On Thursday, November 21, Journey’s frontman Steve Perry released a cover of Bobby Darin’s “Call Me Irresponsible,” featuring a duet with his late father, Ray Perry. Built around a tape left to him after his estranged father’s passing, the song, originally recorded by Ray as a reflection on his shortcomings, offers poignant closure as Perry confronts generational trauma and embraces forgiveness. Watch the official video below:

The track comes from his extended holiday album The Season 3, released earlier this month via Dark Horse Records.

Designed and animated by Tolga Tarhan, the video features the story of the Perry family as Steve realized he wanted to make music as his father did. The animated father and son grew apart over the years, but as seen in the video, Ray continued to support and encourage his son’s endeavors. Around the two-minute mark, the animated father and son are seen exchanging goodbyes in a hospital room before the son is seen leaving flowers at his father’s grave. The son is then seen opening a box that his father left for him; a cassette tape labeled “Merry Christmas, Love, dad” is withdrawn and played on a boombox. The video ends with the animated versions of Ray and Steve singing side-by-side. Steve turns to Ray and says, “I love you, Dad” to which Ray responds, “Merry Christmas, God love you,” assumed to be the last message from Ray on the original tape.

When talking about singing with his father on this duet of “Call Me Irresponsible,” Steve Perry says, “My father, Ray Perry, was a singer and when I was a child he would sing to me at bedtime. I recently found a karaoke cassette of my dad singing that he sent me back in 1993 for Christmas. The one song that touched me the most was “Call Me Irresponsible.” His voice was lovely, but the karaoke track was not.

Using technology, we pulled his voice off the cassette and recorded beautiful music around him. Once that was done, an unfulfilled dream of singing with my father was now possible. You see, mom and dad divorced when I was seven, and dad and I never saw much of each other after that. Singing with my father after all these years was a very emotional experience for me. His voice was just as I remembered it as a child.

At the end of his cassette, dad says, ‘Merry Christmas, God love ya.’ To hear him speak again brought tears to my eyes.”

The Season 3 is co-produced by Perry and engineer Thom Flowers and embodies an immaculately arranged and richly nuanced sound inspired by such time-honored holiday albums as Nat King Cole’s The Magic of Christmas. Mainly recorded at Perry’s home studio, The Season series came to life in collaboration with drummer Vinnie Colaiuta (known for his work with artists such as Sting, Joni Mitchell and Frank Zappa) and Dallas Kruse (a multi-instrumentalist who also worked with Perry on his acclaimed 2018 album Traces). Past singles from the Seasons albums include “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” and “What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve.”

Perry continues to captivate generations with the power of his range and warmth of his tone – as the latest turn in a phenomenal career that has included landing on Rolling Stone’s 100 Greatest Singers of All Time list, fronting Journey during the band’s most massively successful era and gaining entry into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.