Soundtrack Rocky IV

Phenomenal 80s movie montage music can be found on the Rocky IV soundtrack - Eye of the Tiger, Hearts on Fire, Burning Heart, and No Easy Way Out.

Updated Oct 28 2022

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Rocky IV Soundtrack album cover — Rocky IV Soundtrack

Rocky IV Track Listing

Burning Heart - Survivor
Hearts On Fire - John Cafferty
Double or Nothing - Kenny Loggins and Gladys Knight
Eye of the Tiger - Survivor
War / Fanfare from Rocky - Vince DiCola
Living In America - James Brown
No Easy Way Out - Robert Tepper
One Way Street - Go West
The Sweetest Victory - Touch
Training Montage - Vince DiCola
Man Against the World - Survivor

The very best 80s movie training montage music. Dragooooo!

Cranked the Rocky 4 Soundtrack to jolt everyone out of bed at a bachelor party in Tampa. Nothing says TIME TO START DRINKING like hearing Hearts On Fire turned up to 11 ... at 10am. Same goes for 80s Day morning as well. And, if we're being totally honest, it's best to kick off your Super Bowl party with the Rocky IV soundtrack, especially if you're playing the Super Bowl drinking game. Play it twice if you're playing on "Tom Brady Mode" ... which you shouldn't!

Sidenote: Mike Hsu needs to play more Rocky IV songs on 100.1 The Pike.

Moving along. James Brown may be the most famous person to grace the Rocky 4 Soundtrack, but Kenny Loggins and Gladys Knight aren't too far behind. 80s Fight Movie frequenters Survivor and John Cafferty round out the album.

Oh, and the guy who did the music to the animated Transformers movie, Vince DiCola, does the instrumentals. Dude knows how to amp up a movie score.

You need this soundtrack in your collection. Legendary movie, excellent soundtrack. It's so close to a 10/10, and it very well is if you are accepting of overly cheesy lyrics, but The Sweetest Victory and Man Against the World hold the Rocky 4 Soundtrack back.

Crazy thing we just heard, Vince DiCola's score won a Razzie?! Are you kidding?! The album went RIAA Platinum. A Razzie!?

Rocky 4 Soundtrack notes

The Rocky 4 Soundtrack is so good that I feel you need another youtube video.

Burning Heart (Survivor)

Hefty start to the song and album. Thumping beat. Jimi Jameson nails "rising like a spire" with room to spare. The song just sounds tough. Perfectly good song for a fight movie. Could have fit anywhere in the Rocky series.

Hearts On Fire (John Cafferty)

Interesting transition after the opening melody line. Cafferty drops another gem in Hearts On Fire (also On The Dark Side). The chorus is so outrageously "mmmerrika". I mean, have you ever read the Hearts On Fire lyrics? So powerful. Tony Robbins level motivation stuff they are.

skip to the lyrics

Keyboard solo is pretty dope. Plays deceptively well into the key change. Speaking of which, key changes are an ABSOLUTE must for this echelon of training montage song. I'll be damned if I'm going to sit here and not have you belt it out in the upper register.

I equally love the lazy hanging/floating chorus at 4:00. Well done, John Cafferty. Well done.

Double or Nothing (Kenny Loggins & Gladys Knight)

Two legends casually doing their thing. Loggins, and 80s soundtrack frequenter (Over the Top), is a national treasure. Gladys probably rolled this one in one take. Consummate professionals. I can't tell whose voice I prefer, that is how phenomenal Kenny Loggins is.

Eye of the Tiger (Survivor)

Eye of the Tiger makes its second Rocky soundtrack appearance, following up its masterful performance in Rocky III. The movie montage song of movie montages. Everything that has been said about this song has already been said. The droning, repeating single note is elegant in its simplicity.

I do miss the Starbucks commercial though. Glenn! Glenn, Glenn, Glenn!

Roy! Roy, Roy, Roy!

