“He listened to the song and said, ‘Total crap!’”: How a classic ballad was rejected by one singer before Journey transformed it into a monster hit

Journey in 1981.

In the late ’70s, keyboard player Jonathan Cain wrote a lovely piano ballad called Open Arms. It sounded like it could be a hit. There was only one problem. In the band that Cain was in at the time, the singer hated that song.

That band was The Babys, originally formed in London and fronted by Lancashire-born lead vocalist John Waite.