Rocky IV (soundtrack)

Rocky IV
Soundtrack album by Various artists
Released November 27, 1985
2006 (remaster)
2010 (Intrada)
Genre Rock, pop rock, hard rock
Length 39:24
Label Scotti Bros.
72392-75240
Volcano (2006 remaster)
Intrada (2010)
Singles from Rocky IV
  1. "Burning Heart"
    Released: November 1, 1985
  2. "Living in America"
    Released: December 1985
  3. "Heart's on Fire"
    Released: March 1986
Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
Allmusic [1]

Rocky IV is the original motion picture soundtrack to the movie of the same name. It was originally released in 1985 on the Scotti Brothers label. In 2010 Intrada Records released the original score by Vince DiCola, which was not available before.

The soundtrack was hugely successful on the strength of two top-five singles, Survivor's "Burning Heart" (which Sylvester Stallone personally commissioned for the movie and reached #2 on the Billboard Hot 100)[2] and James Brown's "Living in America", as well as Robert Tepper's lone top-40 hit, "No Easy Way Out". It reached the top ten on the Billboard 200 album chart[3] and was certified Platinum by the RIAA.[4]

It is the only score to a Rocky film not composed by Bill Conti, but does feature some music he composed for the first film.

The album is often played in gyms and used by people for motivation when working out due to its high intensity rhythm and synthesizers and heroic lyrics. In the film an extensive part of the soundtrack is part of the training, with one track simply named "Training Montage".[5] A number of the tracks on the album, particularly "Eye of the Tiger", "Burning Heart" and "Training Montage" have been cited amongst many people's top 10 "work out tracks".[6]

Track listing

  1. "Burning Heart" - Survivor
  2. "Heart's on Fire" - John Cafferty & The Beaver Brown Band
  3. "Double or Nothing" - Kenny Loggins & Gladys Knight
  4. "Eye of the Tiger" - Survivor
  5. "War" - Vince DiCola
  6. "Living in America" - James Brown
  7. "No Easy Way Out" - Robert Tepper
  8. "One Way Street" - Go West
  9. "The Sweetest Victory" - Touch
  10. "Training Montage" - Vince DiCola
  11. "Man Against the World" - Survivor

Re-releases and covers

The 2006 reissue, remastered by BMG, featured the bonus track "Man Against the World" by Survivor, a song written for but cut from the movie.[7] This release also used a different mix of the song "The Sweetest Victory".

In 2010 Intrada released the previously unavailable Vince DiCola tracks.

Contrary to rumors, the song "The Final Countdown" was not included in the soundtrack or the movie.

The Vince DiCola instrumental "Farewell" was the B-Side of the A-Side single of "Living in America" in the US and UK and is featured on some foreign pressings of the soundtrack.

The Finnish symphonic metal band Northern Kings covered "Training Montage" on their 2008 album Rethroned.

The Welsh metalcore band Bullet for My Valentine covered "No Easy Way Out" as a bonus track on their 2008 second studio album Scream Aim Fire.

The Vince DiCola track "War" would gain frequent use during National Football League telecasts during the 1980s and early 1990s. CBS Sports would often use the track in segments of their introductions discussing the San Francisco 49ers, while NBC would often feature the track in a similar manner for the play-by-play man to set up the action.

Chart positions

Chart (1985-1986) Peak
position
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[8] 2
Dutch Albums (MegaCharts)[9] 1
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[10] 2
Norwegian Albums (VG-lista)[11] 13
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[12] 5
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[13] 1
US Billboard 200[14] 10

References

  1. ↑ Allmusic review
  2. ↑ "Burning Heart By Survivor Songfacts".
  3. ↑ The Billboard 200 Chart Listing For The Week Of Feb 22 1986
  4. ↑ RIAA Gold and Platinum Searchable Database
  5. ↑ Tasker, Yvonne (1993). Spectacular Bodies: Gender, Genre, and the Action Cinema. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-09224-8.
  6. ↑ Mens Health
  7. ↑ "Amazon.com".
  8. ↑ "Soundtrack – Rocky IV" (in German). Austriancharts.at. Hung Medien. Retrieved August 9, 2013.
  9. ↑ "Soundtrack – Rocky IV" (in Dutch). Dutchcharts.nl. Hung Medien. Retrieved August 9, 2013.
  10. ↑ "Longplay-Chartverfolgung at Musicline" (in German). Musicline.de. Phononet GmbH. Retrieved August 9, 2013.
  11. ↑ "Soundtrack – Rocky IV". Norwegiancharts.com. Hung Medien. Retrieved August 9, 2013.
  12. ↑ "Soundtrack – Rocky IV". Swedishcharts.com. Hung Medien. Retrieved August 9, 2013.
  13. ↑ "Soundtrack – Rocky IV". Swisscharts.com. Hung Medien. Retrieved August 9, 2013.
  14. ↑ Rocky 4 (Soundtrack) - Original Soundtrack. Allmusic. Rovi Corporation. Accessed on August 9, 2013.