Survivor - Greatest Hits (1993)

Album Notes
This band had one decade of fame--the 1980s, and this collection proves that they certainly made their mark. Anyone who was around back then remembers the Rocky soundtrack songs "Eye Of The Tiger" and "Burning Heart"--their two biggest hits on the charts. It's also impossible to forget the trio of big hits off of the legendary album "Vital Signs"--"I Can't Hold Back", "High On You", and "The Search Is Over". These songs are all among the best hits from the best decade of music--and they are all on this CD. "Is This Love" and "American Heartbeat" are other noteworthy, awesome hits included on this collection.

Once middle-American radio gods now occupying an uneasy position in the classic-rock arena (they're too pop to be "classic" in the ordinary sense, but too huge to ignore), it'd be a lie to say that the critics ever loved Survivor. But they had hooks, and while Dave Bickler was on vocals (as on "Eye of the Tiger"), they had hard rock appeal as well. The next big hit was "Can't Hold Back," but by then, the band had turned down the volume and drifted more towards the Toto side of things. This collection covers all of the band's most popular phases and includes all the key tracks. It also supersedes their previous greatest hits package. --Amazon.com

Biography
Survivor is an American AOR rock band formed in 1977, most famous for their track "Eye of the Tiger" which was the theme tune to the film Rocky III. The core of the band was formed around the founder members, Jim Peterik and Frankie Sullivan, though only Sullivan remains with the band today. Their first release was Survivor which failed to ignite the interest of the music buying public. Premonition, their follow-up, was rather more popular, resulting in the hit "Poor Man's Son". However, it was when Sylvester Stallone approached the band to ask them to write the theme tune to his next Rocky film, that they finally achieved commercial success. The band wrote "Eye of the Tiger" for Stallone, whereupon it lodged at the top of the charts in several countries. Such was the success of the single that it earned a Grammy Award and was nominated for an Academy Award. It was little surprise when the album, Eye of the Tiger, released in 1982, became an instant hit. Buoyed with their success, the band released Caught In The Game in 1983, but it failed to perform as well as their previous album. It was their second Hollywood collaboration which propelled their next album to chart success. "The Moment Of Truth" was the theme tune to The Karate Kid and the album, Vital Signs profited from the success of the single. After two further relatively unsuccessful albums, When Seconds Count (1986) and Too Hot To Sleep (1988), Survivor went on an indefinite hiatus. Various efforts were made to resurrect the band, with individual members using the name to tour, including in 1993, the release of a Greatest Hits album containing two new songs. After several false starts and solo releases, the first Survivor album to result from an official reformation was 2006's Reach.