MR

Were Queen bigger in America than Journey???

Im having my usual Journey debate with my friend. Ive tried to convert everyone i know into JOurney fans but its never worked but we always get into these arguments. I always need to tell him that just because he has never of heard of them doesnt mean Journey wernt huge in America.

youkeepmewaiting wrote:Were Queen bigger in America than Journey???

Im having my usual Journey debate with my friend. Ive tried to convert everyone i know into JOurney fans but its never worked but we always get into these arguments. I always need to tell him that just because he has never of heard of them doesnt mean Journey wernt huge in America.

I'd like to consider myself the resident expert on Queen..and I'd have to say "no". Journey was rockin hard and strong long before Queen ever hit it big here...and they didn't hit it big here for long...They had one stint on SNL which gained them a little popular following...but Journey was, by far, bigger in America. I consider both to be GLOBAL Bands....but each in their own territory.

stevek2007 wrote:

youkeepmewaiting wrote:Were Queen bigger in America than Journey???

Im having my usual Journey debate with my friend. Ive tried to convert everyone i know into JOurney fans but its never worked but we always get into these arguments. I always need to tell him that just because he has never of heard of them doesnt mean Journey wernt huge in America.

I'd like to consider myself the resident expert on Queen..and I'd have to say "no". Journey was rockin hard and strong long before Queen ever hit it big here...and they didn't hit it big here for long...They had one stint on SNL which gained them a little popular following...but Journey was, by far, bigger in America. I consider both to be GLOBAL Bands....but each in their own territory.

uhh.. News of the World was 1977,, i would imagine that album was much bigger than Infinity.. no? i bought it in'77..

youkeepmewaiting wrote:Were Queen bigger in America than Journey???

Im having my usual Journey debate with my friend. Ive tried to convert everyone i know into JOurney fans but its never worked but we always get into these arguments. I always need to tell him that just because he has never of heard of them doesnt mean Journey wernt huge in America.

Queen has sold an estimated 20 million albums in the US and Canada combined. Worlwide sales are estimated to be over 300 million. So to answer your question, no they weren't bigger than Journey here in the US. Journey's sold at least double that here in the US alone. On the other hand, Queen has outsold Journey BIG TIME in the rest of the world! Hope that helped.

I guess it really depends upon what one considers to be "bigger". Without having looked at the numbers, I suspect that Journey probably sold more albums in this country than abroad, and I would imagine just the opposite would be true for Queen. There is no question that Queen had a very large following in the states. I personally think Freddie Mercury was a brilliant musician (although, he's no Steve Perry). I also suspect that Journey had many more hits that charted on the U.S. charts, than Queen did. I'll tell you this..."We Are The Champions" and "We Will Rock You" are probably two of the most played songs (ALWAYS back to back, on radio stations) in the U.S. by ANY group or solo artist. I don't really know how else you could qualify which band was larger. Like everything else in life, I suspect it would depend upon who you're asking the question to. I consider myself a bigger Journey fan, so my vote is for Journey. The one thing I can tell your friend is this...Just because he never heard of Journey, he's very naive to question how big of a band they were here. They were HUGE in the late 70's and 80's, and there weren't many people who hadn't heard MANY of their classic hits! I honestly couldn't think of another band who was bigger than Journey was for an 8 year period of time. Maybe Bon Jovi, but I can't think of too many others.


John from Boston

larryfromnextdoor wrote:

stevek2007 wrote:

youkeepmewaiting wrote:Were Queen bigger in America than Journey???

Im having my usual Journey debate with my friend. Ive tried to convert everyone i know into JOurney fans but its never worked but we always get into these arguments. I always need to tell him that just because he has never of heard of them doesnt mean Journey wernt huge in America.

I'd like to consider myself the resident expert on Queen..and I'd have to say "no". Journey was rockin hard and strong long before Queen ever hit it big here...and they didn't hit it big here for long...They had one stint on SNL which gained them a little popular following...but Journey was, by far, bigger in America. I consider both to be GLOBAL Bands....but each in their own territory.

uhh.. News of the World was 1977,, i would imagine that album was much bigger than Infinity.. no? i bought it in'77..

absolutley, but only after the popular anthems got used in sports games etc...and even with that, that's one occurence...I'm a HUGE queen fan, moreso than Journey (I'm confident enough to say that) and even WITH News of the World, on the big picture, I'd have to say Journey's got the one-up (here in the states anyway..)

Enigma869 wrote: I honestly couldn't think of another band who was bigger than Journey was for an 8 year period of time. Maybe Bon Jovi, but I can't think of too many others.

