Eye Of The Tiger

It would have been impossible to have been in America and not have heard Survivor's triumphant anthem "Eye of the Tiger" blaring from a radio or from MTV at some point in 1982. After a pair of albums that failed to light up the charts (1979's self-titled debut and 1981's PREMONITION), macho actor Sylvester Stallone asked the unknown band to pen the title song to his forthcoming third installment of the ROCKY movie series. Both the movie and the song went hand in hand, and they both became monster hits.
Survivor's 1982 album EYE OF THE TIGER features more of the same melodic rockers, as well as power ballads such as "Feels Like Love" and "I'm Not That Man Anymore". But having finally obtained massive breakthrough success, singer Dave Bickler surprisingly quit the band a year later, to be replaced by Jimi Jamison.|

1982 was an interesting year for mainstream rock. Listeners were still a few years away from the chart-topping pop-metal bands, and a few years removed from the oft-indulgent '70s rock era. As a result, people were left with an era that was mostly populated by bands that wore headbands and largely modeled their sound after Foreigner. In other words -- bands that attempted to appeal to both the pop and rock audiences, by combining arena-worthy choruses and tough guitar riffs, topped off with a healthy scoop of melody. A perfect example would be Survivor, and their third release overall, Eye of the Tiger. With the group's first two releases barely causing a ripple on the charts, it was Tiger that catapulted the band to the top, thanks to the chart-topping title track, which was used as the theme song to the hit movie Rocky III the same year. Despite this, the Eye of the Tiger album is often overlooked, even though it almost topped the charts as well (peaking at number two). The reason for this was that while the group managed to appeal to both aforementioned audiences -- as evidenced by the Zeppelin-esque "Hesitation Dance" and the power ballad "I'm Not That Man Anymore" -- nothing here really scales the same height as the title track. But as a memento of mainstream rock circa the early '80s, Eye of the Tiger is a faithful snapshot. ~ Greg Prato