Survivor‘s “Eye Of The Tiger” is one of the most famous songs in cinematic history, and the story of how it came to be is an interesting one. Survivor had two albums out by early 1982 and not much to show for them. The Chicago band had scraped some modest chart action, but the label deal was shaky enough that a third underwhelming album might have ended things. Fortunately for them, they got a call from Sylvester Stallone…
The Origins Of “Eye Of The Tiger”
Sylvester Stallone was deep into editing Rocky III and needed a song for the opening montage – Rocky getting comfortable while Clubber Lang tears through the contender ranks. The rough cut had the sequence set to Queen‘s “Another One Bites the Dust,” and it fit so well that when Survivor’s writers eventually saw the footage, they called Stallone to ask why he didn’t just keep it. Again, this one came down to publishing rights – fans were one greenlight away from Queen being the definitive song behind Rocky.
Tony Scotti, president of Survivor’s label, had played Stallone a few cuts from the band’s 1981 record “Premonition”. Stallone liked what he heard and left messages for guitarist Frankie Sullivan and keyboardist Jim Peterik. “Answering machines were still something of a novelty back then and to see that blinking light was a thrill,” Peterik told Songfacts. He also claimed that the voice on the tape sounded like somebody doing a Stallone impression.
Stallone’s wanted “something street,” with a pulse that could sit under the punches. Peterik and Sullivan watched the montage and wrote straight to the picture. “I started doing that now-famous dead string guitar riff and started slashing those chords to the punches we saw on the screen, and the whole song took shape in the next three days,” Peterik said. The pair also lobbied for more than fight footage – they wanted dialogue, and begged Stallone to send the entire movie. When it arrived, the title was sitting in an Apollo Creed line: “You had that eye of the tiger, man, the edge.”
Stallone came back with notes on the first draft. Louder percussion and a proper third verse, since the original just repeated the first one. Even then, he wasn’t in a waiting mood. “We’d recorded ‘Eye of the Tiger’ as a demo on February 1, 1982, and that’s the version used in the film,” Sullivan told Classic Rock. The band re-cut the song in a professional studio for their album, but the movie shipped with the demo.
The single reached Number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in July of 1982 and held the spot for six straight weeks. It topped the UK chart too, and went double platinum in the States. Come awards season, it won the Grammy for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal and picked up an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song, losing out to “Up Where We Belong” from An Officer and a Gentleman.
The Composition of “Eye Of The Tiger”
The song is in C minor and stays there start to finish. The official sheet music lists the key as Eb major/C minor, but nothing about this song feels major. The famous intro is built on a pedal point: a muted C chugging away underneath while the chord stabs land on top. Those stabs aren’t full chords so much as jabs – Cm, then Bb and Ab, both voiced over the ringing C bass (the chart writes them as Bb/C and Ab/C). Because the guitar plays them as power chords with no third, the harmony stays skeletal, which is probably why the riff came out sounding as tough as it does. Peterik has said he slashed those chords to match the punches in the fight footage Stallone sent over, and you can hear it – the stabs land like combinations.
The verse keeps the same C pedal grinding under Dave Bickler, so there’s no harmonic relief until the chorus. Even then, it doesn’t go far. The chorus opens back on C minor for “It’s the eye of the tiger” and works through Bb and F minor, all still diatonic to the key. The best moment in the song is the push under “watchin’ us all,” where bassist Stephan Ellis walks it up stepwise – F, G, Ab – under an Fm, Eb/G, Ab progression. That rising bassline is what gives the last line its lift before everything drops back to C minor on “of the tiger.” No borrowed chords, no key change, no tricks. Five plain minor-key chords and a bass note that won’t quit.
How ‘Eye of the Tiger’ Outgrew Rocky III
Usually by the third film in a franchise, directors and writers are introducing new characters, sending old characters to space, jumping the proverbial shark. All of the Rocky films are largely similar in their plot. The song was the punch that really landed from that film and propelled it forward. It’s a good thing, too, because it led to the next film, Rocky IV, which was one of the best of the entire franchise, if you ask me. It’s rare that a song from the third film in a franchise becomes the one synonymous with the franchise. Although the main theme from the first two films, “Gonna Fly Now,” was propelled to Number 1 by the film’s success as well.
As for Survivor, they haven’t put out an album since 2006. They had some hits, so I wouldn’t call them a one-hit wonder, but nothing that rose to the level of “Eye Of The Tiger”.
