Survivor: The ‘Eye of the Tiger’ Coming To Beartrap Meadow
UPDATE: Due to a last minute illness of a member of Survivor, Skid Row will be stepping in as the replacement headliner at the Beartrap Summer Festival on Saturday, Aug. 3rd. Learn more here.
“Eye of the Tiger” – nearly everyone over the age of, say, 6, is familiar with this iconic song. Legendary band Survivor has been performing for over 40 years. With a new lead singer, Survivor continues to deliver their “trademark arena rock sound” to yet another generation of fans. And this summer, they’re bringing it to the Beartrap Summer Festival. Folks around here are pretty familiar with their music, so we thought we’d find a few things about this band that you might or might not be aware of. Here are 10 things we find really interesting about Survivor…
#1. They released their first album, the self-titled Survivor, in 1980. Their first top 40 on the Hot 100 followed the next year – “Poor Man’s Son” off of their 2nd album, Premonition.
#2. As of this writing, their YouTube video “Eye of the Tiger” had 513,107,057 views. The comments range from the silly “I played this for my lizard and it turned into a dinosaur.” to the nostalgic “Can someone PLEASE transport me back to the 80's. Please.” and even the inspirational “Played this a lot when I was battling cancer last year - quite a motivator.”
#3. Sylvester Stallone asked ‘em for the theme song for Rocky III back in 1982. “Eye of the Tiger” hit – and stayed at - #1 for 7 weeks. Still popular today, the song came in at #18 on Billboard’s 100th Anniversary issue. It’s also well over the 7 million mark on iTunes.
#4. They performed “Eye of the Tiger” on season 4 of Dancing with the Stars: the Results Show in April of 2007.
#5. Two of their albums, Eye of the Tiger and Vital Signs are certified platinum; one of their albums, When Seconds Count, is certified gold. Their song “Eye of the Tiger” also garnered them a Grammy (Best Rock Performance by a Duo/Group,) a People’s Choice Award for Best New Song, and an Academy Award Nomination for Best Original Song.
#6. In May of this year, “Eye of the Tiger” made USA Today’s list of “The Hundred Absolutely Best Songs in History.”
#7. Survivor also had a hit with “Burning Heart,” a song that appeared on the soundtrack of Rocky IV in 1985. This one hit #2 on the singles chart.
#8. “Eye of the Tiger” has been covered by dozens and dozens of artists, including New Found Glory, 2Cellos, Paul Anka and Pentatonix.
#9. 1984’s Vital Signs was also a success with songs like “I Can’t Hold Back,” “High on You” and “The Search is Over.”
#10. (A personal favorite.) Was used in an episode of Supernatural. At the end of the episode, there’s an outtake of Jensen Ackles (who plays Dean Winchester, one of the demon-fighting brothers) lip synching to the song. A description just won’t do it justice – do yourself a favor and view it on YouTube.