Journey logo

Legendary rock band Journey released a new 3-disc album this week aptly titled Revelation that contains a CD of 11 new songs, a CD with 11 re-recorded classics, and a DVD of Journey’s Las Vegas concert in March ’08.

The surprising revelation is that this release features the band’s new lead singer, Arnel Pineda, formerly of the band "The Zoo" from Manila, Philippines.   And amazingly, the talented singer was discovered by Journey’s lead guitarist Neal Schon via a YouTube video!   CBS aired the amazing story of the Arnel Pineda’s unconventional discovery on their Sunday Morning show last weekend.

What may be most amazing is just how much Pineda’s soaring tenor captures not only the sound of Journey’s most well-known frontman, Steve Perry, but also much of the same texture & character.   Some say that Pineda lacks Perry’s fire on some of the re-recorded classics but they sound great to me and his vocals definitely shine on most of the 11 new tracks.   Regardless, the similarity of the two singers is uncanny.   I’d wager that most people won’t catch that the new songs are not sung by Steve Perry on the first few listens.   What, not convinced?   Compare the following classic hits as performed then vs. now:

  Separate Ways (Worlds Apart) - 1982

  Separate Ways (Worlds Apart) - 2008

  Faithfully - 1983

  Faithfully - 2008

After hearing those songs, what do ya think?

By the way, I was a huge fan throughout the ’80s and was well-versed on all things Journey, but there’s at least one lingering trivia question I can’t answer:

Their iconic logo first appeared on the Infinity album cover and has carried forward on every album in the 30 years since, but I’ve never heard whose idea it originally was.   Anybody know where or who the scarab-like futuristic insect with bird-like wings logo came from?
 

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