Journey “Ask the Lonely” charted

Ask the Lonely Journey

Writer(s): Jonathan Cain, Steve Perry (see lyrics here) First Charted: December 3, 1983 Peak: 3 AR, 1 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 3.62 video, -- streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: The story goes that this song and “Only the Young” were recorded during the sessions for Journey’s 1983 album, Frontiers. Some brilliant executive, however, decided the album was overloaded with hits (since when is that a problem?) and the two songs were pulled in favor of the vastly inferior cuts “Back Talk” and “Troubled Child.” Journey’s recording of “Only the Young” was released on the Vision Quest soundtrack in 1985 and reached the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100. “Ask the Lonely” was released in late 1983 on the Two of a Kind soundtrack and reached #3 on the album-rock chart. These weren’t Journey’s first foray’s into soundtrack work. “Only Solutions” appeared on the 1982 Tron soundtrack. In 1980, the band recorded a full soundtrack for the movie Dream After Dream. The nine songs were somewhat a return to the band’s more progressive leanings from their first few albums and featured only three songs with vocals. “Little Girl,” from the album, was released as the B-side to “Open Arms” in 1982. On a personal note, “Ask the Lonely” was a major hit on my own weekly chart, which I started in September 1982. It was their tenth song to reach my top 10 in that short amount of time. The song’s biggest competition on my charts was “Twist of Fate,” a song by Olivia Newton-John which was also on the Two of a Kind soundtrack. The movie reteamed Olivia with John Travolta, who she’d starred with in 1978’s Grease. Resources: DMDB Encyclopedia entry for Journey Related Links: First posted 7/8/2022; last updated 12/27/2022.