How a Steve Perry “Perryism” Inspired Journey’s 1986 Hit “Be Good to Yourself”

While working on their ninth album Raised on Radio, Journey vocalist Steve Perry was coping with being there for his mother, who was terminally ill, while producing and co-writing the album with keyboardist Jonathan Cain. “It was not easy for her, her sickness, as it was not easy for me with the pressure of the album and the pressure of producing it,” Perry said in a 1985 interview. “It was a conscious decision by the band to have me produce it; they wanted me to do it. It really wasn’t anything else, like some people thought. It wasn’t that Steve Perry was coming back into Journey to change things. It’s the other producers that we were afraid would change the band’s sound.”

At the time, Perry was using more positive sayings, including one that Cain jotted down for future reference: “Be Good to Yourself.”

“That’s a Perry-ism, something he’d always say,” said Cain in the liner notes of Journey’s 1992 compilation, Time3. “I circled it in my notes.”

Raised on Radio, which went to No. 4 on the Billboard 200, was Journey’s first in three years since Frontiers and in between Perry’s solo debut in 1984, Street Talk, and guitarist Neal Schon breaking off to play in the supergroup HSAS with Sammy Hagar, bassist Kenny Aaronson (Bob Dylan, The Yardbirds), and Santana drummer Michael Shrieve.

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Stalled Melody

Written by Perry and Cain, “Be Good to Yourself” wasn’t an easy one to write, according to Cain, who struggled with some of the lyrics for five months. “Steve never had time,” recalled Cain “He’d just say ‘Work on it.’”

By the time the band was ready to work on the song, Cain came up with the melody while in the shower, ran into the studio with his hair wet, and had Perry finish off the final vocals.

Released on Journey’s ninth album Raised On Radio, “Be Good to Yourself” went to No. 9 on the Hot 100 turned into a musical affirmation of self-care and turnin’ off the noise and finding some piece of mind.

Runnin’ out of self-control
Gettin’ close to an overload
Up against a no-win situation

Shoulder to shoulder, push and shove
I’m hangin’ up my boxin’ gloves
I’m ready for a long vacation

Be good to yourself when
(Nobody else will) Nobody else will
(Wo-oh, be good to yourself)
(You’re walkin’ a high wire) You’re walkin’ a high wire
(Caught in a crossfire) Caught in a crossfire
(Wo-oh, be good to yourself)

When you can’t give no more
They want it all, but you gotta say no
I’m turnin’ off the noise that makes me crazy
Lookin’ back with no regrets
To forgive is to forget
I want a little piece of mind to turn to

After the release of Raised on Radio, and a tour, Perry stepped away from the band for nearly a decade, until the band reconnected for Trial by Fire in 1996, the last Journey album to feature the singer.

Photo: Steve Perry of the band Journey during the 1986 Raised on Radio Tour on October 9, 1986, at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, Michigan. (Ross Marino/Getty Images)