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Why writing contextual music matters
This story dates back to 1981. Sylvester Stallone was filming the third installment of his legendary Rocky series and looking for a song that would capture the essence and grit of the film. Bill Conti (music) teamed with Joe Esposito (vocals) and Allee Willis (lyrics) to create “You’re The Best” for the film. As we know, this song was never placed in Rocky III, but instead prominently featured in The Karate Kid.
As the story goes, Stallone reached out to Jim Peterik, of Survivor fame, looking for something with a youthful edge for the film. After receiving a rough cut of a montage the song would be sync’d with, Peterik and Frankie Sullivan started working on what would become the intro and power chords of the song. After screening complete cut the film, they were able to incorporate the story into their music. A key quote from the film was about finding “The Eye of the Tiger” and they used this as the central theme for the track.
They played Stallone the demo of the song and he absolutely loved it. And because of how tight the schedule was prior to its May 28, 1982 release, it’s actually the demo recording used in the film!
The song went on to have dramatic success. In the United States, it held No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for six consecutive weeks. Needless to say, Stallone made a stellar decision calling on Survivor for the title track to Rocky III.
Stream: Apple Music / Prime Music / Spotify
“History Repeats Itself”
Fast forward to 1984 and you can hear “You’re the Best” playing in the infamous All-Valley Karate Championships montage in The Karate Kid. Director John G. Avildsen, who funny enough also directed the original Rocky film, loved “You’re the Best” so much that he wanted to use it in The Karate Kid.
If you pay close enough attention to the lyrics of the song, you’ll notice it says “history repeats itself.” This despite being played during Daniel LaRusso’s (Ralph Macchio) first All-Valley Tournament in The Karate Kid. This is of course because the song was originally intended for Rocky III.
Stream: Apple Music / Prime Music / Spotify
If we’re scoring a winner to this showdown, we’d have to go with Survivor’s Eye of the Tiger. This is because of its massive success with over 9 million units sold.
However, if you read my book, you understand how important it is to create contextual music. Because of this, there is no real loser in this fight as “You’re the Best” was extremely successful as well.
I outline a strategic method used to help automate this process for independent artists, producers, musicians, bands and composers. It’s proving to be an invaluable resource.
