(Credits: Far Out / HBO)
Sat 25 April 2026 17:30, UK
Across six seasons and 86 episodes, we The Sopranos fans, waited patiently, wondering how this interminable protagonist would finally bow out of this once-in-a-lifetime show.
It was anyone’s guess whether it would be as bloody as the murders inflicted by him, or if it would be a welcomed resignation into a calm familial role, but then, people kept guessing, long after it had happened, wondering if their TV had just conked out at simply the worst moment possible.
Famously, it’s known that no, they did not, as showrunner David Chase, in fact, pulled off one of the most innovative and controversial show endings of all time, but aggressively cutting to black during a tense diner scene, which is widely interpreted as Tony Soprano’s instant death.
Looking past the outrage of what many considered a television robbery, it was a stroke of genius from Chase. It brought evidence to Bobby Baccalieri’s line from the show, which claims, during death, “You probably don’t even hear it”. It puts us firmly in the shoes of Tony Soprano, who is anxiously assessing what he suspects are the last moments of his life, oddly soundtracked by Journey’s ‘Don’t Stop Believin’.
It was a truly bizarre song to choose, capturing none of the steely gangster essence the show prided itself on, but instead, injecting a sort of pathetic hopelessness to Soprano’s now vulnerable situation. But it was as much of a surprise to the band as anybody, who were ultimately thrilled with the dramatic renaissance its inclusion in the television masterpiece provided.
However, Chase wasn’t onto something unique because the song’s eternal optimism offered a renewed sense of context for the song, particularly in the 2000s, when creative hopefulness was at an all-time high, as the band’s songwriter, Neal Schon, said, “When I first heard the finished song, I knew it was special, but it took years to get to the place where it’s a worldwide anthem. Everybody has their own theory about why Don’t Stop Believin’ exploded in the new millennium.”
Schon continued, explaining it wasn’t just the HBO epic that catapulted it back into the social consciousness, saying, “First, there was the movie Monster, with Charlize Theron. Then came The Sopranos. I remember my phone blowing up and all my friends saying, ‘Man, did you see the final scene?’ Then Glee happened.”
Of course, he was apprehensive about Glee‘s use of the song, which was decidedly a change of pace from all the heavy contexts that the track had been carrying, as he recalled, “I was terrified by that because I thought it was a teenybopper show, not so cool for us. Little did I know that it would open up a younger generation to our music. I’m a rocker and a blues guy, and we always joke that if I think something is too schmaltzy, it’s usually gonna be big!”
The outcome was that ‘Don’t Stop Believin’ is officially the world’s biggest ever song. According to a 2024 IFPI report, which compiled data on worldwide listening habits and streaming consumption, Journey’s hit is certifiably the biggest of all time. Maybe after all of that, it was actually the band themselves who ordered the hit on Tony Soprano?
