The song is about Journey's city of origin,
San Francisco, although it was actually written in and originally intended to be about
Los Angeles. It was one of Steve Perry's first Journey songs, and was recorded soon after joining the band. In an interview, Perry said, "I had the song written in Los Angeles almost completely except for the bridge and it was written about Los Angeles. It was 'when the lights go down in the city and the sun shines on L-A.' I didn't like the way it sounded at the time. And so I just had it sitting back in the corner. Then life changed my plans once again, and I was now facing joining Journey. I love San Francisco, the bay, and the whole thing. 'The bay' fit so nice, 'When the lights go down in the city and the sun shines on the bay.' It was one of those early-morning-going-across-the-bridge things, when the sun was coming up and the lights were going down. It was perfect." Released as a single in 1978, it was originally only a minor hit, reaching number 68 on the
Billboard Hot 100 at the time. It has, however, become more popular over the years and is now one of Journey's most popular and easily recognizable songs and is often played in Classic Hits/Oldies radio stations. It is frequently played at
San Francisco Giants baseball games (including versions led by Perry himself at Game 2 of the
2010 World Series, Games 1 and 2 of the
2012 World Series, and Games 4 and 5 of the
2014 World Series) and the cross-bay
Oakland Athletics after-game fireworks starts. The song is now usually played at
Levi's Stadium when the
NFL San Francisco 49ers win a home game. It is sometimes used in
promos for the
Golden State Warriors. The song was also played right before the start of game 4 of the
1989 World Series on
ABC Sports. Journey released a live version of the song in 1993 for the
Time³ box set. This recording reached #30 on the Adult Contemporary chart. The song was the last to be played during the
Top 40 era of
KFRC, a legendary San Francisco radio station, before a format change to
nostalgia/adult standards in 1986. Television station
KIII, the
ABC affiliate in
Corpus Christi, Texas used this song during their
sign-offs in the late 1980s. ==Reception==