The Chicago Bears didn’t wish to appear cocky.
They didn’t wish to jinx themselves.
They definitely didn’t wish to present opponents with bulletin board fodder throughout their try to convey a Tremendous Bowl championship to their dwelling metropolis after the 1985 season.
As a big group of gamers from that staff — billed because the Chicago Bears Shufflin’ Crew — stated within the lyrics to probably the most unlikely hit songs and music movies of the Eighties: “We’re not here to start no trouble. We’re just here to do ‘The Super Bowl Shuffle.’”
All of these ideas weighed on the minds of the 30 or so gamers who recorded “The Super Bowl Shuffle” 4 a long time in the past this month, a number of weeks earlier than the NFL common season even ended.
“If we don’t go to the Super Bowl, we’re gonna be the biggest idiots ever,” former Bears linebacker and Professional Soccer Corridor of Famer Mike Singletary says in “The Shuffle,” an NFL Movies manufacturing offered by HBO Documentary Movies. “We gotta win this thing, man.’”
Singletary is considered one of a number of of people that share their ideas and reminiscences about their participation in what has change into a beloved relic throughout the 40-minute documentary that premieres Tuesday at 9 p.m. PST on HBO and streaming on HBO Max. Director Jeff Cameron instructed The Instances that it’s no coincidence that “The Shuffle” is dropping throughout the fortieth anniversary season of the Bears’ solely Tremendous Bowl title.
“Outside of some print media or some articles, no one had really chronicled the entire genesis, development and production of ‘The Super Bowl Shuffle,’ which is so intertwined with that team,“ Cameron said.
The song was the brainchild of Chicago businessman Dick Meyer, who had formed Red Label Records the previous year. With the Bears off to a strong start to the 1985 season, Meyer thought a hip-hop record featuring many of the already beloved personalities from that team might have some success in Chicago.
Many players agreed to participate after learning that part of the proceeds were going toward the Chicago Community Trust. “We’re not doin’ this because we’re greedy,” working again Walter Payton rapped throughout his verse, “the Bears are doin’ it to feed the needy.”
Different featured Bears gamers included Singletary, Gary Fencik, Willie Gault, Otis Wilson, Steve Fuller, Mike Richardson, Richard Dent, William “Refrigerator” Perry and Jim McMahon.
The vocal tracks had been recorded on Nov. 21, 1985. The Bears had been 11-0 on the time, coming off a 44-0 rout of the Dallas Cowboys. They continued to roll the next weekend with a 36-0 victory in opposition to the Atlanta Falcons.
However their run of perfection got here to an finish Dec. 2, 1985, with an unsightly 38-24 loss to the Dolphins in Miami on “Monday Night Football.” It simply so occurred that the music video shoot for “The Super Bowl Shuffle” was scheduled for the subsequent morning in Chicago.
Out of the blue, Gault stated within the documentary, “Guys don’t want to do the video.”
Two of the staff’s largest stars, Payton and McMahon, didn’t present up. They had been added into the video after taking pictures their components at some point after apply.
“It was pretty audacious of us to talk about going to the Super Bowl, winning it, you know?” McMahon stated within the documentary. “We still got games to play, and we just lost.”
Chicago Bears gamers Mike Singletary (left) and Gary Fencik participate within the filming of ‘The Super Bowl Shuffle’ music video Dec. 3, 1985, on the Park West in Chicago.
(Paul Natkin / HBO / Getty Pictures)
However the video shoot might have had sudden advantages for the gamers who participated.
“If not for ‘The Shuffle,’ they probably don’t even get together” that day, Cameron instructed The Instances. “They probably don’t see each other until Wednesday because they have Tuesdays off after Monday night, and they’re right back in the film room or the practice field. They don’t properly get to just forget about the loss for a second, get together as a group of guys who like playing with each other and just who love each other.”
In behind-the-scenes footage supplied to Cameron’s staff by Meyer’s widow, Julia Meyer, the gamers are seen laughing and joking round as they try to study a number of dance strikes and lip-sync their components, all with various levels of success.
“We bonded in a way that we could never have bonded in any other way,” Singletary stated within the documentary. “That was the fun part of working together in a totally different realm. There were guys that were backups teaching guys that were starters. We mixed in a way that we had never had a chance to do before. And it became a rallying point that brought us together, got us refocused. ‘This is what we said we were gonna do, let’s go get it done.’”
The Bears didn’t lose one other sport on their technique to defeating the New England Patriots 46-10 in Tremendous Bowl XX. And “The Super Bowl Shuffle” was successful in its personal proper, with recognition that prolonged properly past Chicago.
The one spent 9 weeks on the Billboard Sizzling 100, peaking at No. 41, and was licensed gold by the Recording Trade Assn. of America (500,000 models moved). The music video, launched commercially on VHS and Betamax, was licensed platinum (a million models moved).
The tune was even nominated for a Grammy within the class of “Best R&B Performance by a Duo or a Group with Vocals,” finally dropping to Prince and the Revolution for the tune “Kiss.”
“I think it was the perfect marriage of that cast of characters from the top down … and the fact that, outside of the Miami game, of course, they just kept winning,” Cameron stated. “And it wasn’t close. I think that certainly helps propel this video, along with the rise of MTV. It was a perfect storm of a pop cultural phenomenon.”
