Born: 22 January 1949
Full name: Stephen Ray Perry
Perry was born in Hanford, California, a city about 50kms south of Fresno. His parents came from the Azores region in Portugal. His father co-owned a local radio station and was a singer. When he was 12, Perry heard Sam Cooke’s ‘Cupid’ on the radio and this inspired him to become a singer. In his early 20’s he moved to Sacramento where he formed the band Ice with Scott Matthews. Matthews would go on to become a producer, working with acts such as Mick Jagger and Barbra Streisand. Ice recorded several tracks during the day in a studio that was being used at night time by Stevie Wonder to record his ‘Talking Book’ album. The Ice recordings did nothing and they disbanded. Perry then he fronted a band called Alien Project and nearly quit the music world when a band mate was killed in a car crash. However, his mother encouraged him to answer a call from Walter Herbert who was managing a struggling band called Journey. Perry would end up joining the band and would see a very successful career as lead singer of the band. His firs hit outside of Journey was a duet with Kenny Loggins, ‘Don’t Fight It’ which made it to 17 in the US. In 1984 he released a solo album and would see his all-time best showing on the Hot 100 singles charts with ‘Oh Sherrie’ which peaked at 3. He would see a total of 7 solo/duet hits on the Hot 100. ‘Oh Sherrie’ would be his only UK chart showing where it peaked at 89.
| Date of entry | Song | Peak (weeks at 1) | Weeks |
| 27-Jul-1984 | Oh Sherrie | 6 | 18 |
| Total hits | 1 | ||
| Total weeks | 18 |
| Biggest climber awards | 0 |
| Star rater climbs | 2 |
| Biggest fallers | 2 |
| Weeks with oldest in the charts | 0 |
| Longest run in the charts (weeks) | 18 |
| Weeks with more than 1 in the charts | 0 |
| Biggest gap between hits (weeks) | 0 |
| Top 30 points ranking | 682 |
| Top 20 points ranking | =733 |
| Top 30 points | 248 |
| Top 20 points | 99 |
Hits as a member of Journey:
| Date of entry | Song | Peak (weeks at 1) | Weeks |
| 03-Nov-1978 | Wheel in The Sky | 12 | 13 |
| 27-May-1983 | Separate Ways (Worlds Apart) | 17 | 7 |
| Total hits | 2 | ||
| Total weeks | 20 |
Total chart involvement:
| Number of hits | 3 |
| Weeks | 38 |
SA Singles Charts 