“Eye of the Tiger” Only Exists Because of Queen
Sylvester Stallone wanted a Queen song for Rocky III. When that fell through, Survivor wrote one of the biggest rock anthems ever.
Picture the training montage in Rocky III with a completely different song. That was the original plan.
Plan A: Queen
Sylvester Stallone wanted Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust" for the film. The rights didn't work out, so he needed something new, and fast.
Plan B: a band from Chicago
Stallone reached out to Survivor and sent Jim Peterik and Frankie Sullivan a rough cut of the opening montage. Watching the footage, they built the song around those punchy, staccato guitar hits that land with the punches on screen. The title came straight from a line in the movie.
A knockout
"Eye of the Tiger" spent six weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1982, won a Grammy and became the default soundtrack for every gym, every comeback and every sports arena on the planet.