Greatest Hits

Journey | Format: MP3 Music

Product Details

• Original Release Date: November 15, 1988
• Label: Columbia/Legacy
• Copyright: (P) 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1985, 1986, 1996, 2006 Sony Music Entertainment
• Record Company Required Metadata: Music file metadata contains unique purchase identifier. Learn more.
• Total Length: 1:05:29
• Genres:
  • Classic Rock > Arena Rock
  • Pop > Pop Rock
  • Pop > Soft Rock
  • Rock
• ASIN: B00138H45W
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (445 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #81 Paid in MP3 Albums (See Top 100 Paid in MP3 Albums)
  • #1 in MP3 Downloads > MP3 Albums > Classic Rock > Album-Oriented Rock (AOR)
  • #1 in MP3 Downloads > MP3 Albums > Classic Rock > Arena Rock
  • #1 in MP3 Downloads > MP3 Albums > Pop > Soft Rock

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

121 of 130 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Pop Journey January 18, 2007

By Lonnie E. Holder HALL OF FAMETOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Audio CD

The music on this CD is very good music if you like Journey's pop music. However, this CD is more of a sampler even when you consider only Journey's pop music. Journey released a total of about 49 singles, 25 of which went into the top 100. 18 of those songs made it into the top 40. This CD has 16 songs, and the songs included were not all of the highest charting singles. Then there are progressive rock and jazz songs from Journey that are basically unrepresented on this CD. It would take at least three CD's to have a good cross section of the best of Journey's music. This collection gets 4 stars because it falls short with respect to Journey's pop music and has no representation of Journey's first three albums.

The 1978 album "Infinity" provides two songs for this collection. "Wheel in the Sky" reached #57 on U.S. charts. This song receives a lot of airplay and I keep thinking it went higher in the charts than it did. This song about being on the road retains flavors of early Journey. The beautiful song "Lights" is an awesome ballad that also seems like it underperformed, reaching #68 in the U.S.

Journey released "Evolution" in the following year, and "Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin'" vaulted the group into the top 20, reaching #16. This song mournfully laments a relationship gone bad. Journey released yet another album in the following year, "Departure," and three singles came from that album. Only "Any Way You Want It," which reached #23, is in this collection. This song has a catchy beat, but it sounds like a template for later 80's music.

Journey's popularity peaked in 1981 with the release of "Escape." There were four singles released from this album, three of which are in this collection.... The highest charting single was the tender song "Open Arms," which reached #2 in the U.S. Journey did well with love songs and breakup songs, as the #4 song "Who's Cryin" Now" proved. The third single from this album was "Don't Stop Believin," which reached #9. The lyrics to this song verge on fantasy. The music is complex, cleverly arranged and fast-paced.

After a two year gap Journey released "Frontiers," which yielded five singles, three of which are in this collection. "Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)" had a heavy bass line and a fast beat. This song about love lost has excellent vocals. On the flip side is a song about deeply missing the one that you love. "Faithfully" is a beautiful love song that reached #12. Back in the other direction is another song about a lost love, "Send Her My Love," which reached #23.

Journey has created a number of songs for soundtracks. Two of those songs appear in this collection. From the "Two of a Kind" soundtrack is "Ask the Lonely." From the "Vision Quest" soundtrack is "Only the Young," a fast ballad that peaked at #9.

There was another gap before the 1986 album "Raised on Radio" was released. This album did quite well and three of the five singles released from this album are in this collection. "Be Good to Yourself" is not truly a love song, but it is a fun song. This song reached #9. Another beautiful ballad about an unrequited love is "Girl Can't Help It," which reached #17. Another sad song about a broken relationship is the #14 song "I'll Be Alright without You."

The 1996 album "Trial by Fire" generated four singles, with the love song "When You Love a Woman" reaching #12 in the U.S., proving that Journey could still chart eighteen years after their first chart success. This song was nominated for a Grammy Award.

This album is a lot of fun. The music is some of Journey's best pop music. There are other collections available, but the collection that best captured Journey, though only to 1992, was "Time3." However, many people only like Journey's pop music and "Time3" has songs from Journey's progressive/jazz fusion era. Perhaps the best collection of pop hits (that I know about) is the two disk "Essential" collection, which collects music up to 1996.

Journey's popularity has waned. Steve Perry left the group and came back and then left again. Other members have come and gone as well, leaving only two of the original members, Neal Schon and Ross Valery. But we will always have the marvelous ballads the group created when they were at the peak of popularity, and some of the best of those are in this collection. Read more ›

60 of 64 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Testimony of a Great Band. February 24, 2000

By Jason Stein VINE™ VOICE

Format:Audio CD

It's funny, I didn't like Journey when I was a pre-adolescent kid and they were having hit after hit on the radio. As I got older I needed Journey to remind me of my childhood, and the music brought back (and still brings up) fond memories. Now it seems there are many Journey-bashers and in retrospect there were many back in their hey-days. But, years after all the 80's bands have been silenced, this band, along with Styx, REO Speedwagon, Def Leppard, Toto and a few others, still sounds great. No one sounded like or sounds like Journey. Their hits collection makes it hard to buy any individual cd, but after you have their hits, I think most fans would agree that Escape and Frontiers would be the next to buy. Their 1996 cd Trial By Fire was good but not as great as Escape or Frontiers. Steve Perry's two solo cds can be summed up with HIS greatest hits cd. So, that leaves us with Journey's Greatest Hits--15 solid tracks and the fastest 65 minutes you'll listen to. Although the critics scorned Steve Perry's vocals, and non-fans scorn him too, I feel that he is truly an amazing singer--no one sounds like him. In a world where most pop singers sound alike, this is a strong asset. I never get tired of listening to Journey and maybe, in a few more years, they will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. For now, their Greatest Hits is a must buy for any true music fan, it's well worth the money.

