\u201cThey said, \u2018Play something dumb,\u2019\u201d the guitarist reveals in a new interview with Rick Beato<\/a>.<\/p>\n You may like<\/p>\n It\u2019s not exactly what you\u2019d expect to hear when you\u2019re recording a tune about holding onto faith.<\/p>\n But, sometimes, that\u2019s how hits are made.<\/p>\n \u201cDon\u2019t Stop Believin\u2019\u201d reached the top 10 in 1981, when it was released as a single from Journey\u2019s seventh studio album, Escape. Since then, it\u2019s 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\u2019 2014 World Series game.<\/p>\n Today, \u201cDon\u2019t Stop Believin\u2019\u201d is in the Library of Congress National Recording Registry. It\u2019s a credit not only to the song\u2019s sales success \u2014 its sold more than 18 million copies \u2014 but to its cultural significance as well.<\/p>\n \u201cIt’s crazy. When we wrote it, I thought there was something there, you know \u2014 when we were messing around with it in the studio,” Neal Schon says.<\/p>\n “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.’<\/p>\n \u201cAnd not until this many decades later, did it happen. But it did happen.”<\/p>\n You may like<\/p>\n And perhaps that all comes back to that request from producers Kevin Elson and Mike Stone: Play something dumb.<\/p>\n Schon\u2019s response was to come up with what he calls a \u201cchunky rhythm part\u201d \u2014 a meat-and-potatoes chord pattern that can be heard as the song starts rolling along in top gear in the third verse.<\/p>\n And to the producers\u2019 credit, it was just what the song needed.<\/p>\n \u201cIt’s like a Bachman-Turner Overdrive, \u2018Taking Care of Business<\/a>‘ kind of rhythm part,\u201d Schon says. \u201cAnd 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, \u2018What happened to it?\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cIt wasn’t my idea \u2014 I came up with the rhythm part,\u201d Schon says. “But that’s what a good producer will do for you \u2014 make you search a little bit.”<\/p>\n \u201cDon\u2019t Stop Believin\u2019\u201d 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<\/a>, Cain brought the chord progression, for which the guitarist suggested a Motown-style bass<\/a> groove to move it along.<\/p>\n \u201cJon had the \u2018Don\u2019t stop believin\u2019\u2019 chorus, so we moved on trying to create the rest of the song,\u201d he says. \u201cI came up with the B section \u2014 \u2018Strangers, waiting.\u2019 Perry goes, \u2018Oh, that\u2019s perfect,\u2019 so we threw it together. Those were the main pieces of the song.\u201d<\/p>\n \n 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)<\/p>\n As for the famous chorus?<\/p>\n \u201cIt doesn\u2019t happen until the end,\u201d Schon points out. \u201cI don\u2019t think any song that\u2019s become as big has ever had that. The first rule of songwriting is, \u2018Don\u2019t bore us, get to the chorus!\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cBut we broke it \u2014 and had a hit! And the song works because it has something very interesting and melodic moving it along.\u201d<\/p>\n When recording his guitar parts, Schon used his black 1977 Gibson Les Paul<\/a> electric guitar<\/a>, an instrument that he used for much of Escape and Journey’s subsequent tour. It fetched $250,000 at auction<\/a> in 2021.<\/p>\n As he recalls, his big guitar contribution to the song \u2014 aside from his anthemic solo \u2014 was the rapidly arpeggiating guitar part that introduces the second verse. \u201cIt was like something you might hear in a symphony and it felt like it was helping the track move along.\u201d<\/p>\n Which is definitely a far cry from playing something dumb.<\/p>\n But, hey, whatever works. After all, no less than Forbes magazine named \u201cDon\u2019t Stop Believin\u2019\u201d the Biggest Song of All Time in its March 2024 issue. Maybe there\u2019s something to be said for keeping things simple.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When asked to reach for greatness, most musicians dig deep into their soul for inspiration or a brainstorm…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":272550,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[49,48,75,341],"class_list":{"0":"post-272549","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-music"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272549"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272549\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/272550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"NEW](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/ccMvyNimzUyJcRWwZpjc5A.jpg\")
\n<\/p>\n