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Members
1 Male
Origin
Berwyn, Illinois, USA
Genre
Hard Rock
Style
Rock/Pop
Mood
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Born
1 MaleOrigin
Berwyn, Illinois, USAGenre
Hard RockStyle
Rock/PopMood
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Born
1950
1964 to Present...
Most Loved Tracks3 users
Jim Peterik - Eye of the Tiger3 users
Jim Peterik - Live Life3 users
Jim Peterik - Burning With a Reason3 users
Jim Peterik - Above the Storm3 users
Jim Peterik - Stand and Be Counted
Music Video LinksArtist Biography
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James Michael "Jim" Peterik (born November 11, 1950) is an American musician and songwriter. He is best known as the founder of the band Survivor, as vocalist and songwriter of "Vehicle" by the Ides of March, and as co-writer of the anthem "Eye of the Tiger", the theme from the motion picture Rocky III.
Peterik has co-written songs for 38 Special (Rockin' Into The Night, Hold On Loosely), Lynyrd Skynyrd, Blackhawk, Cheap Trick, Sammy Hagar (Heavy Metal), Cathy Richardson, Van Zant, Brian Wilson, REO Speedwagon, and The Beach Boys. He is currently fronting the melodic rock band Pride of Lions, smooth-jazz project Jim Peterik's Lifeforce, and has a regular series of yearly concert performances with an all-star cast as World Stage. He is also active as a producer and mentor to young, developing talent.
The Ides of March and early years
Peterik started performing in 1964 with some of his schoolmates in Berwyn, Illinois, as The Ides of March. Their hits included "You Wouldn't Listen", "Vehicle", and "L.A. Goodbye" in the late 1960s and early 1970s. "Vehicle", which was number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart the week of May 23, 1970, is purported to be the fastest selling single in Warner Bros. Records history.
Peterik graduated from Morton West High School in 1968 and Morton Junior College in 1970, and attended college classes while "Vehicle" became a national hit.
In the early 1970s Peterik wrote several songs recorded by the jazz-rock band Chase. In 1976 he released a solo album, Don't Fight the Feeling, and toured as the Jim Peterik Band with Bruce Gaitsch (guitar), Terry Fryer (keyboards), and Chase's rhythm section of Dennis Keith Johnson (bass) and Gary Smith (drums). They toured with several of the era's most popular bands, including Heart and Boston.
Survivor
In 1978 the Jim Peterik Band had broken up and Jim was considering going back 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. Within an hour of that first meeting, the band Survivor was born.
In the early years of Survivor, Peterik continued to co-write hits for other artists, including 38 Special and Sammy Hagar. In 1982, Sylvester Stallone commissioned Survivor to write and perform the theme song for Rocky III. This song, "Eye of the Tiger", became their defining single, spending six weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and going double platinum. "Eye of the Tiger" also won a Grammy Award and resulted in an Oscar nomination for Peterik and Frankie Sullivan for Best Song.
Their 1984 album, Vital Signs, featured the Top 10 hits "High on You" (No. 8) and "The Search Is Over" (No. 4), and another sizable hit, "I Can't Hold Back" (No. 13). In 1985, Peterik co-wrote the theme song to Rocky IV, "Burning Heart", which would be another big hit (No. 2 in early 1987) for Survivor. "Burning Heart" was followed by Number 9 hit, "Is This Love".
Following Survivor's 1988 album Too Hot to Sleep, the group disbanded.
Songs from each of Peterik's bands appears in a Stallone film to motivate the scene's action: Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger" in Rocky III, the Ides of March's "Vehicle" in Lock Up, and Jimi Jamison's solo take on Survivor's "Ever Since the World Began" playing during the closing credits of Lock Up.
In 1993 Peterik once again began touring and recording with a reunited Survivor, but left them for good in July, 1996.
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