For this “Things That Bring Back Memories” post, I am going to pick something pertaining to the topic of “Music“. There are so many songs that I can remember from years ago, and since music is a huge part of our family, the memories come streaming back when you hear a certain song.
Do you ever have that tune that comes on the radio, and you can just automatically remember where you were, who you were with and what you were doing? It amazes me, how as I get older, I can’t remember things from last week – but have that certain song come on the radio on a “Flashback” day, and “BOOM”, I am back in the place I was when I heard it. Don’t know if it’s the side effects of my brain surgery, which they said might affect certain memory, but I’m so glad that I can remember some things of the “good old days.”
So to get on with this “Things That Brings Back Memories” blog post for this week, I’m going to pick “Eye of the Tiger” by Survivor, which was released on May 29, 1982. This song is one that I think everyone seems to know. If not from the original release, it’s from a very well-known movie…do you know what it was? …… Good answer!!
The song “Eye of the Tiger” is one that I always kind of use for my personal theme song. I’m a tiger lover, so anything about these beautiful animals, I’m in. Who knows, maybe because I used to listen to this song so often when I was younger, that’s how I got to be so attached to those furry animals!! ha/ha
I remember years ago seeing these guys in person in some small little bar called “Crossroads” (then became Angel’s Roadhouse – now torn down) in Yucaipa, CA area with a friend of mine. Of course they started with some of their old songs and did a pretty good job. Near the end, the lead singer asked if anyone had any requests, of course, the whole place yelled “Eye of the Tiger”! Well, they went on singing a different one and later, asked again. Once again, they got that response. Mr. Lead Singer Man was not very happy and had a horrible attitude, but finally gave in and sang our favorite song. After that, a lot of people even left because of how he treated everyone. Oh well, maybe he was having a bad day, or sick of playing that song, but come on man – what do you think you’re most known for??
All in all, this is still one of my favorites…always one to rock out to, and one that many even have as a ringtone!! 🙂
So, is there a song that brings back great memories for you? Leave a comment below, and let me know.
More Info on the Song:
“Eye of the Tiger” is a song by American rock band Survivor. It was released in the spring of 1982 as a single from their third album Eye of the Tiger. It was written at the request of actor Sylvester Stallone, who was unable to get permission for Queen’s “Another One Bites the Dust”. The song was to be the theme song for the movie Rocky III, in which Stallone was playing the main role. The movie version of the song is different from the album version because it was the demo version, and it also features tiger growls.
It gained tremendous MTV and radio airplay and topped charts worldwide during 1982. In the United States, it held number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for six consecutive weeks and was the No. 2 single of 1982, behind Olivia Newton-John’s “Physical”. It is memorable for its guitar riff and anthemic chorus.
This song is also the title song to the movie 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 3.8 million in digital downloads in the United States alone by February 2014. It was voted VH1’s 63rd greatest hard rock song. Combined sales of original vinyl release and digital downloads total over 9 million copies, making “Eye of the Tiger” one of the best-selling singles of all time.
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’.”
More Info on the Band:
Survivor is an American rock band formed in Chicago in 1978 by Jim Peterik. The band achieved its greatest success in the 1980s with its arena rock sound, which garnered many charting singles, especially in the United States. The band is best known for its double platinum-certified 1982 hit “Eye of the Tiger,” the theme song for the motion picture Rocky III (US number 1 for 6 weeks). Singles like “Burning Heart” (US number 2), “The Search Is Over” (US number 4), “High on You” (US number 8), “Is This Love” (US number 9) and “I Can’t Hold Back” (US number 13) continued to chart in the mid-1980s.
The band tweaked its musical direction in 1988 with the release of the slightly heavier Too Hot to Sleep, but due to lackluster promotion the album barely reached the Billboard 200 in the United States. Because of this and tension between founding members, the band split.
Singer Jimi Jamison later toured as “Survivor” in the mid-1990s without the permission of the rest of the band, but reunited with Sullivan in 2000. The band then released “Reach” in 2006, but Jamison left again after its release and was replaced by singer Robin McAuley. Survivor continued to tour with McAuley into 2011 until Jamison returned later that year.
An announcement on November 13, 2011 by McAuley on his Facebook page revealed that he had left Survivor. A subsequent announcement on November 18, 2011 confirmed that Jamison had rejoined the band and a tour was to take place in 2012.
In April 2013 it was announced by the band’s official media sources that guitarist Frankie Sullivan had reunited the current Survivor line-up with original singer Dave Bickler, with the band now having their two most popular vocalists together for the next tour, Bickler and Jamison.
On September 1, 2014 Jamison died of what was believed to be a heart attack in his home in Memphis, TN. at the age of 63. His autopsy released on November 11, 2014 revealed the actual cause of death to be a hemorrhagic brain stroke, with “acute methamphetamine intoxication contributing.”
Some Other Interesting Facts:
- The first two Rocky movies used a very popular orchestral theme written by Bill Conti. That song, “Gonna Fly Now,” was a #1 hit in 1977. Says Peterik: “We didn’t want to do anything like that. Stallone, in his first conversation to us, he made it real clear he wanted to distance himself from that first song. To him, it was great, but he wanted something to get to the youth market, the cutting edge. Looking back at age 53, it’s hilarious to think I was once part of the cutting edge. We attempted to steer clear of the ‘Gonna Fly Now’ thing.”
- Jim Peterik told us regarding the origin of this song: “When we got the initial rough cut of the movie, the scene that ‘Eye Of The Tiger’ appears in was cut to ‘Another One Bites The Dust’ by Queen. Frankie and I are watching this, the punches are being thrown, and we’re going, ‘Holy crap, this is working like a charm.’ We called Stallone and said, ‘Why aren’t you using that?’ He goes, ‘Well, we can’t get the publishing rights to it.’ Frankie and I looked at each other and went, ‘Man, this is going to be tough to beat.’ We had the spirit of, ‘We’ve got to try to top this.’ 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.”