War / Fanfare from Rocky

A great instrumental track. Lots of badassery, culminating in the mega huge Rocky theme music at 5 minutes and 24 seconds.

Living In America (James Brown)

Performed live by the hardest working man in show biz, James Brown, Living In America welcomes Apollo Creed to the ring. As for the song, typical James Brown material. Jimbo shimmies out his trademark for 4 minutes and 43 seconds.

No Easy Way Out (Robert Tepper)

In the running for most bad ass movie montage song ever. It would be the victor on any other album, except it squares off solely against Hearts On Fire and Eye of the Tiger. No joke, Robert Tepper still plays it today.

Let's set the scene ... Rocky is bombing around Philly in his Lambo trying to cope with the death of Apollo at the hands of new nemesis, Ivan Drago. He's mentally recapping his life up until this point and coming to terms with the fact that he must face his greatest challenge yet, defeating Drago in Russia. The audience knows that he has no shot, giving up more than half a foot in height and reach and just a metric ton of muscle weight.

But then Rock hears Tepper bardic tale of divining inspiration from within, and a simmering rage starts to boil. There is no challenge that he will back down from. There is no foe that he cannot vanquish. There is no easy way out. There is only Drago.

There is only situps from the second floor rafters, ox cart lifts, and trudging shoulder log carries through the Siberian snow. There are rocks in a net to be lifted like Chewie, Han and Luke in the Endor Forest. There are KGB agents to sprint away from. There is a mountain to be summited.

There is no easy way out.

No Easy Way Out - The Protomen (The Cover Up)

So do Nashville's The Protomen. It's a spectacular cover. Check it out.

One Way Street (From the film "Rocky 4")

The Kings of Wishful Thinking, Go West show up on this collection of movie montage all-timers. They definitely get all the funk that SisQó left out. Bass line is terrific.

The Sweetest Victory (Touch)

Who is Touch? And, where did this song come from?!

Marq Torien. And, the middle of nowhere. This dude throttles up some super high vox in this tune. It has a very Journey feel to it, though it lacks the depth of a song like Separate Ways.

Fun fact: Marq Torien was not only the lead singer of the BulletBoys, but also the lead singer of King Kobra - the same King Kobra that does "Iron Eagle (Never Say Die)" from the Iron Eagle Soundtrack. However, I don't believe Torien was the singer for that track.

Was Separate Ways by Journey in any of the Rocky movies?

No, Separate Ways was not. In fact, I don't believe Journey if featured in any of the Rocky, or Creed for that matter, movies.

Training Montage

Total 80s movie music here by Vince DiCola. Suffice to say, he has a signature sound. See aforementioned Transformers soundtrack - another GREAT 80s soundtrack, very underrated.

Drum pads and layered synth - everything 80s montage music should be.

Man Against The World (Survivor)

Seriously? Survivor has 3 songs on the Rocky 4 soundtrack? Amazing.

Dramatic piano. Overly dramatic vocals. Survivor getting a third track on the Rocky 4 Soundtrack, kind of amazing if you think about it.

The lyrics remind me of the part in Baseketball where Joe "Coop" Cooper is driving and the words of the song are mirroring his actions. It's that straightforward.

That being said, hearing this reminds me of DeflateGate. This should really be layered over some slow-mo footage of Goodell giving it to Brady, ending with him handing him the trophy. Someone make this happen.

Hearts on Fire lyrics

Silent darkness creeps into your soul And removes the light of self-control The cave that holds you captive has no doors Burnin’ with determination To even up the score Hearts on fire Strong desire Rages deep within Hearts on fire Fever’s rising high The moment of truth draws near Time will not allow you to stand still, no Silence breaks the heart and bends the will And things that give deep passions are your sword Rules and regulations have no meaning anymore Hearts on fire Strong desire Rages deep within Hearts on fire Fever’s rising high The moment of truth is here Ohhh! Is here! Aww yeah! Hearts on fire Strong desire Rages deep within