Eye of the Tiger

"Eye of the Tiger" is a song by American rock band Survivor. It was released as a single from their third album Eye of the Tiger and was also the theme song for the film Rocky III, which was released a day before the single. The song was written by Survivor guitarist Frankie Sullivan and keyboardist Jim Peterik and was done so at the request of Rocky III star, writer, and director Sylvester Stallone, after Queen denied him permission to use "Another One Bites the Dust", the song Stallone intended as the Rocky III theme. The version of the song that appears in the movie is the demo version of the song. The movie version also contained tiger growls, something that did not appear on the album version. It features original Survivor singer Dave Bickler on lead vocals.

It gained tremendous MTV and radio airplay and topped charts worldwide during 1982. In the United States, it held No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for six consecutive weeks and was the No. 2 single of 1982, behind Olivia Newton-John's "Physical". The band won a 1982 Grammy Award for "Best Rock Performance by Duo or Group With Vocal" at the 25th Annual Grammy Awards. In September 1982, it also peaked at No. 1 in the United Kingdom, remaining at the top of the UK Singles Chart for four consecutive weeks.

The song is also the title song to the 1986 film of the same name.

It was certified platinum in August 1982 by the RIAA, signifying sales of 2 million vinyl copies. The song had sold over 4.1 million in digital downloads in the United States alone by February 2015. It was voted VH1's 63rd greatest hard rock song. Combined sales of original vinyl release and digital downloads total over 9 million copies.

Background
In an interview with Songfacts, co-writer Jim Peterik, who shared writing credit with Frankie Sullivan, explained the song's title.

"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'."

Accolades
The song was nominated for the 1982 Academy Award for Best Original Song, the only Oscar nomination for Rocky III. It lost to "Up Where We Belong" from An Officer and a Gentleman.

The song was also nominated for the 1983 Grammy Award for Song of the Year, but lost to the Willie Nelson hit "Always on My Mind".

Covers

 * Frank Bruno, a British world Heavyweight champion boxer, covered it in 1995, the year of his championship coronation, reaching number 28 in the British music charts.
 * American metalcore band Devil You Know covered it in the 2015 album They Bleed Red.

Parodies

 * "Theme from Rocky XIII (The Rye or the Kaiser)", by "Weird Al" Yankovic in his 1984 album "Weird Al" Yankovic in 3-D.
 * "I Have to Die First", by ApologetiX.
 * "Eye of the Potato" in Sesame Street

Newt Gingrich campaign
In 2012, Survivor sued Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich in Illinois federal court for using "Eye of the Tiger" without authorization as entrance music at his political rallies going back as far as 2009. The suit was later settled out of court.

The same year Sullivan also demanded that Mitt Romney, also a Republican candidate for president, stop using "Eye of the Tiger" at his campaign rallies. Romney agreed to drop the song from the campaign's playlists.

Mike Huckabee's campaign
Frankie Sullivan's company Rude Music filed a lawsuit in federal court in Chicago, Illinois, on November 18, 2015, against the former Governor of Arkansas and Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee's campaign organization for using "Eye of the Tiger" at a political rally without permission. The rally took place on September 8, 2015, when Kim Davis, a Kentucky county clerk, was released from jail after spending five days there for refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples in Kentucky. In June 2016 it was reported by CNN that Huckabee had agreed, in a confidential, out-of-court settlement with Sullivan's Rude Music, to pay $25,000 in compensation.

Credits and personnel
Credits adapted from the album Eye of the Tiger.
 * Dave Bickler – lead vocals
 * Frankie Sullivan – lead and rhythm guitars, vocals
 * Jim Peterik – grand piano, electric guitar, vocals
 * Stephan Ellis – bass
 * Marc Droubay – drums

Certifications
!scope="row"|Japan (RIAJ) !scope="row"|Japan (RIAJ) (Digital)
 * 244,000
 * 244,000
 * Gold
 * 100,000

!scope="row"|United States (RIAA) (Digital) !scope="row"|United States (RIAA) (Mastertone) !scope="row"|United States (RIAA) (Physical) !scope="row"|Total available sales:
 * Platinum
 * 4,100,000
 * Gold
 * 500,000^
 * 2× Platinum
 * 2,000,000^
 * 9,511,300
 * 9,511,300