Sports Illustrated recently posted Dan Treadway’s choices for The 12 Greatest Sports Movie Songs of All-Time. Sly had two songs make the cut and here is what Mr. Treadway had to say about them…
Rocky: Gonna Fly Now
The most difficult part of making a list like this was determining how many songs from the Rocky franchise to include. Montages are a fairly critical aspect of more or less every sports film, and Sly Stallone’s movies more or less wrote the book on them. So I would be remiss if I did not at least include the most montagiest of montage songs “Gonna Fly Now.” I honestly can’t listen to any part of this song without imagining Rocky jogging around war-torn ’70s Philly in sweats and a beanie. This song was nominated for an Academy Award in 1977 and — despite Rocky getting the nod for Best Picture and Best Director — it somehow didn’t win. Instead the honors went to the theme from A Star is Born, which I’m pretty sure is the song that’s been playing at my dentist’s office for the past 24 years:
Rocky III: Eye of the Tiger
Believe it or not, we were extremely close to living in an “Eye of the Tiger”-less world. The horror.
Jim Peterick, the guitarist for Survivor, told the story of the song’s origin during an interview with Guitar World:
I came home from shopping one day and heard a message on the answering machine from Sylvester Stallone. At first, I thought it was a joke, but I called the number and sure enough, Stallone answered. He told me that he loved the band and had heard “Poor Man’s Son” and “Take You On A Saturday” from our Premonition album and wanted that same kind of “street” sound for his new movie,Rocky III. He sent us a video montage of the movie and Frankie (Sullivan) and I watched it together. There were scenes of Rocky getting a little “soft” (doing the Visa card commercials) and Mr. T “rising up” with his Mohawk. It was electric. The temp music they used to accompany the montage was “Another One Bites The Dust” by Queen. I remember asking Stallone why he just didn’t use that song for the movie and he said it was because they couldn’t get the publishing rights for it. At that point I just said, “Thank you, Queen!”
We’ve now reached the point where I don’t even know what I think about “Eye of the Tiger.” It’s been used so many times, in so many capacities, that it’s much more than just the lead song from a movie soundtrack — it’s pretty much its own emotion. It’s the musical version of chugging Red Bull while sprinting after a gazelle that you plan on killing with your bare hands.