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Steve Perry’s Vocals Are Out Of This World On Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’” Live In 1981
The article highlights Steve Perry’s exceptional live performance of ‘Don’t Stop Believin” with Journey in 1981, showcasing his vocal prowess and the band’s musicianship during their Escape Tour.
Many publications have called Journey’s Steve Perry one of the greatest singers of all time, and if you want to see the proof of that, check out his performance of “Don’t Stop Believin’” live in 1981.
The band had released “Don’t Stop Believin’” earlier that year and scored a worldwide hit.
The tune would become their signature song, and while performing in Houston, Texas in ’81, the band showed off their amazing musicianship on the hit.
Perry just sings like a bird, and he makes his soaring vocals on the song sound so easy.
He also effortlessly exudes that rockstar charisma, and has the audience eating out of the palm of his hand.
As many fans pointed out in the comments, Perry sounds even better live than on the studio recording, which is no easy feat.
Journey released an HD remaster of the ’81 performance of “Don’t Stop Believin’” on their YouTube channel as you can see below.
The ’81 live cut of “Don’t Stop Believin’” was popular with fans, who tuned in 274 million times on the video.
This makes the clip the most popular live performance on Journey’s YouTube channel, and the third most popular video overall.
The recording was captured during the band’s Escape Tour, which was in support of their newly released seventh studio album, Escape.
Journey played two shows in Houston in 1981 on the tour, on November 5 and November 6.
However, it’s not clear which night the live recording of “Don’t Stop Believin’” was captured.
It seems like the band was really on fire on the Escape tour in 1981, as the second most popular live performance on the band’s YouTube channel is “Who’s Crying Now”, which was also captured in Houston on the tour.
Fans were really impressed with Journey’s live cut of “Don’t Stop Believin’” in Houston, and added comments such as, “No Auto-Tune, no backing tracks, just some amazing musicians who have left their mark quite clearly way, way up there” and “Steve Perry sings this song like that kid who doesn’t study a lick but walks into the final exam and aces it. Effortless.”
“Don’t Stop Believin’” was a top 10 hit in the US as well as several international markets.
The song became Journey’s biggest hit over time, and was eventually certified 18 times Platinum in the US.
