Description
Journey – Faithfully
Label: CBS – A3358
Format: Vinyl, 7″, 45 RPM
Country: UK
Released: 1983
Genre: Rock
Style: Pop Rock
Tracklist
A Faithfully 4:24 Written-By – J. Cain*
B Edge Of The Blade 4:30 Written-By – J. Cain*, N. Schon*, S. Perry*
Licensed To – CBS Records
Phonographic Copyright (p) – CBS Inc.
Published By – Screen Gems-EMI Music Ltd.
Producer – Kevin Elson, Mike Stone
From the LP “Frontiers” CBS 25261
Produced for Mike Stone Enterprises, Ltd and Elson Music Vision
Screen Gems/EMI Music Ltd.
℗ 1983 CBS Inc.
Original sound recording made by CBS Inc.
CBS Records are the exclusive licensees for the UK.
Made in England
Faithfully (1983)
This is the way Journey explained the problems of trying to carry on a relationship while out touring. One of the stand-out tracks from Frontiers, it has a soft lilt that exposes an emptiness. But this is augmented by the lush rhythm and the way that Perry croons his way through without ever wallowing in over emotional hyperbole. A power ballad in the best Journey tradition.
“Faithfully” is a popular song and power ballad by the band Journey, and the second single from their album Frontiers. It peaked at #12 on the Billboard Hot 100, giving the band their second consecutive top twenty hit from Frontiers. The music and lyrics were written by keyboardist Jonathan Cain and performed by Steve Perry. While the song was relatively successful on the charts, it has gone onto become one of their most recognizable songs, and has enjoyed lasting popularity.
The song describes the relationship of a “music man” on the road. The difficulties of raising and maintaining a family, two strangers having to fall in love again and staying faithful while touring are brought up. However he suggests that he gets the “joy of rediscovering” her, and insists “I’m forever yours… Faithfully.”
The music video featured a then-unique “life on tour” theme parallel to the songs lyrics, showing the bands performances in different venues and their travels around the USA. Steve Perry can be seen shaving his short-lived but talked-about moustache in the video. This video utilized footage from the documentary video Journey: Frontiers and Beyond. The concept of the “road video” was later utilized by several other bands, including Bon Jovi, Guns N’ Roses, Genesis, Mötley Crüe and Richard Marx.
Story Behind the Song: Journey’s ‘Faithfully’
Bart Herbison: “Highway run into the midnight sun.” There is not a greater opening line in the history of music. I’m thinking “Stairway to Heaven,” the first two lines aren’t that good. Wow, Jon!
Jonathan Cain: Well, I was on a bus and we were rolling along after a show. I sat out waiting for some of the crew to come with us. They were taking the big stage down. I was seeing these riggers pulling it all down, and I just sat out there in this big empty auditorium. I thought, “Man, you know, these guys are sacrificing this time with their families or loved ones to be out here with us.” And I started thinking, “Wouldn’t it be great if we had a song we could sing for all of us, because we’re all missing our loved ones, and all making that road sacrifice?” So I went to the bus with that thought. And I had a napkin and it was those first four lines.
More: Story Behind the Song: ‘Don’t Stop Believin’ ‘
BH: A songwriter actually did write a song on a napkin?
JC: On a napkin, yeah. “Wheels go round and round, you’re on my mind.” And then I (thought), “Well, I’m tired. I’m gonna keep this and go lay down in the bunk.” So I did. And back in those days, you wake up smelling like diesel.
So we were up to upstate New York. I took the napkin to my (hotel) room, put all my bags down and just fell asleep. I woke up and I looked at the napkin. And I had a little Casio MT30 keyboard. I was plunking around on it and I’m trying to get an idea for the melody. And then, you know, “Restless hearts, sleep alone tonight. Sendin’ all my love along the wire.” What next? Well, I reckon it’s a Holy Spirit moment, because I’ve never written a song in 20 minutes.
BH: I think you’re feeling guilty, is what I’ve always read. Cause you would typically go to Steve …
JC: Yeah, so I’m filled with this idea. And it’s a supernatural moment that I’ll never forget. There was sunlight just streaming in the window. And me and this napkin, and a little keyboard this big on the bed, you know?
