Survivor (band)

Survivor
Jimi Jamison and Frankie Sullivan performing for Survivor, 2013
General information
Genre (s)	Hard rock
founding	1977
Website	www.survivormusic.com
Current occupation
singing	Dave Bickler (1977–1984; 1993–2000; since 2011)
Guitar , vocals	Frankie Sullivan (since 1977)
Keyboard , guitar	Chris Grove (since 1997)
bass	Billy Ozzello (2000-2001; since 2006)
Drums	Marc Droubay (1980–1987; since 1997)
former members
Keyboard, guitar, vocals	Jim Peterik (1977-1996)
singing	Jimi Jamison (1984–1993; 2000–2006; 2011–2014 †)
Drums	Gary Smith (1977-1980)
bass	Stephen Ellis (1980–1987; 1997–200?)
bass	Randy Riley (200? –2005)
bass	Barry Dunaway (2005-2006)
bass	Dennis Johnson (1977-1980)
singing	Robin McAuley (2006-2011)

Survivor is an American rock band . She is one of the best-known representatives of the genre of rock music , which is nowadays called AOR (often also melodic rock or mainstream ).

history

Foundation and breakthrough (1977–1982)

Survivor was founded in Chicago in the winter of 1977 . The group's two songwriters , Jim Peterik (keyboard) and Frankie Sullivan (guitar) were in charge from the start . The band's singer was Dave Bickler, Gary Smith and Dennis Johnson played bass and drums, respectively. In 1978 the five founding members signed a record deal with Scotti Brothers Records . The debut album Survivor was released in 1979, on the cover of which Kim Basinger can be seen as a stewardess. Smith and Johnson were fired, Stephen Ellis on bass and Marc Droubay, a friend of Frankie Sullivan's on drums , instead . The second album Premonition was recorded in the line-up of Bickler, Peterik, Sullivan, Ellis and Droubay .

The big breakthrough came in 1982 with the title Eye of the Tiger , which the group had composed especially as the title song for the film Rocky III - The Eye of the Tiger . The Rocky actor Sylvester Stallone originally wanted the title Another One Bites the Dust by Queen using is not received from Queen but the rights for it. On the recommendation of one of the operators of Scotti Bros. Records, the actor Tony Scotti , he finally commissioned Survivor to produce a contemporary, rocky theme with a strong beat. Eye of the Tiger stayed at the top of the US charts for a total of seven weeks , won a Grammy and was nominated for an Oscar . The catchy song was later used in advertising many times, including in a 2004 American Starbucks commercial for a new coffee drink in which Survivor can be seen with a special version of the song. The album Eye of the Tiger was also very successful. An extensive tour followed.

Peak of Success and Relegation (1983–1992)

After numerous exhausting concerts and the recordings of the fourth album Caught in the Game , singer Dave Bickler had to leave the group due to a larynx operation that put him out of action for a year; He was amended by from Memphis originating Jimi Jamison replaced. This change did not detract from the steadily growing success of the group: The first track recorded together with Jamison, The Moment of Truth , which was used in the film Karate Kid , made it into the US charts. With the fifth studio album Vital Signs , also released in 1984, Survivor were able to maintain their top position as a keyboard-oriented hard rock band; two singles from it, High on You and The Search Is Over , made it into the top ten of the American charts, I Can't Hold Back at least reached number 13.

Survivor then contributed a third title to film soundtracks : Burning Heart was released in 1985 , which was written for Rocky IV and, like Eye of the Tiger, became a major international chart success. It wasn't until 1986, after another long tour, that the band found time to record a new album, called When Seconds Count , with Is This Love? contained another top ten hit.

The album Too Hot to Sleep , which was released in 1988 and was critically acclaimed but not particularly successful commercially, only showed Survivor as a trio: Ellis and Droubay had since left without being replaced by full group members. In the studio and at concerts Bill Synair and Mickey Curry (drummer for Bryan Adams ) took their places. After the weak reaction to Too Hot to Sleep, Peterik and Sullivan were increasingly unsure whether and how they should continue the band. Jamison, meanwhile, released his first solo album When Love Comes Down in 1991 , but initially also worked in parallel with Survivor.

