10 Most Underrated Journey Songs

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Journey’s catalog runs far deeper than its biggest radio hits. These overlooked tracks span every era of the band’s career and showcase the musicianship, songwriting, and evolving sound that make Journey’s album cuts worth rediscovering.

Feature Photo: Bruce Alan Bennett / Shutterstock.com

Our “10 Most Underrated Journey Songs” article presents a group of tracks that we feel may not have gotten the love they deserve over time. When putting together an underrated songs list, we have to balance the selection of songs between those that are not well known among casual fans and those appreciated by hardcore fans. There is usually a big difference; hardcore fans know everything. So, it is a fine line when picking these songs. We have done our best to make this a very entertaining and informative article that all music fans will enjoy. In the end, what we try to do is pick 10 great songs that we would like to celebrate and think most people do not know.

With a band like Journey, which has been around since 1975 and gone through many lineup changes, we thought it would be best to cover all periods of its career. The band started with Gregg Rolie as the lead vocalist. Journey recorded three albums with Gregg Rolie singing lead until the band’s fourth album, Infinity, introduced its new vocalist, Steve Perry. The group continued with Steve Perry until its eleventh album in 2001, when Steve Augeri took over lead vocals. Augeri released two albums with Journey before the 2008 album Revelation, when the group’s current singer, Arnel Pineda, joined the band.

We are going to do our best to include at least one song from each of those lineups. We hope you enjoy this one; it was fun to put together.

# 10 – “The Way We Used To Be” – Freedom

We open our list of underrated Journey songs with a very heavy tune called “The Way We Used to Be.” The song was released on the band’s most recent album, Freedom, which came out in 2022. “The Way We Used to Be” was actually the first single released from the album. It starts out with a little piano but quickly explodes into one of the heaviest singles the band has ever released.

At the time of this recording, the band consisted of Neal Schon, the longest-running member of the band, and Jonathan Cain, who has been with the band since the early ’80s. The group’s current lead singer, Arnel Pineda, along with good old American Idol judge Randy Jackson, who was part of Journey for a short time in the ’90s, legendary drummer Narada Michael Walden, and Jason Derlatka on backing vocals, completed the lineup. The sound of the album is great; it was produced by Neal Schon, Jonathan Cain, and Narada Michael Walden, with engineering by the phenomenal Bob Clearmountain.

This is a really good album, but most fans have ignored it, much like many people have overlooked great new music that’s come out over the past few years.

#9 – “To Play Some Music” – Journey

Since we opened this list with the first single from the band’s most recent album, issued in 2022, we thought it would be fun to go all the way back to the band’s debut album released in 1975 and its debut single. The legacy of this band began in 1975 when Neal Schon, George Tickner, Gregg Rolie, Ross Valory, and Aynsley Dunbar put together a band that they probably never imagined would become so big over the years.

The album’s first single, “To Play Some Music,” is a great rocking tune fueled by the work of Gregg Rolie, who plays keyboards on the track and also sings lead vocals. However, the song didn’t even break into any music charts and went pretty much unnoticed. It is one of those forgotten songs that lists like this aim to breathe new life into.

#8 – “Higher Place” – Arrival

Yes, that is Steve singing lead on this track, but not the Steve you think it is. It’s kind of spooky how much Steve Augeri sounds like Steve Perry on this tune. The song “Higher Place” was the opening track on the band’s album Arrival. The album was released in 2001 and was the first Journey album to feature the band’s new lead singer, Steve Augeri, who had replaced Steve Perry. It was also the band’s last studio album released under their longtime label, Columbia Records. The song was written by Jack Blades and Neal Schon. Steve Augeri was not the only new member of the band at the time; Deen Castronovo replaced Steve Smith on drums. Returning members included Neal Schon, Jonathan Cain, and Ross Valory. A new chapter in the band’s history had begun.

