"The Super Bowl Shuffle" is a song performed by the Chicago Bears football team (credited as the Chicago Bears Shufflin' Crew) in . 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.
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. 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 Singers Player Position No. Walter Payton Running back 34 Willie Gault Wide receiver 83 Mike Singletary Linebacker 50 Jim McMahon Quarterback 9 Otis Wilson Linebacker 55 Steve Fuller Quarterback 4 Mike Richardson Cornerback 27 Richard Dent Defensive lineman 95 Gary Fencik Safety 45 William Perry Defensive lineman 72"Shufflin' Crew" band Player Position No. Instrument Maury Buford Punter 8 Cowbell Mike Tomczak Quarterback 18 guitar Dennis Gentry Running back 29 Bass Calvin Thomas Running back 33 Saxophone Reggie Phillips Defensive back 48 CongasKen TaylorDefensive back31Tambourine Stefan Humphries Offensive lineman 75 Drums Tyrone Keys Defensive lineman 98 Keyboard"Shufflin' Crew" chorus Player Position No. Thomas Sanders Running back 20 Leslie Frazier Safety 21 Shaun Gayle Cornerback 23 Jim Morrissey Linebacker 51 Dan Rains Linebacker 53 Keith Ortego Wide receiver 89
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 Park West Crew: Gregg Kincaid, Charles Mack, James Nudd, Dan Narducy, Michael Reed Make up: Venus Vargas
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.https://www.foxsports.com/mlb/just-a-bit-outside/story/bloop-hits-big-blue-wrecking-crew-s-we-are-the-champions-112014 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.America's Game: The Super Bowl Champions, "#9. 1984 San Francisco 49ers." Premiered on NFL Network, January 30, 2007 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 Cincinnati Bengals In , 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.
Green Bay Packers Spoofing the "Macarena" song, the Green Bay Packers created and released the song "Packarena" in , 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".
Jacksonville Jaguars In November , 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.
Los Angeles Raiders During the 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.
Los Angeles Rams 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.
Miami Dolphins In , 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.
Minnesota Vikings In early 2010, Prince created a song for the Minnesota Vikings called "Purple and Gold" as the fight song for the team after the team's playoff victory over the Dallas Cowboys. Minnesota would lose the following week to the eventual Super Bowl XLIV champion New Orleans Saints in the NFC Championship Game. The song was not initially commercially available, but nine years later, in April 2019, it was released as a 7" vinyl single and distributed to some attendees of a Minnesota Timberwolves NBA game. It was also made available digitally.
New England Patriots In early 1986, before the Super Bowl as a response to the Bears hit song "The Super Bowl Shuffle", the New England Patriots recorded their own team song, "New England, The Patriots, And We", whose lyrics recounted their success in the playoff brackets and predicted victory against the Bears in Super Bowl XX. Its music video featured appearances by several Patriots, Boston-area celebrities (including Robert Urich) and local media personalities. Unlike the Bears' song, the Patriots' song was not commercially available and thus never charted on the Billboard Hot 100. The song itself received some airplay on Boston radio stations. Despite the Patriots' optimistic prediction, the Bears went on to beat the Patriots in Super Bowl XX, 46–10.
New York Giants After winning Super Bowl XXI, the New York Giants released "Walk Like a Giant", based on "Walk Like an Egyptian" by the Bangles.
Philadelphia Eagles