53 of 58 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Be good to yourself and get this! April 16, 2003

By Daniel J. Hamlow HALL OF FAME

Format:Audio CD

One of the biggest rock groups synonymous with the late 1970's and mid-1980's was Journey, led by Steve Perry and Neal Schon. The band broke up following Steve Perry's bout with cancer and Neal Schon forming Bad English. But they did leave behind songs that were mostly yearning love songs that pepper many a classic rock station today. As they played a significant part in my musical education in the 1980's, they do merit a gander. Most of the songs here are instant classics. Key: [original studio album]

The rocker "Only The Young" sets the standard for Steve Perry's soaring vocals, a wistful chorus, a strong backbeat of drums, and a crash of guitars. This song, about a hopeful generation at a new dawn, is romantically optimistic: "Only the young can say/They're free to fly away/Sharing the same desires/Burnin' like wildfire."

"Don't Stop Believing" [Escape] is a mid-paced rocker with a strong keyboard chords punctuating the rhythm. There's a sad but true moral here: "Some will win, some will lose/Some were born to sing the blues/Oh, the movie never ends/It goes on and on and on and on." However, there is a note of hope in the coda: "Don't stop believin'/Hold on to the feelin'."

"Wheel In The Sky" [Infinity] may be a followup to the male protagonist of the previous song who took that midnight train and has found life too hard going enough to want to go back home.

"Faithfully," [Frontiers] about a rocker on the road and vows to remain faithful to the dear one he has left behind because "the road ain't no place to start a family." Perry's vocal reaches the heights in the finale. The slow ballad "Lights" and heartfelt "Send Her My Love" [Frontiers] also have the same theme.

"I'll Be Alright Without You," [Raised On Radio], avers that "love's an empty face......oh I've got to replace."

The rowdy party rocker "Any Way You Want It," [Departure] the song Rodney Dangerfield and crew jams to on the green in Caddyshack is enough to chase out any blue funk.

The rocking "Ask The Lonely" tells those who've gotten the wrong end of the love stick and despairing to do the title act. The operatic backing vocals from the band really enhance the song.

I remember trying to find the yearning "One Love" on Journey's albums before I was put wise-it was called "Who's Crying Now." [Escape] One of my favourites.

The piercing opening synthesizers and chugging guitars make "Separate Ways" [Frontiers] one of the hardest songs they've ever done. Another big favourite. Memorable chorus: "Someday love will find you/Break those chains that bind you/One night will remind you/How we touched/And went our separate ways"

"Lovin' Touchin' Squeezin'"[Evolution] incorporates a bluesy sound. Then comes a heartmelting power ballad and another favourite-"Open Arms" [Escape] about a reunited love after a long separation. Mariah Carey covers this on her Daydream album, BTW.

"The Girl Can't Help It"-no, not the Little Richard song or movie-is another Raised On Radio hit. The chorus sets the basic idea: "The girl can't help it, she needs more/He hasn't found what he's lookin' for/They're still standing in the rain/He can't help it, and she's just that way." Its fellow single, "Be Good To Yourself" rivals "Any Way You Want It" in sheer rockability. Which brings me to this-be good to yourself and get this collection! Read more ›

29 of 32 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars It's the Journey, not the destination July 12, 2007

By Tim Brough TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Audio CD

Once Steve Perry joined Journey for the "Infinity" album, the band's course was inevitably reset. They changed direction from being a progressive rock band to an arena rock juggernaut. Perry's main contribution was a strong melodic sense coupled to his more soulful vocals. The hits started almost immediately, as "Lights" and "Wheel In The Sky" became FM Rock Radio staples.

That is what this greatest hits focuses on, the songs that became the standards by which the public remembers the band. If you were interested in the albums BEFORE "Infinity," I suggest "Time 3," which adds material from the years when Neal Schon was still aping his jazz-Rock tenure with Santana and Gregg Rollie was doing standard rock keyboard boogie. Personally, I liked them better when Perry got on board. The sound focused and the songwriting tightened. Songs like "Separate Ways/Worlds Apart" and "Any Way You Want It" could add a jolt of adrenaline to a day of radio. When Jonathan Cain replaced Gregg Rollie on "Escape," Journey took on a romantic bent from Cain's songwriting. "Open Arms" came first, then "Faithfully" (on "Frontiers") solidified it. These were pop radio songs without peer, and they make Journey's "Greatest Hits" an essential document of 70's and 80's radio rock. (The updated version includes the best song from the 90's reunion "Trial by Fire," "When You Love A Woman....")

The other reason you might be looking at this is not because of Steve Perry's voice or Neal Schon's guitar heroics, but because of Tony and Carmella. It was Journey's "Don't Stop Believing" that echoed out of the final minutes of "The Sopranos" closing episode. It was funny that Tony passed over Tony Bennett and Frank Sinatra for Journey and inspire a million parodies in the process. (Including Hilary Clinton...where the best moment is when she and President Bill Clinton are flipping through songs and Bill says "My money's on Smash Mouth...") Talk about cementing your place in pop culture...who could have asked for better?

This best of offers a pair of soundtrack rarities in "Only The Young" (from "Vision Quest") and "Ask The Lonely" (from "Two of a Kind"). Missing are a few crucial singles like "Suzanne," "Stone In Love" and "Walks Like A Lady." If you really want them, go for the box sets or individual CD's. Read more ›