#7 – “Positive Touch” – Raised on Radio

We wanted to open this underrated Journey songs list with four straight songs that featured the band’s four different lead vocalists, and of course, we saved the best for last. We are big Steve Perry fans here at the site. We think everyone who has sung in Journey is great—they are all fabulous singers—but there’s only one Steve Perry. One of my favorite albums, and probably the most underrated Journey album featuring Steve Perry as lead vocalist, is Raised on Radio. The album was released in 1986.

There were a lot of issues with this album because Steve Perry had a very successful solo album released just two years earlier, and it seemed he got a taste of being the boss, which became an issue on this album that he was also tapped to produce. Nonetheless, that is not what this article is about; it is about songs, and this is a great one. Five singles were released from this album, and “Positive Touch” was not one of them, making it even more essential to add to this list.

#6 – “For You” – Time Box Set

In the number six spot on our song list is a really interesting one. This is the only song that Robert Fleischman recorded with the band as their lead singer. After the Next album, Fleischman sang lead on the road but never recorded with the group on any of their albums, as Steve Perry took over the lead vocal position, replacing Fleischman. However, Fleischman did co-write some of the songs on Infinity. The lone song that Fleischman recorded with Journey was finally released many years later on the Journey box set Time. We thought it would be cool to include this one on our list.

# 5 – She Makes Me (Feel Alright) – Look Into The Future

Since we have completed our showcase of all five lead singers, we’re going to go back to the beginning again, this time with the band’s second studio album, Look into the Future. The band’s first three albums are really, really good. However, it is a different band than the one that everyone got to know once Steve Perry joined. I know there are camps that love just the early group before Steve Perry, and then there are camps that love everything that Steve Perry did. I think they are such different groups, two different sounding bands, that you cannot really compare them. It is like comparing the Roth and Hagar eras of Van Halen—two different bands. Just enjoy what they did in those separate times.

I believe the band’s first three albums are not as recognized on a mass cultural level as they should be, and that’s why we’re going to focus on these three albums for the rest of the way.

# 4 – Mystery Mountain – Journey

You are going to want to play some air drums on this one. This dark, psychedelic, metal-sounding progressive rock piece was the final track on the band’s debut album, Journey. Those licks that Neal Schon plays throughout this track are to die for. Listen to that groove in Ross Valory’s bass. This is one of the best tracks on the band’s debut. This may surprise listeners who have never heard it before.

#3 – “Spaceman” – Next

In the number three spot on our list is the only single that was released from the band’s third studio album, Next. “Spaceman” was the opening track on the record, written by Aynsley Dunbar and Gregg Rolie. The song was released as a single but did not make a dent in the charts. Even the album itself, Next, only peaked at number 85 on the Billboard Top 200 charts. It was becoming clear that the group needed to do something different if they wanted to reach a bigger audience. Nonetheless, this is a very cool track that, in many ways, serves as a preview of where the band was headed with its mid-tempo, ballad-type rock sound.

#2 – “Look into the Future” – Look into the Future

We wonder how many rock fans have heard this song besides old-school Journey fans. This is an epic rock and roll piece that also served as the title track to the band’s second album. The song opened up side two and presented fans with an 8-minute progressive rock and roll journey featuring some phenomenal guitar solos by Neal Schon, as well as incredible musicianship by the rest of the band. There are so many changes in rhythm and different movements throughout this piece that define what progressive rock music is all about. If you have never heard this one before, take some time out to give it a listen.

#1 – “Hustler” – Next

This one absolutely rocks. We close out our underrated Journey songs list with a real scorching tune from the band’s third studio album, Next. We present the opening song on side two, called “Hustler.” Listen to Neal Schon just tear it up in the intro, which is then met by some killer organ playing by Gregg Rolie and off-the-charts bass and drums by Ross Valory and Aynsley Dunbar. The performance is relentless. The song was written by Aynsley Dunbar and Gregg Rolie, with lead vocals also by Gregg Rolie. Journey has not played any of these songs from Next live since the ’70s. This is a very different-sounding band from the one that most people know.