"Don't Stop Believin'" shares writing credits between the band's vocalist Steve Perry, guitarist Neal Schon, and keyboardist Jonathan Cain.

Cain had kept the song title from encouragement his father gave him as a struggling musician living on Los Angeles' Sunset Boulevard.

A top-10 worldwide hit in 1981, "Don't Stop Believin'" became the group's signature song and has continued to endure over the years.

Critics acclaimed its anthemic qualities; music magazine Rolling Stone ranked it among its 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

In 2022, the single was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the United States National Recording Registry as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.

After discarding its roots in progressive rock, the group hired vocalist Steve Perry and smoothed out its sound.

Original keyboardist Gregg Rolie, with the group since its progressive days, amicably departed in 1980, leaving the foursome without one of its signature elements.

To prepare for writing its next effort, Journey rented a warehouse in Oakland, California, where they worked daily to complete arrangements and develop new ideas.

Cain came up with the song's title and hook; it stemmed from something his father frequently told him when he was a struggling musician living on Los Angeles' Sunset Boulevard.

Cain was unsuccessful and ready to give up, and each time he would call home in despair, his father would tell him, "Don't stop believing or you're done, dude.

Drummer Steve Smith added a standard rock backbeat behind that, and instructed Schon to play 16th note arpeggios over the rest of the instrumentation, as though he were a "train" guiding the song in its direction.

Cain and Perry thought the imagery brought to mind a story of two people leaving behind past lives in their hometown and boarding a midnight train to anywhere else.

The musicians found the song's tempo and varying sections difficult to record, especially Cain and bassist Ross Valory's intro.

"[10] Escape version[11] Revelation live version The song was a commercial success and is known for its widespread use, but the song (along with Escape by Journey), initially received poor critical reviews (being criticized for its slick, inauthentic and derivative nature in both the musical and lyrical areas), but it has been retrospectively acknowledged as a staple of classic rock radio and 1980s rock music; for instance, Billboard called it an "uptempo, melodic track" and praised the "fluid guitar and vocal.

During the last minutes of playoff victories, the volume is lowered during the "born and raised in south Detroit" line, which is instead sung by home fans.

Steve Perry is a Giants season ticket holder and memorably led the crowd in the song during a game in the World Series in 2014.

[29] In South Park, the character Eric Cartman is seen singing the song in the episode "Tsst" while plugging in his video game console, moments after disobeying his nanny.

The song was used as the soundtrack in the last scenes of the episode "Schadenfreude" (S 2, Ep 17) of the CBS television series Cold Case, aired March 20, 2005.

The power ballad[36] is one of the most popular rock tracks in Ireland and continues to remain in the top ten most downloaded songs.

On December 20 that year, "Don't Stop Believin'" re-entered the chart at number nine after the song was performed again on The X Factor.

The song was performed to close out the first episode, "Pilot" (May 2009) by principal cast members Cory Monteith (Finn Hudson), Lea Michele (Rachel Berry), Chris Colfer (Kurt Hummel), Amber Riley (Mercedes Jones), Kevin McHale (Artie Abrams) and Jenna Ushkowitz (Tina Cohen-Chang).

[95] This arrangement, which became the first single released from the soundtrack of the series, Glee: The Music, Volume 1, was adapted from Petra Haden's version.

A third version was performed by Lea Michele as Rachel Berry in the nineteenth episode of the fourth season of the show, "Sweet Dreams" (April 2013), joined (in her imagination) by the rest of the original six, making it the last new musical performance by Finn Hudson, as actor Cory Monteith died three months later; this version was released as a single April 23, 2013.

[citation needed] Aly Semigan of Entertainment Weekly praised the song stating "Fox's Glee put the ultimate earworm back in its rightful place."

Semigan also compared it to the original version stating "it sounds slightly different in this Freaks and Geeks meets High School Musical pilot, but it's a good kind of different.

In December 2020, English blogger couple LadBaby released a comedy version of the song titled "Don't Stop Me Eatin'" with a sausage roll theme as a charity single whose proceeds go to The Trussell Trust.

In 2008, after a hiatus from recording, a producer-friend, Giuseppe D, presented George Lamond the idea to release a dance-pop cover of the song.

The housemates of Big Brother 2010 recorded a version of the song, coached by Andrew Stone of Pineapple Dance Studios, in July 2010.

In 2020, Journey recorded a new version of the song to promote UNICEF's "Won't Stop" campaign, which was created to raise funds to buy personal protective equipment for medical frontline workers and provide for the needs of impoverished children.

The performance aired on MSNBC and featured longtime members Arnel Pineda, Neal Schon, and Jonathan Cain, along with returning bass player Randy Jackson (who was previously Journey's session and touring bassist from 1986 to 1987), new keyboard player Jason Derlatka, and new drummer Narada Michael Walden.