July 31, 1981

Do you remember where you were 30 years ago today?

1981 signified the true beginning of 80s music.  Michael Jackson's "Thriller", Foreigner's "4", and what may go down in history as the greatest album of the 80s, Journey's ESC4P3. 

Yeah, I typed that correctly; E5C4P3, not Escape.

I remember when this album came out for many reasons.  To start, my best friend growing up got my brother and I involved in a job from home.  He had a job working for a recording studio in Century City and they would send home cassette tapes (remember those?) for us to splice leader tape in at the start of the reel, then seal the case back up.  I can't recall how much we were paid, but, it wasn't much.  We had fun doing it though, and in April, we received an advance copy of Journey's "Escape" album on tape.  The cassette had either a white or orange label, and all of the info was typed.  I remember putting the cassette in the player for the first time and hearing "Don't Stop Believin'" for the first time.  I played that cassette until it wore out!

Come the end of July and albums, even today, are ALWAYS released on a Tuesday, and July 31st was that day.  We ran down to Music Plus after school and there it was.  This didn't have a white or orange label on it.  This was the real magilla!  I mean, look at the album cover!

I remember people asking "what's that say?" when looking at how JOURNEY was written "sideways."  Friends were thinking that was something in Russian before they finally looked above to see JOURNEY was written twice!  And then the album title...E5C4P3.  Was this a cruel joke or was this album just something different?

And then, the scarab, breaking out of what?  The atmosphere; Earth?    Not a space ship, but a scarab, something that Journey used for years

Well, Journey's E5C4P3 proved to be something different.  The first single off of the album was released on July 11, 1981.  "Who's Crying Now", which went to #4, showcased Steve Perry's soaring vocals and was an interesting choice to be selected the lead single for the album.

The next single was the second song on the album, "Stone In Love", followed up by the third song on the album, "Don't Stop Believin'".  On October 20, 1981, little did anyone know that the song that would get as high as #9 on the charts back in 1981, would later become one of the top selling singles of all time!  More on that later...

Then, it happened.  On January 10, 1982, the fourth single off the album, "Open Arms", shot to #2 on the Billboard Top 40 chart.  Suddenly, Journey became a household name.  Despite the song only making it to #7 on the Adult Contemporary chart, "Open Arms" became a staple at many weddings and high school dances.

Year		Single		Chart	Peak
1981		Don't Stop Believin'		Mainstream Rock	8
1981		Don't Stop Believin'		The Billboard Hot 100	9
1981		Stone In Love		Mainstream Rock	13
1981		Who's Crying Now		Mainstream Rock	4
1981		Who's Crying Now		The Billboard Hot 100	4
1982		Open Arms		Adult Contemporary	7
1982		Open Arms		Mainstream Rock	35
1982		Open Arms		The Billboard Hot 100	2
1982		Still They Ride		Adult Contemporary	37
1982		Still They Ride		Mainstream Rock	47
1982		Still They Ride		The Billboard Hot 100	19

Journey started their E5C4P3 Tour in Japan in late July 1981, just as the album was being released, and, coinciding with MTV going on the air at 1201am on August 1, 1981!  They concluded the tour at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena on July 2, 1982.

E5C4P3 was in the Top 20 when Journey went to Houston on September 5th when MTV decided to broadcast the concert live to its viewers.  One week later, Journey found themselves opening for the Rolling Stones at JFK Stadium in Philadelphia, the same date that E5C4P3 hit #1 on Billboard's Top 200 Album Chart!

Capitalizing on their success, the band recorded radio commercials for Budweiser and sold rights to their likenesses and music for use in two video games: the Journey arcade game by Bally/Midway and Journey Escape by Data Age for the Atari 2600.

Fast forward 30 years later to 2011...Journey as we knew it is no more, however, what has happened is that "Don't Stop Believin'" has become one of the top selling singles of all time!

Despite Journey's hiatus from 1987 to 1996, "Don't Stop Believin'" has helped Journey's music catalog to sell incredibly, to the point that many music insiders say that former lead singer Steve Perry is making so much money off of royalties that he can continue to live in obscurity without thinking twice about needing to "make a living."

It all started in 1998 when a string acoustic version of the song was used during the Robbie's wedding in the film "The Wedding Singer".  From there, the song was used in numerous other movies and television shows, but, none more famous than in 2007 when the song gained press coverage for its use in the final scene of HBO's The Sopranos from the series finale "Made in America".  Steve Perry was initially hesitant in allowing the song to be used in The Sopranos but later agreed.

Sales soared after this and "Don't Stop Believin'" is heard in sports stadiums across the U.S., pushing music sales of albums E5C4P3 and Journey's Greatest Hits (#100 on this months Billboard Top 200).  As of today, E5C4P3 has been certified by RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) as Platinum 9 times

This past Friday, SoundScan (Nielsen) gave the band an award on NBCs "Today" show that proclaimed "Don't Stop Believin'" as the #1 selling Classic Rock single of all time.

On its 30th Anniversary, Journey's E5C4P3 is still in Billboard's Top 200 chart, this week at #172, and, arguably, the greatest album to come from the 1980s!