Survivor is an American rock band formed in Chicago in 1978 by Jim Peterik and Frankie Sullivan. The band achieved its best success in the 1980s, producing many charting singles, especially in the United States. The band is best-known for their double-platinum-certified 1982 hit "Eye of the Tiger", the theme song for the 1982 motion picture Rocky III; that single spent six weeks at number one in the US. The band continued to chart in the mid-1980s with singles like "Burning Heart" (US number 2), "The Search Is Over" (US number 4), "High on You" (US number 8), "Is This Love" (US number 9), and "I Can't Hold Back" (US number 13). History Early years Before Survivor formed, Jim Peterik was the lead vocalist–guitarist for the band The Ides of March. The Jim Peterik Band formed after Peterik had released his album Don't Fight the Feeling on Epic Records in 1976. The liner notes of the album, written by Jim Charney, refer to Peterik as a "survivor". This note inspired the name of Peterik's next grouping. Drummer Gary Smith and bassist Dennis Keith Johnson had both been members of Bill Chase's jazz-rock fusion band Chase; Peterik had worked with Chase in 1974. One of the other inspirations for Peterik's choice of the new band's name was his narrow escape from death when he was unable to make a guest appearance at a Chase concert scheduled for Jackson, Minnesota on August 9, 1974. He ended up not being on the plane that crashed, killing Bill Chase and most of his band. In 1978 the Jim Peterik Band had dissolved, and Jim was considering returning to singing and producing jingles. After several days of pleading with Peterik, road-manager/sound man Rick Weigand persuaded him to meet with guitarist Frankie Sullivan (ex-Mariah). Within an hour of that first meeting, the band Survivor was born. Johnson and Smith were recruited and Peterik brought in singer Dave Bickler (ex-Jamestown Massacre), who had worked with Peterik in Chicago on commercial jingles sessions. In September 1978 Survivor played their first show, performing at Lyons Township High School in La Grange, Illinois. After they played in small clubs during the rest of that year (one venue was the original My Pi pizzeria near Loyola University Chicago, where they headlined every Saturday night in the upstairs bar area), Atlantic Records A&R executive John Kalodner signed Survivor. One of Survivor's earliest