Songoftheday 12/19/12 - Highway run into the midnight sun, wheels go round and round, you're on my mind...

Journey - "Faithfully"
from the album Frontiers (1983)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #12 (three weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 11

Today's Song of the Day is by Bay Area arena rockers Journey, who released their eighth studio set in 1983, and from it had their fourth top-10 hit with "Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)" in the spring of that year. The band followed that up with a power-ballad written by keyboardist Jonathan Cain inspired by his wife Tane, who herself had a top-40 hit the year before with "Holdin' On". It dealt with life on the road and the separation from their loved ones, and proclaiming that its worth it to come back to them....

Surprisingly, "Faithfully" didn't get the chart heights that its predecessor, "Open Arms" did, stalling just under the top-10. But its legacy would last farther than most of the bands hits, including the top-10er from the album. And it solidified a blueprint of the power-ballad required by every rock album of the 80s. (It did manage to go to the top-10 in Canada, and was on the adult-contemporary chart for awhile as well.)

Unfortunately, Jonathan and Tane's marriage didn't last as well as the song, they divorced in 1984.

(Click below to see the rest of the post)


Asian singer Anita Mui sang a translated version of the song in 1991..

That same year, country singer Lorrie Morgan recorded "Faithfully" in memory of her husband Keith Whitley who passed two years prior...

The cast of Glee had a top-40 hit covering the song in 2010, peaking at #37...

Finally, here's the group with new lead singer Arnel Pineda on Ellen with the song...

Up tomorrow: another arena rock band won't stop.