• AllMyVinyl #107
• Band: Journey
• Album Title: Greatest Hits
• Release Date: 15 Nov 1988
• Date purchased: 26 Jan 2024
• Location purchased: Walmart
• Color of vinyl: black
• Number of discs: 2
• Links: [ Wikipedia | Discogs | Band Website | Complete album on Youtube ]

This album holds a strong draw for me.  I bought the cassette brand new in 1988 when it first came out.  The amusing thing is so did my wife – we were actually dating in the 80’s when this one came out.  We both liked Journey, so we both picked it up.  Somewhere along the line I bought it on CD as well as I still have both on top of the 2024 vinyl print I now have.

However, one thing that bugged me at the time is that it was basically a Steve Perry hits thing.  None of the first three Journey albums were represented.  That always annoyed me.  It did in 1988, and it does in 2025.  Now as I’ve said before, with Greatest Hits packages, there’s always gonna be an annoyance level with the songs chosen.  But IMO a proper Greatest Hits package should at least represent everything.  It’s as if this album is saying nothing from those first three Journey albums were hits, or represented.  I get you can’t put everything, that’s valid.  However, SOMETHING from that era should have been here.  They probably weren’t going to use Kohoutek or I’m Gonna Leave You as they’re both knocking on the door of 7 minutes long, but something like Hustler which is 3:16, or maybe Nickel & Dime at 4:13.  There’s some really good guitar work by Neil Schon on these albums.  Hustler & Nickel would make great additions.  I’d gladly sacrifice Open Arms or Faithfully for these tracks – no problem.  I know none of these songs are on the Greatest Hits album, but I recommend these tracks from the first three Journey albums if you want to expand on the Greatest Hits album and roll your own..

• Kohoutek (Journey, 1975)
• To Play Some Music (Journey, 1975)
• In the Morning Day (Journey, 1975)
• I’m Gonna Leave You (Look Into the Future, 1976)
• Nickel & Dime (Next, 1977)
• Karma (Next, 1977)
• Hustler (Next, 1977)

OK, enough of that.  Back to today’s vinyl.  As I mentioned before, we still have my original 1988 cassette tape, both my wife’s and my own copy of the album on CD. Then in January 2024 I discovered that Journey was re-pressing the album on vinyl, so I snapped it up.  I saw it on a deal from Walmart in Feb 2024.  There’s some astoundingly great stuff on here, and I wanted some Journey on vinyl.  The really good Greatest Hits album seemed like a place to start.   The track listing is mostly the same.  The original versions had 15 songs, but the 2024 vinyl has 16.  Now it’s not the first with an extra song.  One of the remasters over the years added an extra song.  The Extra track is called “When You Love a Woman” from the mostly awful 1996 “reunion” album “Trial By Fire”.   At first I thought they had replaced a song, but it turns out they just added a 16th.  That particular song actually came out 8 years after this Greatest Hits package was originally released.  If they were gonna do THAT they could have picked something from the original albums again, but NOOOOOOO.  I mean the song “Hustler” smokes!  OK, enough with that rant.

What’s here is by most definitions really great shit.  Even the cassette tape I found says “Contains 15 Smash Songs” on the front.  Now that’s marketing BS, but even the two songs I can’t stand I know are super popular.  It’s definitely a solid album front to back in terms of how popular they were. No doubt there.  It remains one of the all time greatest best selling “Greatest Hits” album by anyone.  When I was reading about this read somewhere that it continues to sell half a million copies a year.  That’s amazing almost 30 years later.

One note before I get into the songs.  I just wrote about Journey’s Escape album on 28 November. As it’s very recent, I’m not going to rewrite what I wrote about the songs from Escape here again (there’s a few), I’ll just regurgitate the text frorm that album review here.  The songs are exactly the same, no difference.

Only the Young – This is one of my favorite Journey songs and it always bugged me it wasn’t on a proper album as such.  It appeared on the soundtrack for the movie Vision Quest – a movie I’ve never actually seen.  But the song is peak 80’s Journey – it’s right there with things like Separate Ways or Don’t Stop Believin’.  It’s a great song that most people wouldn’t know if they didn’t buy this compilation, as they CERATINLY didn’t buy the Vision Quest soundtrack just for this.

