Journey Didn’t Want ‘Don’t Stop Believin” in ‘Glee’
Glee was one of the defining TV shows of the 2010s and the cast’s cover of Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin'” was a hug pop culture moment was a huge pop culture moment. However, the members of Journey were not enthused at first. Notably, Glee made the original song much cheesier than it ever was before.
A Journey member revealed how ‘Don’t Stop Believin” got bigger and bigger
During a 2024 interview with The Guardian, Journey’s Neal Schon discussed his feelings about “Don’t Stop Believin’.”
When I first heard the finished song I knew it was special, but it took years to get to the place where it’s a worldwide anthem. Everybody has their own theory about why ‘Don’t Stop Believin” exploded in the new millennium. First, there was the movie Monster, with Charlize Theron. Then came The Sopranos — I remember my phone blowing up and all my friends saying: ‘Man, did you see the final scene?’
Then Glee happened. I was terrified by that because I thought it was a teenybopper show, not so cool for us. Little did I know that it would open up a younger generation to our music. I’m a rocker and a blues guy, and we always joke that if I think something is too schmaltzy, it’s usually gonna be big!”
‘Glee’ made ‘Don’t Stop Believin” very schmaltzy
“Don’t Stop Believin'” was always schmaltzy. Glee turned it into 100% pure sucrose. The a cappella section, the use of Auto-Tune, the limp guitar riff, and Lea Michele’s over-emotive singing all combine to make it a theater kid disaster that could only sound good if you’re five years old and this cover is your first exposure to Journey. Fortunately, Glee‘s fans were too young to know the original versions of the older songs on the show.
Schon discussed the impact of “Don’t Stop Believin’.” “We just got done selling out three years of arenas and the band is firing on all cylinders right now,” he said. “When we play ‘Don’t Stop Believin” live, I feel like I’m in my Ferrari.”
At some point, “Don’t Stop Believin'” stopped being a song. It’s now a fact of life. If you know one song, it’s probably “Don’t Stop Believin’.”
How the Journey and ‘Glee’ versions of the song performed
The original “Don’t Stop Believin'” reached No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 and stayed on the chart for 16 weeks. The tune appeared on the album Escape. That record peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 for a single week, making it Journey’s only chart-topper in the United States. Escape lasted on the Billboard 200 for 154 weeks.
The Glee version of “Don’t Stop Believin'” reached No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and lasted on the chart for seven weeks, meaning that it peaked higher than the original. “Don’t Stop Believin'” became Glee‘s biggest hit. A whopping 207 songs from Glee charted on the Billboard Hot 100, however, the vast majority of these songs only charted for one week.
Glee‘s “Don’t Stop Believin'” appeared on the album Glee: The Music, Volume 1. That album climbed to No. 4 on the Billboard 200. It spent 75 weeks on the chart, making it the show’s biggest album.
“Don’t Stop Believin'” is great when Journey is singing it.
