Movie Soundtrack Highlights — Survivor: Eye of the Tiger

Survivor’s Eye of the Tiger has entered into popular usage in my social group thanks to a brief incident several months ago at one of our regular pub quizzes. But before we get to that, there is a small amount of back story to provide.

One of my friends, Holy Duck Fudge, joined our group for a trip to York in November 2013. On the journey to that hallowed place, Survivor’s most notable track Eye of the Tiger randomised on my iPod and resulted in the two of us performing a falsetto duet of the song, much to everyone’s amusement. Fast forward several months to our regular Thursday night pub quiz, where Captain Will (as I call him) joins us, and we start talking about that trip to York.

There’s usually music playing in the background of the quiz between rounds and questions, and that night was no different. As is often the case, we broke out into song — in our falsetto voices — and carried on for a few more seconds until we realised the music had cut out a few moments before. Cue much more merriment and amusement all round. Since then, Eye of the Tiger has ended up on the quiz playlist and makes an occasional but much welcome appearance.

It also helps that it’s a great song from two entertaining Rocky movies, namely Rocky III and Rocky IV. It has a very specific anthemic quality that is liable to pump up an audience’s energy and it has a catchy hook to keep you singing it for days on end. In other words a perfect song for a sports-related movie where competitiveness and trying to be the best is paramount.

And it’s exactly these qualities that led to Captain Will and I singing along to it in the first place. Sometimes you just have to do these things.