Don’t Stop Believin’ – A 5 out of 5.  Hard to come up with a better album opener than this song. As mentioned before, it’s the biggest selling digital track by anyone ever.  As I had the experience of this album when it was BRAND NEW, whenever I listen to it, I’m taken back to my teenage years, and can re-live that part of my life again.  This was rock to me at this point (as I wasn’t quite yet into metal).  It has an amazing reach, it has continued to be popular over the decades too, and not just from the legacy standpoint of the song.  It’s found its own shelf life a few times, one of which when it was used in the final episode of the Sopranos.  In the early parts of the song that are more mellow you can hear Steve Perry’s buttery smooth vocals – which then morph into the version that goes with the full band. Man this song shows his vocal range.

Wheel in the Sky – One of my favorite tracks again, but not one of their most played tracks.  This came from the 1978 album Infinity, and was co-written by Robert Fleischmann, Journey’s brief lead singer in-between Gregg Rolie & Steve Perry.  The guitar riff is slightly different than the usual thing Neil Schon was putting out around this time.  I have to wonder what this would have sounded with Fleshchmann on vocals.  This came out during the brief period that Steve Perry was entranced as the lead singer, but Rolie was still here (the prior singer).  When they sang together it created one of my favorite sounds from the band.  I think that sound is partially why I go to this song more than most.  It’s got that great Perry vocal style, but mixed with background vocals from both Fleischmann and original bassist Ross Valory (whose wife is credited as a co-author here).

Faithfully – Fuck this song, I can’t stand it.  Never want to hear it ever again.

I’ll Be Alright Without You – This was from Journey’s 86 album Raised on Radio – it’s the most “produced” part of Journey’s catalog, IMO.  It’s the least raw they’ve ever sounded.  That doesn’t mean it’s all bad, but even this one – as one of the big singles has a much more tame sound than Journey to this point.  Neil Schon is big time in the background.  I mean it’s not a bad song or anything, but when you follow it with one of their big hots from earlier albums, the sound feels like it’s had its balls knocked off, like not all of Journey is there.

Any Way You Want It – I can’t hear this song without thinking of Rodney Dangerfield dancing on a golf course after screaming “Let’s Dance!”.   It’s the Caddyshack song for me because of that.   It’s a great song on its own, but Rodney Dangerfield will forever be intertwined with the song for me.  Much in the same way I can’t hear the Cars Moving in Stereo without thinking of Phoebe Cates and a bikini.  It still gets me going every time.  Great riff, very sing-able chorus.  Amazing stuff, Rodney or not.  It also makes you wonder where the rest of the band went in the song before this.  It is one of those songs where you go “I guess we took the easy way out with lyrics”, as the title is sung a crap ton of times in this one.

Ask the Lonely – If people didn’t know the movie that Only the Young came from, they knew this one even LESS.  This track came from the soundtrack to the movie “Two of a Kind” with Travolta & Newton-John.  I’ve never seen the movie, but I like the song.  It came out in 1983, the same year as the Frontiers album, and sounds like it would slot in there quite well.  I have to imagine it was produced during the album sessions.  The keyboard sound that starts this song really reminds me of Separate Ways from that album.  Great track, wish more people knew about it.

Who’s Crying Now – This was actually the first single off of Escape – and it’s a slower track.  Not SLOW by any stretch, but compared to the first two songs on Escape, it’s a slower one for sure.  Which makes it (for me) an odd choice for first single.  The combination of bass notes with a piano that live behind Steve’s vocals is a great sound.  It never gets too high in terms of its music.  But Neil’s guitar work towards the end is just as smooth as Steve’s vocals.  It’s a brutally effective combination.  Was of course super popular, but not my favorite track on the album.  One of the only songs not to have a co-write by Neil Schon – which would explain the vibe here as his stuff is way more guitar oriented generally.