- The iconic title of this song was not a sure thing. Jim Peterik told us: “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.'”
- In 1984, Weird Al Yankovic recorded a parody of this song called “The Rye or the Kaiser (theme from Rocky XIII),” which finds Rocky working at a deli in his old age, still punching slabs of meat from time to time. Yankovic was a bit prescient, as there ended up being six Rocky movies, although none of them featured Rocky working in a deli. (thanks, Cliff – Burkesville, KY)
- Katy Perry invoked the eye of the tiger on her 2013 #1 hit “Roar,” where she sings, “I got the eye of the tiger, a fighter…” Perry paid no royalties to the “Eye of the Tiger” songwriters, who decided not to pursue legal action, even though it was a little disconcerting. Jim Peterik told us: “People say, ‘Oh, I love Katy Perry’s version of your song ‘Eye of the Tiger.” And I’m going, ‘No, that’s not our song. That’s called ‘Roar’ and they used the phrase ‘eye of the tiger,’ and ‘we will rock you,’ and all these other references to pop/rock classics.’ But at the end of the day, I think ‘Eye of the Tiger,’ our song is timeless. And the Katy Perry is a good song that will probably come and go. I just think ‘Eye of the Tiger’ will stand forever.”
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Thanks for stopping by today. Please be sure to leave a comment, if this song meant something to you, too. Or to just let me know what you think of the story in this post! Thanks and have a great day!! TigerStrypes claims no credit for any images used on this post, unless otherwise noted. Images in this post are copyright to their respectful owners. If there is an image appearing on this blog that belongs to you and do not wish for it appear on this site, please email us with a link to said image and it will be promptly removed. Thanks and have a great day!!
this song is in my playlist and playing it right now
I have so many memories from that song and all the Rocky movies! I still can’t wait to hit the stairs in Philly to do my Sly impersonation! It made us all feel like we could do anything! Not to mention I wanted to marry Sly
Ha/Ha – great one!! I want to see pix of that visit!!
It definitely brings back the memories. I used to play Eye Of The Tiger in band all the time. So neat to get some history about the band.
Every time I hear ‘Eye of the Tiger,’ it makes me think of Stallone. It really is a motivating song when you think of it. If I heard it while bike-riding, it would make me pedal faster.
We all get our boxing gloves on when it plays, huh!! 🙂
Good song!!! Good memories!!!! It was a favorite of my band director in school, we played in at football games on Friday night. Fun times!
Memories are so awesome to have of certain songs, times, etc. Thanks for stopping by!!
I have heard about Survivor band before, from my parents. I love the song too & I am sure it would bring back old memories to people in those 80s in particular. My parents are going to love it too.
I can hear that song now. I remember those days. Thanks for the memory.
You just took me back in time!
That brings back memories indeed! I love that song.
Great song and terrific post as always! Music is so tied with memories in such a strong way, you are so right that it can transport you!!
It’s kind of weird how I can remember words to music from years ago, but forget where I put my keys 5 minutes ago! ha/ha
Love that song!
This song is the best. I always felt empowered after listening to it. If Rocky could do it, so could I. Lol
I always think of this song when my daughter’s playing that Katy Perry song. Eesh, she probably should have had to pay royalties! I’ve heard less of a connection between songs being cause for pay.
I didn’t realize Mr. Jamison passed. I’m sorry to hear it.
That definitely brings back memories for me too. I usually don’t have one distinct memory with music, but rather a specific period of time in my life.
This song is one of my favs!
The Rocky song! Good pick!
I just love nostalgia. Although I was very young when most of these songs were popular, I have to say the “eye of the tiger” song will be around for a long time. I’m sure my kids will be introduced to it one day soon.
Ha! Even my kids know all the words to this song. I can’t believe the lead singer was annoyed the fans asked to hear “Eye of the Tiger.” Sheesh. Yep, this song brings back a ton of memories.
Wow, talk about bringing back memories! I’m feeling really old now, lol!
Great guitar in this tune, and by the way thank you for putting that song to the front of my brain. I’m sure I am going to be humming it for the rest of the night.
Love all the facts. Now I have to go and watch Rocky, didn’t realize the versions were different.
To me, nothing can bring me back quicker to a point in time than a song. And I love all the memories it brings back.
That is so true!! I’ll forget people’s names today, but know exactly where I was when a song played years ago!! ha/ha
That does bring back memories. My high school boyfriend school team was the mascot so whenever I went to his games they played that song.
Oh my! I loved that song. Because of that movie, that song became so popular here in our place.
The Tigers were my high school team and Eye of the Tiger was our school theme song.
How cool!! That might have made school fun for me!! ha/ha
My husband still loves their music. Great song.
I love that song, even though I am a little young for it being born in ’81. Thanks for commenting on my blog!
I wondered if Katy Perry got permission from Survivor to “borrow” lyrics from their iconic song. Thanks for digging deep and sharing a wealth of information on the group and the song Jamie! Now I’ll leave with the lead guitar riff running through my head!
You could totally rock this, Linda – go girl!! 🙂
Just reading the name of the song immediately got the tune buzzing in my brain! This is an oldie-but-goodie for sure, even my sons love this song. I remember buying the CD just for this track. Too bad the lead singer didn’t embrace the fame of the song that night. Imagine it would get old, though, after a bit singing it over and over, but still, there’s much joy in the success, as well!
The thing I always say is the song that makes you well known is the one you need to embrace! They do have a lot of other great ones, but they’re lucky the song outweighed the attitude!! ha/ha