… We go to sound check, I’ve got my napkin in my pocket, and everybody goes to dinner except me. I wander back into the symphony piano room, and I find this big nine-foot Mason & Hamlin, this big old beautiful piano from the ’40s. … There I am and I’ve got my napkin. And I sat it in front of me, and I start. And I’m like, “This is better than I thought it was gonna be. This is gonna be good.”
BH: You had to know it was special, right?
JC: Well, I knew it had something. I knew anytime you have that innocence and that transparency and you’re able to let your guard down as a man, and tell a woman that you’re forever hers. I was having trouble with my marriage at the time, and so my wife came on the road and I played it for her. And she just gave me a big old hug. It meant a lot to her that I had written it.
BH: Tell me you still have that napkin.
JC: I do not. You know what happened? This is a sad story. This is the way things go. They were, Sony, was looking for memorabilia. You know, for their floor downstairs they have like this big exhibit they were going to put up. And so they asked me if I had my lyrics, and I gave them my book with the napkin, and I never got it back.
BH: So they still have it?
JC: No, it’s gone. I looked. Everything is gone.
BH: Universe, bring that back. It’s his.
With their eighth studio album, 1983’s Frontiers, Journey’s transition from prog-influenced rock to radio-friendly, arena-ready fare was all but complete — an evolution that included one of the decade’s quintessential ballads in the Top 20 hit “Faithfully.”
Written by keyboardist Jonathan Cain, “Faithfully” followed lead-off Frontiers single “Separate Ways (Worlds Apart),” which had scored Journey a Top 10 pop hit while topping the rock charts — extending an impressive streak of crossover singles that stretched back to 1979’s “Lovin’, Touchin’, Squeezin’.” Although Journey’s brand of polished bombast would eventually be seen as just another ingredient in the power ballad formula that took over the Top 40 later in the decade, it was still powerfully effective; at this point, the band had already graced the upper reaches of the pop charts with “Who’s Crying Now” and “Open Arms.”
Still, even in the context of a catalog not without its share of softer songs, “Faithfully” stood out — particularly for Cain, who dashed it off in a burst of creativity while the band was on the road. “He told me he got the melody out of a dream,” Neal Schon said in the liner notes to their 1992 box set, Time Cubed. “I wish something like that would happen to me.”
“I don’t think I’ve written a song so quickly. I mean, it was probably a half an hour,” he told Songfacts. After scribbling out some lines on a napkin, he recalled feeling the rest of the composition come to him in a flood. “I’d never had a song come to me so quickly that it was anointed, supernatural. Literally, in 30 minutes I had written that song. I had the napkin in my pocket and I put it on the piano. I had a big grand piano there by the orchestra. I played through it and I thought, ‘Man, this is good.'”
Clearly, Cain’s bandmates agreed — and so did a number of Journey’s musical peers. Not long after “Faithfully” hit the airwaves, Cain got a call from Prince, who, he recalled, played him “Purple Rain” and said, “The chord changes are close to ‘Faithfully,’ and I don’t want you to sue me.” To his credit, Cain came away from the conversation with anything but a lawsuit on his mind.
“I thought it was an amazing tune,” Cain later said. “I told him, ‘Man, I’m just super-flattered that you even called. It shows you’re that classy of a guy. Good luck with the song. I know it’s gonna be a hit.'”
As it turned out, it wasn’t the only extra hit to grace the airwaves with a little bit of “Faithfully” DNA. Bryan Adams‘ longtime songwriting partner Jim Vallance attributed road-induced musical osmosis to their own 1984 hit “Heaven,” admitting they were influenced by that song in particular after Adams toured with Journey as their opening act.
But ultimately, it was still a personal statement from Cain — and one that, in the moment, had exactly the impact he intended. “I knew it had something,” he told the Tennessean. “I knew anytime you have that innocence and that transparency and you’re able to let your guard down as a man, and tell a woman that you’re forever hers. I was having trouble with my marriage at the time, and so my wife came on the road and I played it for her. And she just gave me a big old hug. It meant a lot to her that I had written it.”
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