"The Super Bowl Shuffle" is a song performed by the Chicago Bears football team (credited as the Chicago Bears Shufflin' Crew) in 1985. It was released in December 1985 on Chicago-based Red Label Records and distributed through Capitol Records seven weeks before their win in Super Bowl XX. The song peaked at number 41 on the US Billboard Hot 100, and made the Chicago Bears the only team in any professional sport to have a US Hot 100 hit and earn a Grammy Award nomination; the song was nominated for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals at the 1987 awards ceremony. The song was certified gold by the RIAA on February 11, 1986, for sales of over 500,000 copies, while the accompanying music video, released on VHS and Betamax formats, was certified platinum for sales of over a million units.
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Song and video
"The Super Bowl Shuffle" instantly became a hit, selling a million copies and reaching number 41 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 75 on the Cash Box Top 100 Billboard reported that the single's chart performance was propelled primarily by sales rather than radio airplay, saying, "Although the record has a great deal of pop airplay across the country, especially as a novelty for morning drive programs, only a handful of radio stations are reporting it on their playlists." "The Super Bowl Shuffle" fell in line with the Bears' high-media attention as they completed their one-loss regular season. The Bears dominated their postseason opponents, including the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XX, which they won 46–10.
The 1985 Chicago Bears were the second sports team to have their own music video after the 1985 Seattle Seahawks made one earlier in the season. The song was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1987 for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group, losing to "Kiss" by Prince. The 20th anniversary DVD was released in 2004, including the making of the video, outtakes and the music video itself. Julia Meyer has kept the copyright to the video.
Over $300,000 in profits from the song and music video were donated to the Chicago Community Trust to help Chicago families in need with clothing, shelter and food. This was consistent with Walter Payton's lyric in the song: "Now we're not doing this because we're greedy / The Bears are doing it to feed the needy". In 2014, six of the performers (Richard Dent, Jim McMahon, Otis Wilson, Willie Gault, Mike Richardson and Steve Fuller) sued Julia Meyer and Renaissance Marketing Corporation, who licenses the song, stating the proceeds from the song should benefit charities; the six players' attorney stated, "Among other things, the plaintiffs seek that a constructive trust be established for charitable purposes that they select in order to continue the Super Bowl Shuffle's charitable objective."
The video was taped at Park West, a Chicago night club, the morning after the Bears' only loss of the 1985 season, 38-24 to the Miami Dolphins on Monday Night Football on December 2, 1985. Jim McMahon and Walter Payton refused to participate in the video shoot, thinking it would be better to release the song and video after the season was complete. However, the team was insistent on releasing the song and video shortly after the shoot, so the video was filmed with the remaining players. Payton and McMahon both filmed their segments separately a week later at the Bears' practice facility after practice; their segments were interspersed in the video prior to release.
Performers
The lyrics were written by Richard E. Meyer and Melvin Owens. The music was composed by Bobby Daniels and Lloyd Barry.
The "referee" in the video was portrayed by Julia Meyer (credited as Julia Kallish).
Bears defensive end Dan Hampton declined involvement with the Shuffle, thinking it may have been too arrogant.
Other personnel
Executive producers: Richard E. Meyer, William D. Neal, James J. Hurley III, Barbara Supeter
Director: Dave Thompson
Associate producer: Richard A. Tufo
Technical director: Darryl Crawl
Editor: John Anderson
Coordinating producer: Kim Alan Bigelow
Technical coordinator: Dave Sorensen
Lighting designer: Hugh Gallagher
Assistant director: Johanna K. Hull
Sound engineer: Fred Breitberg
Cameras: Bill DeMarco, Eric Chellstorp, Dennis Jackson, Jon Vandruska
Assistant cameras: Wendy Zauss, Tom Kruc
Video: Mike Fayette, Steve Cardwell, Jim Keen, Jerry Wehland
Location and editing facilities: Post Effects
Precedents
The 1985 Bears were not the first pro sports team with a group song.
The Cincinnati Red Stockings, the first professional baseball team (1869–1870), sang a song to the spectators prior to some of their games: "We are a band of baseball players / From Cincinnati city..." However, no means to record it existed until 1877, after the team disbanded, and it thus was never recorded.
Since the 1970s, some English soccer teams have celebrated qualifying for the FA Cup Final each year by recording a song for the occasion. The "cup final record", as it was known, became a tradition, with many of the songs being top ten successes in the UK music charts. The songs are occasionally original recordings but more often reworkings of recent chart successes with lyrics edited for the occasion. They often included the original artist singing along, especially when they are a fan of the team involved.
The 1977 Denver Broncos running back Jon Keyworth sang "Make Those Miracles Happen" by L. Meeks and M. Weyand. However, the Broncos did not win the 1978 Super Bowl.
In 1981, after the Los Angeles Dodgers won the World Series, four members of the team—Jerry Reuss, Jay Johnstone, Rick Monday, and Steve Yeager—recorded a cover of Queen's "We Are the Champions". They were backed by Leland Sklar on bass and Jeff Porcaro of Toto on drums. The short-lived group performed their song on the TV show Solid Gold.
The 1984 San Francisco 49ers put out a record during that season, one in which they also went on to become Super Bowl champs. The song, "We Are the 49ers", was in the vein of post-disco/'80s dance-pop music. Later in the 1980s, the 49ers would put out another team song titled "49ers Rap". Neither of these songs, however, became a hit on the scale of the "Super Bowl Shuffle".