John from Boston

REO pushed Journey as did Styx but they weren't quite the stature of Journey. However, in the 80's Bruce was bigger than Journey...easily. Perhaps U2 was as well.

Rockindeano wrote:REO pushed Journey as did Styx but they weren't quite the stature of Journey. However, in the 80's Bruce was bigger than Journey...easily. Perhaps U2 was as well.

Dean...

I'm admittedly not a Styx fan, but as someone who listened to a lot of music in the 1980's, I don't recall coming across Styx very often. According to the information I looked up, Styx had 10 songs that charted on the U.S. charts, which stunned me, because I wouldn't have guessed half that many. They had 4 top ten hits..."Mr. Roboto, "The Best Of Times", "Too Much Time On My Hands", and "Don't Let It End". Aside from those tracks, only one other Styx song even cracked the top 40 in the 80's and that was "Why Me" that peaked at number 26. The only real huge hit that I ever remembered hearing endlessly from Styx was "Babe" that came out in 1979.

As for REO...The only real monster release that I EVER remember from REO was "High In Fidelity", which came out in 1980. I honestly don't remember much else from them, in the 80's, aside from the VERY cheesy "Can't Fight This Feeling" that came out in the mid 80's. I've always LOVED "High In Fidelity", but I never really viewed REO as anywhere near Journey, in terms of their stature in the 1980's.

As for U2...That's a great one. They had endless, monster success throughout the 1980's! I would say U2 was probably bigger than Journey was in the 80's...and beyond, even though I'm more of a Journey fan.

As for Springsteen...What can I say! Bruce is THE MAN! Now, as for his success in the 80's (and again, I'm referring to pop music success, because Springsteen will ALWAYS have a HUGE following)! I think the only monster release Springsteen had throughout the 80's was "Born In The USA". I know that "The River" came out in 1980, and the only hit from that was "Hungry Heart". I don't remember anything from "Nebraska" (released 1982) ever being played on the radio. I believe his final release in the 80's was "Tunnel Of Love", and the only tracks I ever remember hearing from that album were "Tunnel Of Love", and "Brilliant Disguise" (one of my all-time favorite Springsteen tracks)! I think that "Born In The USA" was probably bigger than ANY of Journey's releases, so because of that, I'd probably say Bruce edges out Journey for 80's popularity.


John from Boston

Enigma869 wrote:

Rockindeano wrote:REO pushed Journey as did Styx but they weren't quite the stature of Journey. However, in the 80's Bruce was bigger than Journey...easily. Perhaps U2 was as well.

Dean...

I'm admittedly not a Styx fan, but as someone who listened to a lot of music in the 1980's, I don't recall coming across Styx very often. According to the information I looked up, Styx had 10 songs that charted on the U.S. charts, which stunned me, because I wouldn't have guessed half that many. They had 4 top ten hits..."Mr. Roboto, "The Best Of Times", "Too Much Time On My Hands", and "Don't Let It End". Aside from those tracks, only one other Styx song even cracked the top 40 in the 80's and that was "Why Me" that peaked at number 26. The only real huge hit that I ever remembered hearing endlessly from Styx was "Babe" that came out in 1979.

John from Boston

In no way am I espousing Styx as better than Journey. I'm only stepping here to comment that Styx split up in 1983 and didn't reunite until 1990-91. The majority of their success was mid 70's to early 80's.

And stepping back out again.

thanks very much for all the info guys.

John, REO did have Hi Infidelity, and also Wheels are Turnin' and also Life as We Know It. THose three CD's probably matched Escape, Frontiers and ROR. Don't laugh, look it up, I bet the sales are real close. Anyway, like someone said, popularity isn't just record sales, or U2 wouldn't be close. However, Bruce did have Born in the USA, and Tunnel, but live he dwarfed Journey. There were others who had big runs in the 80's like The Cars and the Police.

I'd say Queen was about neck-and-neck with The Police in the USA during the 80's. They had a solid following, but not quite what bands like Journey, Bon Jovi, Van Halen, and U2 had. Ironically, it was The Police who had the biggest grossing concert tour of 2007. If Perry would have returned to Journey in 2007 without Augeri or Soto having sang for them in his place, it could have been huge. But alas, we know that won't be happening.

i think journey was a bigger band in the us than queen, just for the fact they toured more frequently at least in the 80's. queen only toured for the hot space lp in 81 or 82. as for styx and reo, and journy all had huge lp/airply/tours.bewteen 80-85 all 3 had 3 big lps tours. i bet if you campared the numbers they would be very close over the span of escape/frontiers/ror. cornerstone/paradise/kilroy, and hi infidelity/wheels are turning/cant remember the 3rd only but i was pretty big as well.