A true rock veteran with a lengthy list of credits and collaborations to his name, Jim Peterik got his first taste of success in 1970 with the brass-led soul-rock hit "Vehicle," which he wrote and sang for his band
the Ides of March. After trying his hand in a variety of roles from solo artist to sideman, songwriter, and session player, Peterik formed his next major vehicle in the late '70s. As primary songwriter and keyboardist/guitarist for rock outfit
Survivor, he guided the band through a handful of minor hits before striking it big with the Grammy-winning 1982 rock anthem "Eye of the Tiger," which was immortalized as the theme song to boxing blockbuster
Rocky III. The group struck gold again a few years later with another Peterik-penned Rocky outing in 1985's "Burning Heart," which appeared on the platinum-selling Rocky IV soundtrack. After leaving
Survivor at the end of the '80s, Peterik enjoyed success behind the scenes as a prolific industry songwriter, producer, and instrumentalist throughout the '90s, working with
the Doobie Brothers,
Brian Wilson, and many others. In addition to occasionally reviving
the Ides of March, Peterik spent good portions of the next two decades mentoring younger artists and forming new projects with fellow musicians from the hard rock and pop world like
Jim Peterik & World Stage,
Pride of Lions, and
Lifeforce. While he's widely known as a collaborator, he has also released a handful of solo albums including 2006's Above the Storm and 2016's
The Songs.
Born in Berwyn, Illinois, Peterik formed the Renegades at age 13 with some fellow classmates at Piper Grade School. Playing a Fourth of July concert, he was approached by singer/guitarist
Larry Millas, who asked him to join his band the Shy Lads. Later changing their name to
the Shondels, they covered
Beatles songs and recorded a single for Epitome Records, "No Two Ways About It" b/w "Like It or Lump It." Peterik was a freshman at the University of Illinois when
the Shondels adopted a new name based on
Shakespeare's Julius Caesar,
the Ides of March. The band were signed to London Records' imprint Parrot Records and first charted with "You Wouldn't Listen" and "Roller Coaster" in fall 1966. Switching to Warner Bros. and adopting a horn section, the group released the single "Vehicle," which shot to number two on the Billboard Pop chart in the spring of 1970. Their other singles were "Superman" and "L.A. Goodbye."
After
the Ides of March broke up, Peterik, who had been writing for the band
Chase, was considering joining the group when leader
Bill Chase and three other bandmembers were killed in an August 1974 plane crash. He recorded some solo sides for Epic Records ("Closest Thing to My Mind," "Last Tango," "Don't Fight the Feeling"). Around the same time, he began working with Chicago soul mainstay
Willie Henderson and writing songs for the vocal group Essence. They released eight
Epic singles, with one of them, "Sweet Fools," charting at number 91 on the R&B chart in late 1975.
In 1978, Peterik, guitarist
Frankie Sullivan, and vocalist
David Bickler started
Survivor, who also included, at various times, drummer
Gary Smith, bassist Dennis Johnson, bassist
Stephan Ellis, and drummer
Marc Droubay. Signed to Scotti Brothers, they first charted with 1980's "Somewhere in America," followed the next year by "Poor Man's Son." Already a seasoned veteran by this point, Peterik's biggest success was just around the corner. Co-written with bandmate
Sullivan, the rousing "Eye of the Tiger" sold over two million copies, going double platinum and topping the Billboard Pop chart for six weeks in summer 1982. The song, whose source was the "struggling musician" travails of Peterik and
Sullivan, took only an hour to write and was the title track of their third album,
Eye of the Tiger. It also served as the theme song for the hit Sylvester Stallone film
Rocky III and went on to become a widely used sports anthem over the ensuing years. Peterik helped author several more popular
Survivor songs including "American Heartbeat," "The One That Really Matters," and "Caught in the Game." In 1985, the band scored their second major Rocky-related hit with "Burning Heart," which Peterik and
Sullivan wrote for the Rocky IV soundtrack.
In 1988, Peterik left
Survivor and reunited with the original members of
the Ides of March, recording the albums Ideology (1992) and Age Before Beauty (1997). During much of the 1990s, he focused on producing and writing songs for other artists including
Cheap Trick and
the Doobie Brothers. One of Peterik's later collaborations was with
Brian Wilson of
the Beach Boys. He co-wrote "Dream Angel" and the title track of
Wilson's 1998 album,
Imagination, and played in his touring band and on
Wilson's VH1/PBS special. Peterik has also written with Nashville country music writers
Craig Wiseman,
Bob DiPiero, and
Skip Ewing, and nurtured Chicago-area talent, co-producing
Cathy Richardson's first CD and working with
Leslie Hunt from St. Charles, Illinois.
In 2000, he launched a new collaborative venture with the album
Jim Peterik & World Stage. Released on his own World Stage International label, it featured a number of guests and musical friends including
.38 Special's
Don Barnes,
Night Ranger's
Kelly Keagy,
REO Speedwagon's
Kevin Cronin,
Styx's
Dennis DeYoung, and
Johnny Van Zant of
Lynyrd Skynyrd. It also included remakes of "Eye of the Tiger" with
Kevin Max of
DC Talk and "Vehicle" with
Buddy Guy and
the Ides of March horn section. Other Peterik-related releases of that era include
Brother to Brother by
Johnny Van Zant, Resolution by
.38 Special, Jimi Jamison/Survivor Collection, Vol. 2, and High and Outside by
Steve Goodman. He also co-authored the book Songwriting for Dummies in 2002.
Peterik remained active throughout the decade, either fronting or collaborating on a variety of projects. He formed the band
Pride of Lions, who issued several albums during the early-2000s, and in 2006 he released his second proper solo album, Above the Storm. He joined up with
Night Ranger's
Kelly Keagy for a couple of releases and then formed a new outfit called
Jim Peterik's Lifeforce, who issued an eponymous album in 2009 and
Forces at Play in 2011. He even found time to help out former
Survivor bandmate
Jimi Jamison on a pair of releases. While maintaining live dates with
Ides of March and the Fabulous Armadillos, Peterik continued playing his own dates in support of his third solo album, 2016's
The Songs. Showing no signs of slowing down, he returned the next year with another
Pride of Lions release,
Fearless, followed in 2019 by another
World Stage album, Winds of Change. ~ Ed Hogan