Imitators and influence
The success of "The Super Bowl Shuffle" initiated numerous imitations from numerous NFL teams from across the league, making their own songs, but none achieving sales, a Billboard chart position, or Grammy Award nomination and recognition near what was accomplished by the Chicago Bears. Even a fan group from Chicago, called Da Superfans, performed a version of the song in early 2007 to celebrate the Bears' return to the Super Bowl that year.
NFL teams
In 1988, Cincinnati Bengals rookie Ickey Woods garnered some attention for his dance the "Ickey Shuffle"; that was the name of the dance, there was no actual song that was released. The Bengals also lost in Super Bowl XXIII.
Cincinnati funk music pioneer Bootsy Collins teamed with the 2005 Cincinnati Bengals for a playoff song known as "Fear Da Tiger", but it had no actual single release and they, too, failed to qualify for the Super Bowl, with the rival Pittsburgh Steelers going on to win Super Bowl XL, defeating the Bengals in the playoffs along the way.
Spoofing the "Macarena" song, the Green Bay Packers created and released the song "Packarena" in 1996, during their Super Bowl XXXI run. The song received some local airplay, but never charted on the Billboard Hot 100. The song was later recreated in 2008, replacing the players with the 2007 team. It was played frequently during the team's back-to-back Super Bowl runs in 1996–1997 on local radio station WMYX-FM "99.1 The Mix".
In November 1999, the Jacksonville Jaguars recorded "Uh Oh, The Jaguars Super Bowl Song", however it was never released as a single. The Jaguars lost 33–14 to the Tennessee Titans in the AFC Championship game.
During the 1986 season, two teams tried to repeat the pattern. The Los Angeles Raiders released "The Silver and Black Attack", based on "The Yellow and Black Attack" by Stryper, but the Raiders finished 8–8 that season and were out of the playoffs.
The Los Angeles Rams recorded "Let's Ram It" during the 1986 season; however, they eventually lost the NFC Wild Card game to the Washington Redskins. Despite this, the song regained popularity on the internet prior to several high-profile playoff appearances following their return to Los Angeles in 2016. The Rams embraced the popularity of the song once again as they reintroduced it much to the humor of fans, including their appearances in both Super Bowl LIII and Super Bowl LVI, with them winning the latter.
In 1990, the Miami Dolphins created a song spoofing the MC Hammer song "U Can't Touch This" called "U Can't Touch Us". Miami would go 12–4 and be eliminated in the divisional playoffs by the AFC East rival Buffalo Bills.
Other parodies
In 1985, the Kansas Wesleyan football team won a conference title in the NAIA. They made the "KCAC shuffle" and showed it on the local access channel for Salina, Kansas, Channel 6.
During the 1985–86 season, the Boston College men's ice hockey team recorded the "Beanpot Trot" prior to their participation in the famed Beanpot Tournament. The Eagles placed second, losing 4–1 to rival school Boston University in the championship game on February 10, 1986.
The Houston Rockets, with the aid of Dynomite III, had a rap song in 1986 titled "Rocket Strut". They made it all the way to the NBA Finals that year, but lost to Boston in 6 games.
Also in 1986, the New York Mets released their own rap song called “Get Metsmerized”. The Mets won 108 games that season, advanced to the World Series, and defeated the Boston Red Sox in seven games to win their second world championship.
In 1987, "Super Bowl Shuffle" producer Richard E. Meyer created a similar music video starring Chicago Bears coach Mike Ditka, titled "The Grabowski Shuffle." The video, about "working hard to get what you want", was inspired by a comment Ditka had made about his team's reputation: "There are Smiths and there are Grabowskis; we're the Grabowskis."
Also that year, the MLB World Champion Minnesota Twins released a music video called "The Berenguer Boogie", honoring their relief pitcher Juan Berenguer (whom they nicknamed "El Gasolino") and his victory celebration after striking out opposing batters. The video enjoyed a resurgence of popularity in the 21st century via the internet.
Soon after the 1986–87 NHL season, the Calgary Flames recorded a music video for the original song "Red Hot" for charity, which featured Flames players pretending to play instruments and lip-syncing to the song.
Prior to the 1988 NCAA Division I-A football season, the preseason No. 1 Florida State Seminoles, starring future Pro Football Hall of Fame cornerback Deion Sanders, made a video known as the "Seminole Rap," promising the school's first national championship would result from the season. They lost their first game to the rival Miami Hurricanes (the defending National Champions) 31–0. The Noles would finish the season 11–1 and ranked No. 3 in the nation, behind No. 1 Notre
2010 reprise
Seven of the surviving 1985 Bears (Walter Payton had died in 1999 of liver cancer) were reunited to film an updated version as a 30-second commercial promoting Boost Mobile, which was aired during Super Bowl XLIV. The seven players featured were quarterback Jim McMahon, backup quarterback Steve Fuller, receiver Willie Gault, linebackers Mike Singletary and Otis Wilson, defensive lineman Richard Dent, and punter Maury Buford. All of the featured players wore #50 jerseys as part of the company's $50 deal.
2014 celebrity cover version
On January 21, 2014, Misfire Records released a cover version of the song featuring acclaimed musicians (Jim James of My Morning Jacket, John Roderick of The Long Winters, and Tim Harrington of Les Savy Fav), comedians (Tom Scharpling of The Best Show on WFMU, Scott Aukerman of Comedy Bang! Bang!, David Wain of The State and Stella, Kyle Kinane, and Dave Hill), and other notables (wrestler Colt Cabana and internet cat celebrity Lil Bub). Organized by radio host Sean Cannon with production from musician Alexander Smith, all proceeds from sales were to be donated to Reading Is Fundamental.