Apparently, that was Sherri, his girlfriend at the time: http://www.journey-tribute.com/journey/resources/articles/dick_clark.html S.P.: Sherrie actually got tired and went to bed. And I don't know where it came from, just the words: "Oh Sherrie" came out and the "Hold on", hold on". That's all we had for the entire chorus. We had no lyrics, no nothing. We had a bunch of mumbles on tape, certain vowel sounds and things, but that sort of started the whole idea. And next thing I know the song was almost finishing itself because it was such a personal song. I really needed someone with great lyric insight like Randy Goodrum had and he helped me finish the lyrics on it.D.C: In this spotlight lets focus our attention on the making of Steve Perry's biggest solo hit. It was written in 1984 by his girlfriend at the time Sherrie Swafford (--transcriber's note: spelling of names may not be correct). Steve says "Oh Sherrie" was the result of a song-writing jam session between three writers: himself, keyboardist Craig Krampf & Bill Cuomo, a man who crafted the synthesizer sound on "Betty Davis Eyes"--the one by Kim Karnes. The three of them had begun working on the song at midnight and ended up going on until 5 o'clock in the morning. And interestingly enough Steve says that when they began, Sherrie herself was in the room with them. But not for long.