Steve Perry appears on an update of “It Could Have Been You” from Journey‘s Raised on Radio by a new band called The Effect. Listen below.
The Effect features a pair of sons of famous rock stars: producer/guitarist Trev Lukather’s father is Steve Lukather of Toto, and drummer Nic Collins’ dad is Phil Collins of Genesis. (The younger Lukather is also Perry’s former bandmate Jonathan Cain‘s son-in-law.)
“Steve and I go way back,” Lukather said on Instagram. “Other than my Pop, Steve Perry has been a mentor to me. When he heard the Effect, he called me and expressed how much he really loved what we were doing. It meant the world.”
Then Lukather began raving about a favorite Journey deep cut from the late ’80s. “He surprisingly mentioned ‘It Could Have Been You’ is one of his favorite tracks,” Perry wrote on Instagram, and “I told him I felt the same. I then said, ‘Why don’t you record it?’ He asked if I would sing on it if they did, I said, ‘Of course, my most precious!'”
The Effect had already completed their album, but decided this opportunity “was just too good of an idea to pass up,” Lukather added. Lukather and Collins began developing a completed track with singer Emmett Stang and keyboardist Steve Maggiora, the latter of whom had been pulling double duty with Toto until recently leaving the Effect.
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Perry dropped by the studio while they were tracking drums, and was soon adding vocals of his own. “I’ll forever bottle up his first reaction after the playback,” Lukather added. His excitement that we could resurrect an overlooked Journey song with new life obviously connected to the pipes, because Steve came in the next day and shook the house with his vocal performance.”
Describing “It Could Have Been You” as a “diamond in the rough,” Perry said his emotive new performance came as a surprise. “I must say, singing on their powerful track brought out a vocal experience in me from years ago!” he said.
Lukather recalled the session in seismic terms: “I think our neighbors thought it was the Northridge earthquake all over again,” he said. “The power of Steve’s vocals is on another level.”
Listen to Journey’s Original Version
Update Also Had to Pass Muster With the Father-in-Law
“It Could Have Been You” was co-written by Perry, Neal Schon and Lukather’s father-in-law. So, he anxiously awaited Cain’s response, as well.
“To add to the pressure of doing it justice, not only did I want to knock it out of the park for my friend and mentor but for Jonathan Cain, who is the co-writer on this epic tune,” Lukather admitted. “I sent him the master when we finalized. He called me stunned and blown away. He praised the arrangement and performances and he said how [Steve Perry] sounded like a million bucks. To get the approval from them both was everything, but we have a feeling the world will connect to our version the way we all did making it.”
“It Could Have Been You” is available for purchase now. The Effect debuted in October with the quite different sounding “Unwanted.” Both songs will be part of a forthcoming album of several stylistic journeys that Collins says are held together by the group’s collaborative spirit.
“We never sat down and were like, ‘Okay, what kind of band do we want to sound like? What do we want to be?'” Collins tells UCR. “That just happens to be what the [sound is] with the four of us as individuals when you put us [together]. It was weird, I didn’t realize that until a couple of months in.”
The Effect, “It Could Have Been You” (Journey cover ft. Steve Perry)
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Gallery Credit: Lauryn Schaffner