I have watched the first (and so far only) episode of “Glee” about twenty times since it premiered this spring. That show felt like someone had asked me what I would most like to see on television, then brought it to life. What is more fun than the unadulterated joy of music and singing, leavened with a healthy dose of sass and irony? (Answer: Nothing.)
I keep talking about this show to anyone who will listen, and while plenty of my Facebook friends posted their own glee over “Glee” when it first aired, few of my actual real-life friends seem to have watched it. Including a certain Auto Tunes contributor, who actually participates in her own brand of glee through community musical theater productions. Odd, that.
The first and so far only episode of “Glee” culminated in a performance of Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’,” a song I had previously dismissed about twenty times in my life for a) sucking and b) suffering overexposure after it closed out “The Sopranos.” Really, though, it’s always been a love-hate relationship I have with the Journey, because while I hated “Don’t Stop Believin’,” and to this day am not quite believin’ that my high school class picked “Faithfully” as its song, I also have this idea that “Lovin’, Touchin’, Squeezin’” might be the best-ever karaoke song. Not that I have ever karaoked. But I sing it in my car a lot, at least up to the endless nah-nahs.
All of which is to say that for a band I don’t particularly like, and whose records I have never once bought, I have exhausted quite a bit of mental energy on Journey. And I have to say, the “Glee” performance may have made me a believer. If nothing else, when those fresh-faced cherubs put their spin on the tune, I finally heard the lyrics clearly.

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September 24, 2009 at 8:13 am
I’m Awfully Fond of You « Auto Tunes: We Drive, We Listen, We Write
[...] last night–friends, the football team performed “Single Ladies,” in a fabulous fusion of two of my favorite things–but the effects had waned. I needed some jolly [...]
August 10, 2010 at 7:40 pm
lilsis
So first of all, this post came up in my google reader today, a solid year after you wrote it. Odd.
Secondly, how can you not love a band who ousted their lead singer because of his pill addiction, despite his trademark voice, and then hired some philipino guy named Arnel that they found on Youtube. Seriously.
September 28, 2010 at 9:21 am
Sigh no more, ladies « Auto Tunes: We Drive, We Listen, We Write
[...] I realize that I have, from my very first post in this blog, compromised its musical focus by talking so much about television and film. I feel kind of bad [...]