One of the two songwriters involved with writing the hit song ‘Eye of the Tiger’ from the ‘Rocky III’ movie soundtrack, Frank Sullivan, has filed a copyright infringement complaint against GOP presidential candidate and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich in Chicago federal court. According to Sullivan’s complaint, Gingrich has been using the song since 2009 at political and campaign events without permission.
The complaint states that Gingrich has not only used the song as his theme without permission at recent campaign events, but has used it as he has taken the stage at the annual CPAC - Conservative Political Action Conference – for three years.
The complaint states that Gingrich is knowingly breaking the law because Gingrich, himself, owns numerous copyrighted works.
Sullivan is suing Gingrich via his publishing company, Rude Music in Palatine, Illinois which is a northwestern suburb of Chicago. At present, Sullivan is requesting the political candidate to discontinue the unauthorized use of the song on the campaign trail and to pay damages as determined by the federal court in Chicago that is handling the case.
The other writer of the song is Jim Peterik who is from the Chicago suburb of Burr Ridge. Peterik was a member of the rock group Survivor - the Chicago-area group that recorded the song for Sylvester Stallone’s use in the ‘Rocky III’ movie. Stallone asked for the song from the songwriter-performer when he was unable to get permission to use Queen’s ‘Another One Bites the Dust’ in the movie.
The song Sullivan-Peterik song was a #1 recording in 1982 and ended up the #2 song of the year according to Billboard Magazine. The song has become one of the best-selling recordings of all-time and ranks as #21 in an all-time best selling recording chart.
Source: Chicago Tribune, Wikipedia, Billboard
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