Journey Finds New Singer the Old-Fashioned Way: On the Internet

Here's a YouTube tale with a happy ending: Filipino singer Arnel Pineda (pronounced "pin-eh-da") posted footage of himself performing Journey covers with his band the Zoo and was discovered half a world away by Journey guitarist Neal Schon, who was trolling the site for new blood. Schon got in touch with Pineda (and convinced the vocalist he wasn't pulling a prank on him) and voila: Pineda has been named the band's latest frontman, replacing Steve Augeri, who left last year. "It's so exciting to sing with one of the best bands in the world," Pineda said in a statement. "It'll be a lot of hard work on my part and I'm actually looking forward to the scrutiny I'll get from the hardcore Journey fans. I know they'll expect me to sound exactly like 'the voice' (Steve Perry), but that will never happen. I know there's only one Steve Perry in this world." True enough, but Pineda sounds spookily similar to his idol: check out the clip of "Faithfully" above for proof.

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Song Stories

“Tonight's the Night”

The Shirelles | 1960

The lead cut and title track from this girl group's debut album, "Tonight's the Night" was written by 19-year-old bandmember Shirley Owens, who sings lead, and producer Luther Dixon. The band from Passaic, New Jersey met in high school, first calling themselves the Pequellos. The song's frank thoughts about sexual and emotional surrender was racy for the time, but that didn't stop the Chiffons from cutting a similar version immediately after the original came out. "We were the first female group to write some of our own material," band member Beverly Lee recalls. "We did have some say-so in our writing."

More Song Stories entries »

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