Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" tops the 4 million mark in paid downloads this week. The song was first released way back in 1981, when Madonna and Whitney Houston were still unknowns and Justin Timberlake and Beyonce were still in diapers. No other song that was first released before 2000 has topped the 3 million mark in paid downloads, much less 4 million.
"Don't Stop Believin" received a big boost from its use in the final episode of The Sopranos, which aired in June 2007. (The usage also did wonders for the song's "coolness" factor.)
The song received another boost from its use in the first episode of Glee, which aired in May 2009. It was featured again in the last episode of the first season, which aired three months ago. The two Glee versions have sold a combined total of 973,000 copies (which, of course, are not counted toward Journey's 4 million tally).
Journey's recording of "Don't Stop Believin'" hit the 1 million mark in paid downloads in August 2007. It reached 2 million in October 2008. It hit 3 million in August 2009. When will it reach 5 million? Place your bets.
"Don't Stop Believin'" is to digital songs what Bob Marley & the Wailers' Legend is to albums. Both are perennial best-sellers that have become music industry phenomena. That 1984 compilation has sold 10,349,000 copies since Nielsen/SoundScan started tracking sales in 1991. (It sold millions more before that.) Both Journey's song and Marley's album are slowly but surely climbing the all-time best-seller lists. "Don't Stop Believin'" is the 21st best-selling song in digital history. It is just 2,197,000 copies behind the all-time digital song champ, the Black Eyed Peas' "I Gotta Feeling."
Given all this, you might assume that "Don't Stop Believin'" was a #1 hit when it was first released in 1981. Far from it. It peaked at #9. Sixty-four songs that year climbed higher on the Hot 100.
"Don't Stop Believin'" peaked on the Hot 100 in the week ending Dec. 19, 1981. It has sold more than twice as many digital copies as all the other songs that were in the top 10 that week combined. The #1 song that week, Olivia Newton-John's "Physical," has sold 152,000 digital copies, not bad, but a far cry from the total of 4,013,000 for "Don't Stop Believin.'"
Source:
http://new.music.yahoo.com/blogs/cha...and-on-and-on/
All the way from the 80's