Wheel in the Sky

"Wheel in the Sky" is a song by the American rock band Journey, recorded in 1977 and included on their fourth studio album, Infinity. It was written and composed by Robert Fleischman, Neal Schon and Diane Valory.

At the time of the song's composition, the band had decided to follow a new direction into an edgier sound and began recording simple hard rock pieces with new lead vocalist Fleischman, who was replaced by Steve Perry by the time work on Infinity began in earnest.

"Wheel In The Sky" reached #57 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1978, becoming Journey's first song to chart on the Hot 100, and also reached #45 on the Canadian RPM 100.

Chart performance

Structure

The song opens with a short instrumental that lasts for 28 seconds. Perry then sings the first verse, which is followed by the chorus, and the second verse with the chorus repeated once again. Neal Schon joins the song with a guitar solo which is filled with Perry's vocals, which can be briefly heard in the background. Finally, the chorus is repeated four times before the short outro that closes the song.

In popular culture

• The song can be heard blaring in the background of the closing scene of HBO's The Sopranos season 2, episode 23 "Bust Out."
• It also plays in the third episode of the second season of Supernatural.
• Klaus sings the song on a mix tape in "Stan's Best Friend," an episode of American Dad!
• The song was mentioned in the Glee episode "The Hurt Locker, Part One," but it was never actually sung in that episode by any of the show's cast members.

Personnel

• Steve Perry–lead vocals
• Neal Schon–guitars, backing vocals
• Gregg Rolie–keyboards, backing vocals
• Ross Valory–bass guitar, backing vocals
• Aynsley Dunbar–drums

References