A father's warning became a chorus in 'Don't Stop Believin''; a Sopranos final scene gave it a new generation.
Jonathan Cain's father gave him the words 'don't stop believin'. He ended every phone call to his son, a struggling musician in Los Angeles, with: 'Don't stop believing or you're done, dude.' When Cain joined Journey in 1980, he had worked the phrase into a chorus, and his new bandmates developed it into a song.
The song was a huge US hit in 1981, but 26 years later it found a new audience when it appeared in the final scene of The Sopranos. An early Glee episode then helped make it unstoppable.
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The 'or you're done, dude' is the best part. Strip it away and you have a fridge magnet; keep it and you have a father telling a struggling musician to get real while also telling him not to quit.
But the song was already a huge US hit in 1981. The Sopranos didn't rescue an obscure track; it gave a familiar one a second life.