Journey was a popular rock band formed in 1973 in San Francisco, California by Former Santana's guitarist Neal Schon, Ross Valory, Prairie Prince, and George Tickner with another Santana member, Gregg Rolie, joining afterward.
Although, Journey's career is commonly accepted that lasted for 14 years from their debut to the departure of vocalist Steve Perry in 1987, the band rejoined again in 1995 and continued active until the present day with a new lineup with former members Neal Schon and Ross Valory.
However, back to the band's early days, Santana's manager, Walter "Herbie" Herbert, was already trying to put together a band in 1971 that would be named The Golden Gate Rhythm Section. However, the project materialized two years later when Journey emerged as the dream band adopting their name after a contest on KSAN-FM Radio, although some sources cite roadie Jack Villanueva as the person who suggested the band's name.
Journey debuted on stage on New Year's ever playing at Winterland Ballroom, a 5,400-seat music venue situated in San Francisco Bay and then after the band flew to Hawaii to participate in the Crater Celebration.
The band continued touring and playing small gigs until their recorded Journey's self-titled album, released on 1975 achieved moderate commercial success. The band's early recordings were considered more jazz oriented than the sought after rock image the band pursued.
In 1977, Journey then recruited a new vocalist, Robert Fleischman, who was playing with Chicago-based touring band and was a promissory singer to heighten the band to the levels of Foreigner and Boston, which were the bands of the time. However, Fleischman only introduced internal frictions and though their spring tour he kept the jazz-fusion style that the band wanted to get rid of.
Herbie Herbert suggested hiring a new Californian singer from Portuguese ancestry that was making sound recently around the Bay area. This is the way Steve Perry arrived to Journey and became not only the singer, but also the strong frontman they needed to point to a new musical direction and breaking into the mainstream with hits such as "Don't Stop Believing", "Separate Ways", "Faithfully", "Open Arms", and many more.
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