It was written as the theme song for the 1982 film Rocky III and released that year as a single from Survivor's third album, Eye of the Tiger.

They derived lyrics, including the title, from dialogue in the film, and conceived a riff with chord changes to match the punches in the boxing scenes.

At the 25th Annual Grammy Awards, "Eye of the Tiger" won Best Rock Performance by Duo or Group with Vocal and was nominated for Song of the Year.

[4] The director and actor Sylvester Stallone enlisted them to write a song for his 1982 film Rocky III, after Queen denied him permission to use "Another One Bites the Dust".

[4][5] They took the title from a line spoken by Rocky's coach, Apollo Creed: "You had that eye of the tiger, man, the edge ... You gotta get it back.

[14] At the 25th Annual Grammy Awards, "Eye of the Tiger" won Best Rock Performance by Duo or Group with Vocal and was nominated for Song of the Year, but lost to "Always on My Mind" by Willie Nelson.

[16] In 2012, Survivor sued the Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich in Illinois federal court for using "Eye of the Tiger" without authorization as entrance music at his political rallies going back as far as 2009.

[18] In the same year, Sullivan demanded that Mitt Romney, another Republican candidate, stop using "Eye of the Tiger" at his campaign rallies.

[18] Sullivan's company Rude Music filed a lawsuit in federal court in Chicago, Illinois, on November 18, 2015, against the former Governor of Arkansas and Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee's campaign organization for using "Eye of the Tiger" at a political rally without permission.