Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)

Journey keyboardist Jonathan Cain and lead vocalist Steve Perry wrote this song on tour during a period when two of the band members were going through painful divorces due to the stresses (and temptations) of life on the road. According to Journey's Time3 compilation, with guitarist Neal Schon and bass player Ross Valory going through painful - and expensive - divorces, Perry and Cain thought there should be some way to dredge something positive out of such circumstances. "There's got to be a more soulful way of looking at this," Perry told his collaborator, Cain. The pair worked out the tune in a hotel room using Cain's little Casio keyboard and the entire band worked up the fresh song the next afternoon at soundcheck, inserting the party-finished song into the program that night. "I think he mumbled his way through half the lyrics," said Cain, "but the audience just came unglued." The song was sitting in the band's pocket long before the beginning of sessions for the next album. Released as the first single off Frontiers, it zoomed up the charts to #8 in March 1983.

This was used in the TV series The O.C. in Season 1 Episode 21 (2004) when Seth and Ryan are on their way to the airport. It also plays in the first episode of the Netflix series GLOW (2017) in a fantasy scene where the main characters battle it out in the wrestling ring. Other uses of the song include: The Simpsons ("All's Fair in Oven War" - 2004) Cold Case ("Greed" - 2004) Yes Man (2008) TRON: Legacy (2010)

When MTV launched in 1981, the race was on to come up with unusual concepts for music videos. Journey staked their claim with the first ever "air band" video. That's right, the group played pretend instruments for much of the clip. Shot on a wharf in New Orleans, it was directed by Tom Buchholtz, who like many music video directors of the time, came from the world of directing commercials. Journey were dragged kicking and screaming into the video era. They knew MTV exposure was crucial for sales, but hated making the videos and left the concepts up to the directors, which is how they ended up on a wharf playing pretend instruments. In the book I Want My MTV by Craig Marks, we learn that lead singer Steve Perry cut his hair shortly before the shoot, and also that there was some drama on the set. Perry brought his girlfriend to the set - the same girl he sings about in "Oh Sherrie" - and she did not want Steve to have another girl playing his love interest in the video. "Sherrie was jealous and possessive," said Jonathan Cain. "There was a big kicking and screaming session. Sherrie was giving Steve a very bad time about that girl." Years later, Beavis and Butt-Head gave it a good mocking.