SURVIVOR's 'Eye Of The Tiger' Surpasses One Billion Streams On SPOTIFY

June 26, 2023

SURVIVOR's legendary hit "Eye Of The Tiger" has surpassed one billion streams on Spotify. It was written by Jim Peterik and Frankie Sullivan. The song has been a global phenomenon, inspiring millions since its release in 1982. Commissioned by Sylvester Stallone himself, "Eye Of The Tiger" was the theme song for the film "Rocky III". The single, from SURVIVOR's third album of the same name, spent six weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and would become SURVIVOR's defining anthem. "Eye Of The Tiger" charted 15 consecutive weeks in the Top 10, the second longest run of that year, garnering double platinum sales. Since then, "Eye" has sold nearly thirty million copies worldwide.

"Eye Of The Tiger" was nominated for two Grammy Awards, winning one for "Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group" in 1982. The song was also nominated for an Academy Award in 1982 for "Best Original Song".

Stallone left a message on Peterik's answering machine to call him, then asked if he'd write a song for "Rocky III", which turned into "Eye Of The Tiger", a huge hit still ubiquitous at sporting stadiums and arenas everywhere.

"I got the title from what Burgess Meredith tells Rocky in the movie," Peterik said about the song, revealing it was the demo that made it into the final movie. "It had the mojo," he said simply.

In an interview with Songfacts, Peterik said: "At first, we wondered if calling it 'Eye Of The Tiger' was too obvious. The initial draft of the song, we started with 'It's the eye of the tiger, it's the thrill of the fight, rising up to the spirit of our rival, and the last known survivor stalks his prey in the night, and it all comes down to survival.' We were going to call the song 'Survival'. In the rhyme scheme, you can tell we had set up 'rival' to rhyme with 'survival'. At the end of the day, we said, 'Are we nuts?' That hook is so strong, and 'rival' doesn't have to be a perfect rhyme with the word 'tiger'. We made the right choice and went with 'Eye Of The Tiger'."

The version of the song that appears in "Rocky III" contained tiger growls, which did not appear on the album version. It features original SURVIVOR singer Dave Bickler on lead vocals.

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