Rocky is 80 years old today!
The actor Sylvester Stallone is celebrating the big milestone today. He’s of course one of the biggest celebrities of our time. In fact, he’s one of only two actors in history to have starred in a box-office No. 1 film across six consecutive decades! The other is Harrison Ford.
We just can’t talk about Stallone without referencing his iconic movie role of Rocky Balboa, the character he developed and portrayed in eight films. Rocky was a poor kid from Philadelphia who ends up becoming a professional boxer.
And, we can’t talk about Rocky without thinking about the signature song of the franchise, “Eye of the Tiger” by Survivor!
It was the theme song for “Rocky III” in 1982. And it only exists because of Sylvester Stallone himself!
Here’s how the story goes: Stallone wanted to use Queen’s “Another One Bites the Dust” in the movie. But, Queen wouldn’t give permission. So, Survivor’s Jim Peterik once recalled how he received a message on his answering machine from Stallone: “Yo, Jim. This is Sylvester Stallone. Gimme a call. We need to talk.”
Turns out Stallone was a fan of Survivor and liked a couple of their other songs. The other half of Survivor, Frankie Sullivan, said that Stallone insisted the song have “a pulse” to go with the punches being thrown in the ring.
“We’d recorded ‘Eye Of The Tiger’ as a demo on February 1, 1982, and that’s the version used in the film,” Frankie told a reporter. “Sly liked it so much he didn’t wait around for us to re-cut it, though the version on our record was done in a professional studio.”
Fans liked the song, too. It hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and stayed there for six weeks. It won the Grammy for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal and was nominated for Song of the Year. It also was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song.
So, in honor of Sylvester Stallone’s 80th birthday, here’s the song that he made possible: “Eye of the Tiger!”
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