Jonathan Cain recently spoke to UCR, where he talked about former Journey singer, Steve Perry, mentioning the impact he had on the group, especially on Journey’s hit song ”Open Arms”.
He said:
“It was Steve’s voice. First, his range and then the ease with which he maneuvered and sold it. I mean, he sold every word. You just believe him. He had this amazing ability to get inside a song and put the right emotion on it, and his read on ”Open Arms” is spectacular.
”Even [founding manager] Herbie (Herbert) couldn’t deny it. We heard it in the studio, and it was like, ‘OK, it’s huge.’ It was No. 2 for a long time, and then it made the ‘Escape’ album No. 1. It’s been voted the top power ballad in all kinds of polls.”
“A lot of people get married to it and propose to it, and other things are in the backseat with it. So, I’m proud of that one. It started out as a wedding song for my first wedding, and I hadn’t gotten around to writing the verses.
”I didn’t know what they were, but I knew I had a melody. Then when I played it for Perry, he just went, ‘Oh, let’s do this. I got this.’ And we did, and that was the beginning of our lyrical partnership.”
1 comment
Amazing!! All that God-given talent!!!