Wednesday September 21, 2022 “Raised on Radio” Journey
"Raised on Radio", says it all for me.
Journey’s founding members in 1973 were Santana alumni Neil Schon and Greg Rolle, who was their original lead vocalist. Rolie would be replaced in 1977 as lead vocalist by Steve Perry and Journey would begin to exert their strong presence on the charts from that point forward.
Not an unusual band name, Journey, but acquired in an unusual fashion. A contest was held on the San Francisco radio station KSAN-FM to come up with the name of the band, the winner getting tickets for life to their shows. The names were mostly terrible with stuff like Rumpled Foreskin and The Mound Pounders. John Villanueva, who worked in the band's management, came up with the name Journey, and they created a fake winner for the contest, an imaginary listener named Toby Pratt.
A wildly popular band, Journey was often dismissed by critics as disposable pop. Grammy voters clearly disdained them, giving them only one nomination (Best Pop Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal for "When You Love A Woman" in 1997 - they lost to "Free As A Bird" by The Beatles).
They were eligible for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000, a somewhat questionable honor, but didn’t get in until 2017, when it was abundantly clear that people were still listening to Journey and would be for quite some time.
Journey has recorded sixteen studio albums, has thirteen top twenty US singles including five top ten hits and has sold fifty million albums in the US. Today’s song “Raised on Radio” comes from their 1986 album of the same name.
Stay safe and well…and I counted twenty eight rock & roll song name checks in this tune, but you might want to double check my numbers.