Twice Survivor (1993-1999)

In 1993 Jimi Jamison finally got out to concentrate on his solo career, but wanted to continue performing under the name Survivor. This led to lengthy legal disputes with the other band members. Ultimately, the legal dispute revealed that both parties were allowed to use the name Survivor, with Jamison's new formation, including Christina Adamson (guitar / vocals), Hal Butler (keyboard / vocals), Klay Shroedel (drums / keyboards) and Pete Mendillo (Drums / vocals) belonged, now under the name "Jimi Jamison's Survivor". The band's first and only hit was the song I'm Always Here , co-written by Jamison , the well-known musical theme of the American series Baywatch - The Lifeguards of Malibu .

Peterik and Sullivan had meanwhile (1993) reunited with the old singer Dave Bickler in the course of the production of a Survivor compilation , who promptly assumed his traditional position for the next few years. Numerous new songs were created, but they never saw the light of day because no new record deal was concluded. Until Jamison's return to his old comrades-in-arms (2000), however, two survivor formations existed in parallel for several years.

In 1996 long-time keyboardist Jim Peterik left to devote himself to his own projects, in particular his old band The Ides of March and the Pride of Lions group , which was newly formed together with singer Toby Hitchcock , and which now has three studio CDs, a live CD & DVD released. He was also active as a songwriter for others, such as 38 Special , Donnie Van Zant's band . Guitarist Frankie Sullivan and Dave Bickler then brought back Marc Droubay and Stephen Ellis in 1997 and signed Chris Grove, a new keyboardist.

In 1999, Jimi Jamison's Survivor released their only album called Empires , which included new material and some live recordings of old Survivor titles, including a new version of I'm Always Here . In 2003 this CD should appear again under the name Jimi Jamison .

New start and future plans (since 2000)

2000 Dave Bickler got out for the second time; surprisingly - if you consider the quarrels of earlier years - Jimi Jamison has now returned to Survivor. The bassist Stephen Ellis had also left for the second time; for him came first Billy Ozzello , then Randy Riley and later in his place Barry Dunaway .

In April 2006, Survivor with the line-up Jamison, Sullivan, Grove, Dunaway, Droubay and Reach released an album after a long time, which was completely stocked with new songs and almost consistently received positive reviews. In July of the same year, however, Jamison left the group again after differences with Sullivan and was now replaced by Robin McAuley , who had formed the McAuley Schenker Group with Michael Schenker in the late 1980s and early 1990s . Frankie Sullivan and Robin McAuley met in 2002 while recording McAuley's solo album Business as Usual . The current survivor bassist is again Billy Ozzello, succeeding Barry Dunaway.

The Germany concerts on the last tour in September 2007 were canceled for reasons unknown at the time. As has meanwhile turned out, there have never been any contracts between the organizer of the Germany tour and the band. Although the organizer was forbidden from advertising and ticket sales by the band, ticket sales continued unabated. The organizer then claimed that the cancellation was allegedly caused by scheduling conflicts between individual band members.

Jimi Jamison has meanwhile worked with Dave Smith (bass / vocals), Jack Holder (guitar / vocals), Tony Black (keyboard), Kevin Stewart (guitar / keyboard / vocals) and his colleague Pete Mendillo (drums / vocals) - all musicians from Memphis - "The Jimi Jamison Band" founded, which in addition to survivor classics also plays cover versions of titles by the groups ZZ Top (Jamison worked with them), Cobra (a former band of Jamison) and Target .

In early 2008 Jimi Jamison and Jim Peterik got together again and signed for a record with Frontiers Records. The album was produced between February and July 2008 at Peterik's World Stage Studios near Chicago and was released on November 7th under the name Crossroad Moments. In March 2019, the former bassist Stephan Ellis passed away.

