyboardist and rhythm guitarist Jonathan Cain, who had recently joined Journey. As Schon told Guitar Player in 2023, Cain brought the chord progression, for which the guitarist suggested a Motown-style bass groove to move it along.
“Jon had the ‘Don’t stop believin’’ chorus, so we moved on trying to create the rest of the song,” he says. “I came up with the B section — ‘Strangers, waiting.’ Perry goes, ‘Oh, that’s perfect,’ so we threw it together. Those were the main pieces of the song.”
Schon and Perry stand with Journey bassist Ross Valory (left) at the group’sRock & Roll Hall of Fame induction, at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center, April 7, 2017. (Image credit: Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic)
As for the famous chorus?
“It doesn’t happen until the end,” Schon points out. “I don’t think any song that’s become as big has ever had that. The first rule of songwriting is, ‘Don’t bore us, get to the chorus!’
“But we broke it — and had a hit! And the song works because it has something very interesting and melodic moving it along.”
When recording his guitar parts, Schon used his black 1977 Gibson Les Paul electric guitar, an instrument that he used for much of Escape and Journey’s subsequent tour. It fetched $250,000 at auction in 2021.
As he recalls, his big guitar contribution to the song — aside from his anthemic solo — was the rapidly arpeggiating guitar part that introduces the second verse. “It was like something you might hear in a symphony and it felt like it was helping the track move along.”
Which is definitely a far cry from playing something dumb.
But, hey, whatever works. After all, no less than Forbes magazine named “Don’t Stop Believin’” the Biggest Song of All Time in its March 2024 issue. Maybe there’s something to be said for keeping things simple.