Gingrich Asks Judge To Drop "Eye Of The Tiger" Lawsuit

By Samantha Abernethy in Arts & Entertainment on Mar 6, 2012 11:00PM

GOP candidate Newt Gingrich asked a federal judge to drop the lawsuit against him claiming he illegally used Chicago band Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger" at campaign rallies. Survivor founder Frank Sullivan and Rude Music, Inc., filed the suit against Gingrich in January, claiming he had been using the 1982 hit from the Rocky III soundtrack at campaign rallies since 2009.

Sullivan seeks unspecified damages and an injunction to stop Gingrich from using the song, but Gingrich denies any wrongdoing. NYTimes writes:

While it is not uncommon for political candidates and songwriters to skirmish over songs, the campaigns usually drop the songs from their playlists when threatened with a lawsuit. Whether playing a song at a political gathering amounts to copyright infringement is still an open question, legally.

Fellow Survivor founder Jim Peterik, who co-wrote "Eye of the Tiger," disagreed with Sullivan's lawsuit. He appeared on Fox News to perform the song and said, “This is not for any one political candidate. This is for the world!” Then, one-time Survivor frontman Dave Bickler, who first sang "Eye of the Tiger," appeared on The Colbert Report to sing Gingrich's book to the tune of "Eye of the Tiger" to teach him a lesson.

Actually, at this point we're tempted to encourage the judge to drop the lawsuit just so we can get the tune "Eye of the Tiger" out of our damn heads.