Journey’s classic song “Don’t Stop Believin’” famously plays during the final scene of the series finale of HBO’s landmark show The Sopranos. In a new interview, creator David Chase details how the song ended up soundtracking the show’s infamous final scene.
Appearing on the WTF with Marc Maron Podcast, Chase said (as transcribed by Ultimate Classic Rock), “I didn’t know Journey was the answer. In preproduction [for the show’s final season], there was going to be a song at the end [that Tony Soprano] was going to play on the jukebox. I was in the scout van with all the department heads … and I had never done this before. I said, ‘Listen, I’m going to talk about three songs that I am thinking about for ending the show.’ One of them was Al Green’s ‘Love and Happiness,’ the second one I don’t remember and the Journey song.”
Chase said of the reaction to the potential choice of Journey, “And they went, ‘Oh, Jesus Christ, no. Don’t do that! Ugh, f—.’ And I said, ‘Well, I guess that’s it. That’s the one.’ I wasn’t saying that just to throw it in their face. That was kind of my favorite, and it got a reaction of some kind. So I can make this song lovable, which it was — it had been.”
In other words: If you’re still unhappy about the choice of Journey soundtracking the end of The Sopranos, you can thank the various department heads who reacted so poorly to it in the first place.
Fans will get to revisit the world of The Sopranos in the prequel film The Many Saints of Newark, which hits theaters and HBO Max on October 1. The film explores the origin story of Tony Soprano, who is played in the film by Michael Gandolfini, the son of the late James Gandolfini.