Separate Ways (Worlds Apart) – The lead single off of Frontiers.  It was a super hot song out of the gate.  Bode well for the followup to Escape.  It deserved its slot as the lea song.  However, much in the way that people remember Billy Squier for a video (Rock me Tonight) that supposedly derailed his career, this song is remembered for the really goofy video concept.  The band stands by the docks on a waterfront and “air plays” their instruments.  When all of them are doing it at once, it really REALLY looks silly.   The song is really REALLY quite good.  It’s a hard driving song that gets in your face right from the start and doesn’t let go.  But any Journey fan from back in this era, can’t NOT see the video when they hear the song.  But music alone – this has a great driving beat with some really nice guitar accents by Schon when he’s not doing his main guitar thing.  Keys haven’t taken over the band’s sound yet, they’re an accent here.  And of course you have Steve Perry’s vocals soaring through all of it.  You can’t not like this song.  It’s damn great.  BUT..  The video!  :)

Lights – I always felt this was well placed on the GH album after Separate Ways.  After a song that grabs you in the face, you get one that’s much slower.  Not mid 80’s Journey slow, but just a slower paced song with a nice blues feel to it.  I mean Journey isn’t really a blues band, but this song would work in that scenario.  Always felt this was a great showcase for Steve Perry’s vocals.  Not that they need much help, they work in pretty much any scenario.  But here especially when the band is slower and behind Steve’s vocals, he’s more showcased.  Once the song progresses,

Lovin’ Touchin’ Squeezin’ -I always viewed this as the “sex” song by them.  I mean, it’s not.  If you look into the lyrics, it’s quite about NOT that (I mean the first line of lyric is “You make me weep and want to die”).  But this song is mostly known for its title, and the fact that half of it is just them going “Na na na na na na – Na na na na na na”.  It’s the only song on here solely written by Steve Perry.  I don’t dislike the song, I can get into it in the right mood, it’s not my favorite.  I do like the actual LAST 10 seconds of the song – the final “na na na” was just vocals – no instruments, I wish it had more of that. I think part of me was turned off by the fact that I knew it was super popular and I just never saw the big deal.   My wife adores it though – but then I didn’t have posters of Steve Perry in my bedroom when I was teenager either.  hahaha.  :)

Open Arms – Fuck this song, I can’t stand it.  Never want to hear it ever again.  It was my Senior Prom song.  Again. FUCK THAT.  It’s unlistenable.

Girl Can’t Help It – The lead single from the 86 Raised on Radio album – it actually fits the Journey mold quite better than the other song from that album on this compilation.  This doesn’t feel like the Journey sound has been castrated – not fully.  Neil Schon isn’t invisible here.  I really do love the chorus.  Great use of Steve Perry’s voice as an instrument.  I always find myself singing along.  I particularly like the vocal delivery on the line “Ooh there’s a fire in his eyes for you”.  Great stuff, I wish more of the Raised on Radio album was like THAT.

As a side note, if you want to hear a very good song from Raised on Radio, seek out the title track. It’s a great lost Journey track.

Send Her My Love – The slower ballad song from the 83 Frontiers album.  It’s not bad, but a bit too slow for my tastes.  I far prefer the harder Journey to this stuff. It’s not as godawful as Open Arms or Faithfully.  If memory serves, the music video from this was a live performance video shot in Philadelphia, which got my attention a little at the time.  :)

Be Good to Yourself – Another of the great fast, hard driving Journey songs – my favorite kind of track by them.  Great guitar sound and a super awesome vocal delivery (both lead and background) by Steve Perry.  When people think about the Frontiers album they tend to think of Separate Ways – they should throw some love to “Be Good to Yourself”.  Love this track – great sound the best kind by Journey, IMO.

When You Love a Woman – This is the extra track.  It comes from the 1996 album “Trial by Fire”.  Journey had broken up after the 86/87 Raised on Radio tour.  They were convinced to get back together with the classic Escape lineup.  They did, and this album was release the week before my wife and I got married in 1996.  We were both looking forward to it.  Then it had dumbass cover art, and was a very weak album overall musically.  There are a handful of decent songs on it (about four) of which this is one.  But it’s not my favorite. I would have picked “Message of Love” or “Castles Burning” from that album.  When You Love a Woman is Journey doing a power ballad.  Even by the low standards of this album, they could have done better to pick something to tack onto the end of this Greatest Hits album.  Castles Burning smokes – the complete antithesis of the turgid slowness that is “When You Love a Woman”.

Despite my cursing out two of the songs on this album it really is packed with good stuff.  Even the last song isn’t THAT bad.  Overall there’s a lot of goodness on here, and it’s’ easy to see why it still sells half a million copies a year nearly 30 years out from when it was originally released.

Thing is Journey is so much more – their entire catalog is worth exploring.  Some seriously awesome shit to find if you’ve never dipped your toes into the water of this band.