In 1973, former members of Santana, the Steve Miller Band, and Frumious Bandersnatch established the American rock group Journey in San Francisco. Currently, the lineup of the group includes guitarist/vocalist Neal Schon, who has been a part of it since the beginning, keyboardists/vocalists Jonathan Cain and Jason Derlatka, drummer/vocalist Deen Castronovo, bassist Todd Jensen, and lead singer Arnel Pineda.
When Steve Perry was the lead vocalist for Journey, that period saw the band’s greatest financial success. During that time, they released a number of successful songs, notably “Don’t Stop Believin’” (1981), which is 2009 surpassed all other non-modern music on iTunes in terms of sales. Escape, Journey’s seventh and most popular album, peaked at number one on the Billboard 200 and gave birth to “Open Arms,” another of their most well-known hits. The band’s 1983 follow-up album, Frontiers, expanded their fan base in the United Kingdom and was almost as popular there, peaking at number six on the UK Albums Chart and selling nearly as many copies. After a productive mid-’90s reunion, Journey has subsequently reformed twice: once with Steve Augeri from 1998 to 2006 and then with Arnel Pineda from 2007 to the present.
Journey is the 25th-best-selling band in the US, according to the Recording Industry Association of America, with 48 million albums sold there. They are among the best-selling bands of all time thanks to their global sales of more than 100 million records. Journey was ranked as the fifth-best US rock band in history in a 2005 USA Today opinion poll. Their songs are still played on rock radio stations all over the world and have become pillars of arena rock. On VH1’s list of the 100 greatest musicians ever, Journey comes in at number 96.
The 2017 class of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame included Journey. Steve Perry, the band’s lead vocalist, Neal Schon, Jonathan Cain, and Gregg Rolie on keyboards, Ross Valory on bass, and Aynsley Dunbar and Steve Smith on drums were all inducted.
