Journey’s ‘Believin’ ‘ back as digital hit

The song is pouring out of iPods and CD burners everywhere:

“Just a small town girl, livin’ in a lonely world/She took the midnight train goin’ anywhere”

It’s “Don’t Stop Believin’,” the 1981 hit by Journey that’s No. 5 on the iTunes rock list and still holding its own after nine weeks on Billboard’s Hot Digital Songs chart.

What in the name of big hair is going on here? You can thank TV – MTV, to be precise. The resurgence of “Don’t Stop Believin’ ” has been fueled in part by its presence on the MTV reality show “Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County.”

A recent Hewlett-Packard commercial that employed the Kinks song “Picture Book” had the same effect on his listeners, says Bob Stroud, a Chicago midday classic-rock radio host.

“It’s the same thing with contestants on ‘American Idol,’ ” Stroud says. “(After) Bo Bice did ‘Vehicle,’ the Ides of March’s Web site got hundreds of thousands of hits when kids found out who did that song originally.”

Meanwhile, the guys in Journey, who reunited in ‘98 and released a new album, “Generations,” a couple of weeks ago, are thrilled. They say they’re seeing a new generation of fans at their concerts.

“Some songs do better than others, and that one has been reborn. The kids are singing it with us,” says keyboard player Jonathan Cain, who co-wrote “Don’t Stop Believin’ ” with guitarist Neal Schon and then-vocalist Steve Perry.

Cain, who also was the main architect of the power ballads “Open Arms” and “Faithfully,” says the new exposure even pushed the band’s “Greatest Hits” disc back on the charts. Sony also is releasing a DVD of a 1982 Journey concert in time for Christmas.

“I felt it was a special song,” he said of “Don’t Stop Believin’.” “It had a certain innocence to it. It still sounds fresh to me.”

Apparently, the iPod voters agree.