This past weekend I ended up seeing a film that will probably become one of my favorite films of 2011. It wasn’t perfect, but for 2/3’s of it the film was perfect in bringing up feelings of nostalgia. Nostalgia gets a bad rap and deservedly so since it turns anything decades-old into a classic because it was heard, seen or played in one’s youth. The latest “Song of the Day” brings up past memories born of nostalgia and just fond reminiscing. I speak of the greatest power ballad of all-time: Journey’s “Open Arms”.

The song was released in 1982 as part of Journey’s seventh full album, Escape, and the song became an instant classic both in the radio-play and during the band’s arena concerts. “Open Arms” became the rock power ballad by which all other power ballads gets compared to. The song, like all power ballads, is all about love-lost and love re-found. I don’t know anyone, no matter what types of music they’re into, who hasn’t at least taken someone close to them for a slow dance on the dance floor to this very song as it played.

While it wasn’t a song that was widely played during dances, balls and proms when I was in high school it definitely was a song that got major playtime once I was older and went to weddings and other similar type gatherings. Part of this ballad’s timeless appeal doesn’t just come from the earnest emotions inherent in the lyrics, but the emotional power and feeling Steve Perry’s performance gives to the song. His singing has been described as operatic, powerful and never sappy or playing to the crowd. Perry sings this song as if he’s speaking of very intimate personal experiences described in the lyrics.

I don’t usually pick ballads and slow jams when it comes to “Song of the Day” but thanks to J.J. Abrams’ Super 8 nostalgia hit me that this song was one of the first to bring back memories both fond and heartbreaking.

Open Arms

Lying beside you
here in the dark
Feeling your heart beat with mine

Softly you whisper
you’re so sincere
How could our love be so blind
We sailed on together
We drifted apart
And here you are by my side

So now I come to you
with open arms
Nothing to hide
believe what I say
So here I am with open arms
Hoping you’ll see what your love means to me
Open arms

Living without you
living alone
This empty house seems so cold

Wanting to hold you
wanting you near

How much I want you home
But now that you’ve come back
Turned night into day
I need you to stay

So now I come to you
with open arms
Nothing to hide
believe what I say
So here I am with open arms
Hoping you’ll see what your love means to me
Open arms