Pick a Day

Keyboard player Gregg Rolie, a founding member of both Santana and Journey, is born in Seattle, Washington. He handles a lot of the vocals for Santana and is also Journey's lead singer for their first three albums until Steve Perry joins for their fourth.

Steve Perry is born in Hanford, California. He becomes Journey's lead singer in 1977, debuting on Infinity, their fourth album. His songwriting chops and instantly identifiable vocals help Journey become one of the top bands of the '80s. He and the band part ways in 1998 when Perry develops a hip condition that keeps him from touring.

Ross Valory, bass player with Journey and the Steve Miller Band, is born in San Francisco.

Jonathan Cain (keyboardist, rhythm guitarist Journey) is born Jonathan Leonard Friga in Chicago, Illinois.

Drummer Prairie Prince (of The Tubes, Journey, New Cars) is born Charles Lempriere Prince in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Neal Schon is born on an Air Force base in Oklahoma. The guitarist does time in Santana before founding the groups Journey and Bad English.

Drummer Steve Smith (of Focus and Journey) is born in Whitman, Massachusetts.

Journey, formed by ex-Santana members Gregg Rolie and Neal Schon, make their live debut at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco. Rolie handles the lead vocals; Steve Perry doesn't join the group until 1977.

Journey release their self-titled debut album, a mix of progressive rock and jazz with little emphasis on the vocals. It finds just a niche audience, as do their next two albums, but after adding lead singer Steve Perry to the band in 1977 they switch to a pop sound and become consistent hitmakers.

At the Old Waldorf in San Francisco, Steve Perry makes his debut with Journey. The band formed four years earlier and has been playing mostly progressive rock, but with Perry at the helm they make stadium-friendly pop songs and become one of the biggest bands in the land.

Journey release Infinity, their fourth album but first with lead singer Steve Perry. With the singles "Wheel In The Sky" and "Lights," it takes the band away from their progressive rock sound and squarely into pop, where they thrive for the next 10 years.

Van Halen begin their first world tour, opening for Journey at the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago. The band, which released their debut album three weeks earlier, had been playing clubs for about four years.

The Texxas Jam takes place at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, Texas, with Aerosmith, Van Halen, Journey and Ted Nugent performing. 80,000 fans brave the 100 degree heat, cooled down by fire hoses brought in by the organizers. For Aerosmith, it marks a low point in their career as drug use and infighting are about to break up the band, and their performance suffers.

Journey release Escape, their most popular album. The ballad "Open Arms" is the highest charting single, but "Don't Stop Believin'" is the one that endures, becoming one of the biggest songs of all time.

The animated sci-fi film Heavy Metal is released. Although it shares its name with the hard-rock genre, the film isn't intended to have anything to do with music, but instead is an anthology of various stories from the comic magazine Heavy Metal. Almost as an afterthought, an all-star soundtrack is added, featuring songs by Sammy Hagar, Devo, Blue Öyster Cult, Cheap Trick, Journey, and Black Sabbath, to name a few.More

At a Journey concert in San Francisco, lead singer Steve Perry brings up members of the 49ers football team who are in the audience and introduces them as "the next Super Bowl champions." His prediction comes true: the 49ers beat the Cincinnati Bengals in Super Bowl XVI.

Journey release their eighth album, Frontiers. It sells 6 million copies and spawns the hit singles "Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)" and "Faithfully," but has the misfortune of being released while Michael Jackson's Thriller is red hot; it holds Frontiers at #2 for nine weeks.

Journey wrap up their Raised on Radio tour with a show in Anchorage, Alaska. It's their last tour with Steve Perry, who makes one more album with the band, Trial by Fire, in 1996.

A crowd estimated at 300,000 turns out for a concert honoring promoter Bill Graham, a San Francisco legend who died a week earlier.More

Journey return to action with Trial By Fire, their first album of new music in 10 years. It's their last with lead singer Steve Perry, whose hip condition keeps him from touring. He leaves the band in 1998, replaced by the similar-sounding Steve Augeri.

Steve Perry officially leaves Journey, honoring an agreement made with Neal Schon and Jonathan Cain that they would reform the band without him if he was not able to tour. He is replaced with the similar-sounding Steve Augeri.

At a show in San Rafael, California, Steve Augeri debuts as lead singer of Journey, who have parted ways with Steve Perry because he's unable to tour. He's later replaced by Arnel Pineda as the band soldiers on into the 2020s. Perry never returns to the band, which is anchored by their founding member, guitarist Neal Schon.

In the last scene of the HBO series The Sopranos, "Don't Stop Believin'" by Journey plays on the jukebox while Tony Soprano sits at a diner. It cuts to black on the line, "Don't Stop."More

The first episode of the TV series Glee airs, featuring a Glee Club performance of Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" that brings the song back to the charts. The Glee version lands at #4 - five spots higher than Journey's original.

Journey keyboard player Jonathan Cain marries celebrity preacher Paula White and begins recording worship music, releasing the album What God Wants To Hear in 2016. It's the third marriage for both.More

Pearl Jam, Nile Rodgers, Electric Light Orchestra, Journey, Joan Baez, Tupac Shakur and Yes are inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.More

Journey members Jonathan Cain, Arnel Pineda and Ross Valory get a tour of the White House and a photo with President Trump in the Oval Office thanks to Cain's wife, Paula, who is chairwoman of Trump's evangelical advisory board and delivered the invocation at his inauguration. The visit doesn't sit well with the band's guitarist, Neal Schon, who blasts Cain on social media and accuses him of using the band to promote his religious views.More

The RIAA certifies "Don't Stop Believin'" by Journey at 18x Platinum, making it the best-selling song of all time in America. It was certified at just 5x Platinum in 2013, but picked up steam as it became a streaming favorite across generations. Newer songs like Post Malone's "Sunflower" are soon certified higher, but "Don't Stop Believin'" stands as the top song from before the streaming era.