Discography

See also : Jimi Jamison

Studio albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
1979	Survivor	-	-	-	-	US169 (7 weeks) US	Recording: Record Plant Los Angeles
1981	Premonition	-	-	-	-	US82 (25 weeks) US	Producers: Frankie Sullivan, Jim Peterik
1982	Eye of the Tiger	DE31 (23 weeks) DE	AT6 (6 weeks) AT	-	UK12 (10 weeks) UK	US2 platinum (41 weeks)US	Producers: Frankie Sullivan, Jim Peterik
1983	Caught in the game	DE63 (3 weeks) DE	-	-	-	US82 (9 weeks) US	Producers: Frankie Sullivan, Jim Peterik
1984	Vital Signs	-	-	CH27 (2 weeks) CH	-	US16 platinum (61 weeks)US	Producer: Ron Nevison
1986	When Seconds Count	-	-	-	-	US49 (24 weeks) US	Producers: Frankie Sullivan, Ron Nevison
1988	Too hot to sleep	DE55 (2 weeks) DE	-	CH23 (3 weeks) CH	-	US187 (2 weeks) US	Producers: Frank Filipetti, Frankie Sullivan

gray hatching : no chart data available for this year

More studio albums

• 1999: Empires (Jimi Jamison's Survivor)
• 2006: Reach

Compilations

• 1986: The Very Best Of
• 1989: Greatest Hits (Scotti Bros. Records)
• 1993: Greatest Hits (Volcano)
• 1998: Prime Cuts: Classics Tracks
• 2000: Survivor Special Selection
• 2001: Fire in Your Eyes - Greatest Hits
• 2004: Ultimate Survivor
• 2004: Extended Versions: The Encore Collection
• 2006: The Best of Survivor
• 2009: Playlist: The Very Best of Survivor
• 2009: Eye of Tiger: The Best of Survivor
• 2010: great hits
• 2014: 80s: Survivor

Participation in soundtracks

• 1982: Rocky III (including Eye of the Tiger )
• 1984: Karate Kid (including The Moment of Truth )
• 1985: Rocky IV (including Burning Heart and Eye of the Tiger )

Singles

year	Title album	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
1980	Somewhere in America Survivor	-	-	-	-	US70 (12 weeks) US	Author: Jim Peterik
1981	Poor Man's Son Premonition	-	-	-	-	US33 (14 weeks) US	Authors: Frankie Sullivan, Jim Peterik
1982	Summer Nights Premonition	-	-	-	-	US62 (8 weeks) US	Author: Frankie Sullivan
	Eye of the Tiger Eye of the Tiger	DE13 (30 weeks) DE	AT2 (15 weeks) AT	CH6 (33 weeks) CH	UK1 × 2 Double platinum (33 weeks)UK	US1 × 8 × 2 Eight-fold platinum (digital) + double platinum (physical) (25 weeks)US	+ US: gold(Instrumental), Grammy (Best Rock Performance Band) Authors: Frankie Sullivan, Jim Peterik
	American Heartbeat Eye of the Tiger	DE55 (8 weeks) DE	-	-	-	US17 (16 weeks) US	Authors: Frankie Sullivan, Jim Peterik
1983	The One That Really Matters Eye of the Tiger	-	-	-	-	US74 (6 weeks) US	Authors: Jim Peterik
	Caught in the Game Caught in the Game	-	-	-	-	US77 (5 weeks) US	Authors: Frankie Sullivan, Jim Peterik
1984	The Moment of Truth Vital Signs	-	-	-	-	US63 (7 weeks) US	Authors: Bill Conti , Dennis Lambert, Peter Beckett
	I can't hold back vital signs	-	-	-	-	US13 (23 weeks) US	Authors: Frankie Sullivan, Jim Peterik
1985	High on You Vital Signs	-	-	-	-	US8 (17 weeks) US	Authors: Frankie Sullivan, Jim Peterik
	The Search Is Over Vital Signs	-	-	-	-	US4 (21 weeks) US	Authors: Frankie Sullivan, Jim Peterik
	First Night Vital Signs	-	-	-	-	US53 (9 weeks) US	Authors: Frankie Sullivan, Jim Peterik
	Burning Heart Rocky IV (Soundtrack)	DE6 (17 weeks) DE	AT6 (14 weeks) AT	CH1 (14 weeks) CH	UK5 silver (12 weeks)UK	US2 (22 weeks) US	Authors: Frankie Sullivan, Jim Peterik
1986	Is This Love When Seconds Count	-	-	-	-	US9 (19 weeks) US	Authors: Frankie Sullivan, Jim Peterik
1987	How Much Love When Seconds Count	-	-	-	-	US51 (9 weeks) US	Authors: Frankie Sullivan, Jim Peterik
	Man Against the World When Seconds Count	-	-	-	-	US86 (5 weeks) US	Authors: Frankie Sullivan, Jim Peterik, Jimi Jamison
1988	Didn't Know It Was Love Too Hot to Sleep	-	-	-	-	US61 (10 weeks) US	Author: Jim Peterik
1989	Across the Miles Too Hot to Sleep	-	-	-	-	US74 (6 weeks) US	Guest singer: Rory Dodd Authors: Frankie Sullivan, Jim Peterik
1999	I'm Always Here Empires	DE95 (2 weeks) DE	-	-	-	-	Jimi Jamison's Survivor

