“We begged Stallone to send us the whole movie. When he did, we were blown away”: Survivor were just another struggling AOR band. And then Rocky III and Eye Of The Tiger changed everything

Survivor in 1979.

It happened all of 28 years ago, but Jim Peterik remembers with perfect clarity the moment he knew that he’d created an American anthem and rock classic.

Eye Of The Tiger, written by keyboard player Peterik with guitarist Frankie Sullivan for their band Survivor, had just hit US radio. And as the theme song for Rocky III, the new instalment in Sylvester Stallone’s hugely successful movie franchise, it was picking up heavy airplay.