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I remember the first time I heard the song. It was in 1982 after my hockey team was eliminated from a tournament. Somewhere on the bus, there was my defence partner Llew NcWana who would go on to Bowling Green University and then to the CHL. He would amass single digit goals and double digit penalty minutes. On the other side of the bus was forward Matthew Perry who went on to prime time TV and then into syndication with the same big TV show. I just remember being pissed we lost 5-2 in the semi-finals.
I picked up the song on Q107 on my Sony Walkman and the piano sound was crisp and the song rather catchy. As the years went by, the song never resonated with my peers. At the end of the year, Journey's other song Open Arms finished significantly higher on the year end Billboard chart.
So how did this song get so popular?
Well there was this famous scene at the end that ended the Sopranos TV series. Followed by many other appearances on television and sports arenas.
It is safe to say that the song is more popular than it was before 2007, and has given birth to generation of Millennials clearly can't sing.
Baby Van Beezly filmed this and obviously spent a long time cutting it all together with her producer Will Lemke who is credited at the end of the video. Alcohol and Journey do indeed mix.
This is why you play this hits, kids!