"Faithfully"
Single by Journey
from the album Frontiers
B-side	"Frontiers" "Back Talk" "Edge of the Blade" "Send Her My Love"
Released	April 16, 1983[1]
Recorded	1982
Genre	Soft rock[2]
Length	4:24
Label	Columbia
Songwriter(s)	Jonathan Cain
Producer(s)	Kevin Elson Mike Stone
Journey singles chronology
"Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)" (1983) "Faithfully" (1983) "After the Fall" (1983)
Music video
Faithfully on YouTube

"Faithfully" is a song by American rock band Journey, released in 1983 as the second single from their album Frontiers. The song was written by keyboardist Jonathan Cain. It peaked at number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100, giving the band their second consecutive top-twenty hit from Frontiers. Despite featuring no chorus, it has gone on to become one of the band's most recognizable hits and has enjoyed lasting popularity. In a Classic Rock article, "Faithfully" was called the greatest power ballad ever recorded.^[3]

Lyrics and composition

The song was written by Journey keyboard player Jonathan Cain. He began writing the song with only the lyrics "highway run into the midnight sun" on a paper napkin while on a tour bus headed to Saratoga Springs, New York. The next day, he completed the song in full in only a half-hour. Cain connected the song's quick genesis to his Christian faith: "I'd never had a song come to me so quickly [...] it was anointed, supernatural."^[4] Neal Schon also commented on the song's inception: "[Cain] told me he got the melody out of a dream. I wish something like that would happen to me."^[5] Cain finished composing the song on a backstage grand piano at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, where the band performed it for the first time.^[6] According to the liner notes in Journey's Time3 compilation, Cain paid tribute to road manager Pat Morrow and stage manager Benny Collins when he wrote "we all need the clowns to make us smile." He characterized the song as a "road song," remarking, "You know I'm being a good dog out here — don't worry about it."^[5]

"Faithfully" is written in the key of B major with a tempo of 65 beats per minute in common time. The song follows a chord progression of B – G♯m – F# – E, and the vocals span from G♯₄ to B₅.^[7] The song describes the relationship of a "music man" with his lover. The difficulties of raising and maintaining a family and staying faithful while touring are brought up. However, he suggests that he gets the "joy of rediscovering" her, and insists "I'm forever yours... Faithfully." Cain wrote this song about the difficulty of being a married man as well as a touring musician. Soon after the song's release, he and his wife divorced. Like "Rosanna" by Toto, "Faithfully" contains lyrics delivered by the lead singer but written by another member of the band, which led many fans to believe Steve Perry wrote the song about a particular woman.^[8]

Music video

The music video featured a then-unique "life on tour" theme parallel to the song's lyrics, showing the band's performances in different venues and their travels around the USA. Steve Perry can be seen shaving his short-lived but talked-about moustache in the video. This video utilized footage from the documentary video Journey: Frontiers and Beyond narrated by John Facenda, voice of NFL Films, shortly before his death in 1984. The concept of the "road video" was later utilized with several other bands and artists, including Bon Jovi, Guns N' Roses, Genesis, Mötley Crüe, Poison and Richard Marx.

Legacy

Classic Rock critic Paul Elliott named "Faithfully" as "the greatest power ballad of all time",^[3] while Nate Larson of HuffPost ranked it as the seventh-best love song in history.^[9]

Bryan Adams opened for Journey on their 1983 Frontiers Tour, and during that time wrote the song "Heaven", which was heavily influenced by "Faithfully". The "Heaven" recording features Journey drummer Steve Smith.^[10]

After recording the song "Purple Rain", Prince phoned Cain and, worried it might be too similar to "Faithfully", asked him to listen to it. Cain reassured Prince by telling him that the songs only shared the same four chords.^[11]

Charts

Appearances in other media

• This song was used during a bar scene in the film Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.
• The song was used in the first season of Glee, "Journey to Regionals", as a featured duet between Finn Hudson (Cory Monteith) and Rachel Berry (Lea Michele) in their glee club Regionals championship setlist. It peaked at number 37 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.^[16]
• The song is sampled in the end of Girl Talk's album Feed the Animals.
• The song appeared in the film Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star (2011).
• The song was used in the episode "Dance Party USA" (season 2, episode 22) on ABC's The Goldbergs, where Barry, Erica, and Lainey appeared on Dance Party USA.
• It is sung in the film Here Comes the Boom (2012).
• This song sounds very similar to Elec Man's stage theme from the game "Mega Man" (1987) and it's remake - "Mega Man Powered Up" (2006).

Cover versions

• In 1987 and 1991 Hong Kong singers Anita Mui and Eddie Ng, respectively, covered this song in Cantonese.
• Country music singer Lorrie Morgan included the song on her 1991 album, Something in Red.
• In 2010, after winning the first season of Pilipinas Got Talent, Filipino singer Jovit Baldivino covered the song for his debut album of the same name.
• In 2017, Japanese guitarist Tak Matsumoto and American multi-instrumentalist Daniel Ho covered the song in their collaborative album Electric Island, Acoustic Sea.
• In December 2017, Brooke Simpson covered this song in The Voice semifinals.
• In April 2018 YouTube star Dan Vasc covered the song for his Youtube channel^[17]
• American punk-rock band Lagwagon covered this song on their album Railer, released in October 2019.
• In January 2020, Matchbox Twenty singer Rob Thomas performed the song in concert at the Borgata hotel in Atlantic City.

References