Ask The Lonely

Hey there Zoo Freaks, the Zoo Crew is laying down a track that hits different when you know the backstory, and that is Journey spinning Ask The Lonely from the Two of a Kind Music from the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack. This one comes from that 1983 flick with John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John, the one where they tried to catch lightning in a bottle again after Grease. Written by Steve Perry and Jonathan Cain, the song was never supposed to live on a soundtrack in the first place. It was locked in for the Frontiers album, already sequenced and ready for the presses, until an A&R guy at the label decided Journey should hand over a couple of tracks for movie projects. Out went Ask The Lonely and Only the Young, and in came Back Talk and Troubled Child. Perry later shrugged it off in interviews by calling it just a love song, while Cain marveled that Perry could write love songs in his sleep. That is the kind of chemistry that built those mid-tempo rockers we still crank on long drives.

Once it landed on the Two of a Kind album the radio stations picked it up quick, and Ask The Lonely climbed to number three on the Billboard Top Rock Tracks chart. It never got a proper single release stateside, only in Japan, yet it still earned its place on the 1988 Greatest Hits package and on later live sets, including one from the band's Lollapalooza appearance that the official store still promotes. The lyrics dig into that post-breakup haze, the chip on the shoulder, the search through the embers of what used to be, and the advice to hang on and ask the lonely because nothing comes easy. Outside were solid rainbows, inside is where the heart grows. Neal Schon's guitar weaves through Perry's soaring vocal the way it always did in that era, with Cain's keys laying down the emotional bed and Steve Smith and Ross Valory holding the bottom end. It is the sound of a band at the height of their arena-rock powers, even if the movie itself did not set the box office on fire.

That whole Frontiers period was the band pushing themselves after the massive Escape album. They wanted something a little edgier on side two, and pulling those two songs for soundtracks changed the feel of the record. Fans who dig the deep cuts have always argued that Ask The Lonely would have grounded the second half better than Troubled Child. The track shows up on the 2006 expanded Frontiers reissue as a bonus, sitting alongside Only the Young, Only Solutions, and Liberty. It is one of those songs that proves the Perry-Cain writing partnership was firing on all cylinders, turning heartache into anthems that still fill rooms when the lights go down.

Now if you want to understand how a band gets to the point where they can drop a soundtrack cut that strong, you have to go back to the beginning in San Francisco. Journey started in 1973 when former Santana guitarist Neal Schon and keyboardist Gregg Rolie got pulled together by manager Herbie Herbert along with bassist Ross Valory from the Steve Miller Band and Frumious Bandersnatch, plus a few others. They were originally the Golden Gate Rhythm Section, meant to back local Bay Area acts, before someone suggested the name Journey. Early on it was progressive jazz-rock territory, instrumentals with Rolie handling vocals on the first few albums. Those records, Journey, Look into the Future, and Next, showed off the chops but did not move many units, and Columbia was getting restless.

They tried a lead singer named Robert Fleischman for a short stretch in 1977, and he even co-wrote Wheel in the Sky, but it did not stick. Then Herbie Herbert heard a demo from a guy named Steve Perry who had been fronting a band called Alien Project. Perry's own group had fallen apart after a tragedy, and he was close to walking away from music until his mother pushed him to take the call. He flew to Denver, roomed with Schon, and they wrote Patiently that first night. Perry joined in October 1977, made his live debut at the Old Waldorf, and the band shifted toward a more melodic rock sound. The 1978 album Infinity, produced with Roy Thomas Baker in the mix, gave them their first real radio traction with Lights, Wheel in the Sky, and Anytime. From there the arenas got bigger, the songs got bigger, and the voice that people still call The Voice took them to the top.

That foundation, the San Francisco roots, the Santana alumni chops, and then Perry's arrival, is what let them craft tracks like Ask The Lonely years later. The same players who started as a jam-heavy backup band became the group that filled stadiums with songs about love, loneliness, and hanging on. You can still catch the current lineup carrying those songs forward, and the official pages keep the catalog and the tour news updated for anyone who wants to dig deeper. Head over to the Journey Music site, or check them on Facebook, Instagram, and X. Fans keep the conversation going in groups like the Steve Perry and Journey Fans page, swapping stories and setlist memories from decades of shows. And if you want more of this kind of deep-cut rock and roll without the commercials, you know where to find us at THE ZOO. Keep those dials locked, Zoo Freaks, because the next one is always right around the corner.