Matt Knight’s “4:20 HIT of the Day” – 8/18/22
Every weekday, I’m going to drop a song that I like to call the 4:20 HIT of the Day. What does this mean? Simply, it’s a song that I think will give you some good vibes, ‘spark up’ nostalgia or just remind you about a tune that you might love but just haven’t heard in a while.
Today’s HIT is the song that introduced us to Steve Perry as the lead vocalist of Journey, “Wheel in the Sky.” From their 4th album ‘Infinity’ (1978), the band had decided to follow a new direction into an edgier sound and began recording simple hard rock pieces with new lead vocalist Robert Fleischman. He was replaced by Steve Perry once work on ‘Infinity’ began. The song had started out as a poem titled “Wheels In My Mind”, which had been written by Diane Valory, the wife of Journey bassist Ross Valory.
“Wheel in the Sky” reached #57 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1978, becoming Journey’s first song to chart on the Hot 100.