The phrase "don't stop believin'" was a gift from Jonathan Cain's father. He'd end every phone call to his son, a struggling musician in Los Angeles, with the words: "Don't stop believing or you're done, dude." When Cain joined Journey in 1980 he had worked the phrase into a chorus, which his new bandmates developed into a song. Don't Stop Believin' was a huge US hit in 1981, but 26 years later it began an unlikely voyage to ubiquity when it featured in the final scene of the Sopranos and was introduced to a new generation. It was performed in an early episode of Glee, and from there it became unstoppable. It uses the same chord structure as Take On Me, Under the Bridge, You're Beautiful and Let It Be, but its strength lies in its performability and the universality of its sentiment: not for nothing has it become the top selling download in iTunes history.
The Sopranos begets the cult of Don't Stop Believin'
Contributor
Michael Hann
Michael Hann is a freelance writer, and former music editor of the Guardian
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