More singles

• 1980: Rebel Girl
• 1983: Slander
• 1984: I Never Stopped Loving You
• 1984: It Doesn't Have to Be This Way
• 1986: In Good Faith

Video albums

• Greatest Hits - The Video Collection (1993)

Awards for music sales

Golden record  France 1982: for the single Eye of the Tiger 1986: for the single Burning Heart  Canada 1985: for the album Vital Signs  Mexico 2015: for the single Eye of the Tiger

Platinum record  Denmark 2018: for the single Eye of the Tiger  Canada 1983: for the album Eye of the Tiger 2 × platinum record  Italy 2019: for the single Eye of the Tiger  Canada 1983: for the single Eye of the Tiger

Note: Awards in countries from the chart tables or chart boxes can be found in these.

Country / Region	silver	gold	platinum	Sales	swell
Awards for music sales (country / region, awards, sales, sources)
Denmark (IFPI)	-	-	platinum1	90,000	ifpi.dk
France (SNEP)	-	2 × gold2	-	1,000,000	infodisc.fr
Italy (FIMI)	-	-	2 × platinum2	60,000	fimi.it
Canada (MC)	-	gold1	3 × platinum3	350,000	musiccanada.com
Mexico (AMPROFON)	-	gold1	-	30,000	amprofon.com.mx
United States (RIAA)	-	gold1	12 × platinum12	12,500,000	riaa.com
United Kingdom (BPI)	silver1	-	2 × platinum2	1,400,000	bpi.co.uk
All in all	silver1	5 × gold5	20 × platinum20th

swell

1. ↑ The voice of "Survivor": singer Jimi Jamison died ( Memento from September 5, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
2. ↑ Uhini.de
3. ↑ Nick Reilly: Survivor's 'Eye Of The Tiger' bassist Stephan Ellis has died. March 1, 2019, Retrieved March 4, 2019 (American English). 
4. ↑ ^{a b} Chart sources: Singles Albums UK US
5. ↑ US albums: The Billboard Albums by Joel Whitburn , 6th Edition, Record Research 2006, ISBN 0-89820-166-7 .

Web links

• Official website (Flash required)
• Survivor at Allmusic (English)
• Survivor at Discogs (English)
• Jimi Jamison's Survivor at Discogs (English)
• Survivor LineUp / Discography on Spirit of Metal
• Complete discography on rateyourmusic.com