You're the Best

"You're the Best" is a song performed by Joe Esposito and written by Bill Conti and Allee Willis, which came to prominence as the music to the All-Valley Karate Championships montage in the 1984 movie The Karate Kid in which the protagonist, Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio), proves a surprisingly formidable contender.

Background

"You're the Best" came to prominence after being used in the 1984 film The Karate Kid. Responding to years of criticism of "You're the Best" on the radio, singer Joe Esposito called in to the Adam Carolla Show on April 9, 2008. The criticism was that the lyric "History repeats itself" was inappropriate because it was played during Larusso's first All-Valley Tournament in The Karate Kid. Esposito revealed that the song was originally intended for the Rocky III soundtrack but was replaced by "Eye of the Tiger." It was subsequently also turned down for the Flashdance soundtrack in favor of "Maniac" by Michael Sembello. Karate Kid director John Avildsen liked the song so much he used it in the movie.^[2]

Usage

The track has been used since in numerous homages to eighties movies, including:

Animated television

• South Park, Episode 130, "The Losing Edge" (sped up)
• Futurama, Episode 54, "30% Iron Chef"
• Bob's Burgers, Episode 33, "Nude Beach"
• Homestar Runner, the Strong Bad Email "montage"^[3]
• Regular Show, Episode 4, "Death Punchies"
• Back at the Barnyard, Episode 52a, "Mission: Save Bigfoot"
• Smeglies, Episode 128.5,"The Ultimate Slumber Party for The Girls and The Guys Part 2"

Live-action television

• It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Episode 205, "$100 Baby" and Episode 604, "Mac's Big Break"
• Rob & Big, Season 1, Episode 4
• Reaper, Season 2, Episode 1, "Episode IV: A New Hope"
• Greek, Season 3, Episode 10, "Friend or Foe"
• Sport Relief 2010 (James Corden and Manchester United)
• Mongrels, Season 1, Episode 6
• Happy Endings, Season 3, Episode 17, "She Got Game Night"
• Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Season 1, Episode 15, "Operation: Broken Feather"

Live-action film

• The Italian Chef Movie
• The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters.
• Strays, a short film by Gareth Nolan
• Big Stan
• The Wedding Ringer

Professional sports

• Manny "Pacman" Pacquiao used the song as entrance music in his fight against Antonio Margarito.
• Mixed martial arts fighter Joe Stevenson uses a hip-hop version as entrance music.
• The independent professional wrestling tag team The Best Around uses the song as entrance music.
• Professional wrestler Frankie Kazarian uses this as his theme song on the independent circuit.
• Pittsburgh Pirates third baseman Andy LaRoche used this as his at-bat intro song for much of his minor league career and also during his rookie season in 2008. His brother, former Pittsburgh Pirates first baseman Adam LaRoche, also used this song for several weeks in 2008 as a dare by Andy. However the fans in Pittsburgh seemed to find little humor in the song, as both players struggled with poor results during the season.
• Professional wrestler Robert Evans uses the song as his victory music on the independent circuit.
• The IBL's Los Angeles Lakers play the song over the PA system at the end of every home win.
• Professional wrestler Chris Holmes uses the song as his theme song on the independent circuit.
• Professional wrestler Prince Devitt used the song as his theme song in New Japan Pro Wrestling.
• The Richmond Flying Squirrels, Class AA affiliate of the San Francisco Giants, use this song in the opening animation video that plays when the team takes the field at its home games played at The Diamond.
• New York Mets Catcher Josh Thole used this as his walk up song during the 2009 season when he was with the Binghamton Mets Class AA affiliate of the New York Mets.
• Professional Poker Player and pro MMA fighter Terrence Chan used this as his entrance song on his debut victory versus Alex Lee
• The New Jersey Devils play the song after wins.
• Mixed martial arts fighter Luke Rockhold used the song as his entrance music for his bout versus Lyoto Machida
• The song was used in a tribute VHS to the 1985 Kansas City Royals World Series Championship team, during a segmant on George Brett.

Commercials

• 2007 Utilikilts Mockumercial "The Kegerator".
• 2009 commercial of the Ford Focus in Mexico.
• 2010 Sport Relief commercial in Britain.
• 2010 Derek Ledgerwood's new marketing campaign. Song is played whenever a loan is closed.
• 2010 EA Sports Active NFL Training Camp video game.
• 2012 Moneysupermarket.com commercial in Britain.

Radio

• The song also appears on the Opie & Anthony show whenever Master Po walks into the studio.
• The song is often played on the Mike and Mike Show on ESPN Radio.
• A brief sample of the song is played in honor of particularly interesting callers on the Charlie Hodge Rock 'n Roll Halftime Show on KLBJ-FM in Austin, Texas. This is referred to as "The Joe Esposito Award".
• It is used periodically on the Toucher and Rich Show on Boston's 98.5 the Sports Hub, for example in reference to Tyler Seguin.
• The chorus of the song "You're the best around/Nothing's ever gonna keep you down" is frequently played on the Tampa, Florida radio station WXTB, colloquially known as 98 Rock.
• On BBC Radio 1, the song is played after the first text of the day winner is selected on Devin Griffin's Early Breakfast Show.
• The song is used as an intro to the League of Ireland section of the Off the Ball show on Newstalk radio in Ireland.
• Eminem sings a little part from the song at the first Beats Radio interview.
• 105.1 TripleM in Melbourne, Australia, uses 'You're the best' as a way of congratulating something well said by guests on talkback radio.

Video games

• Capcom and UDON used the song for both of their trailers for Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix.
• This song is used for the ending theme on a remixed version of Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes.
• An achievement/trophy in the video game BlazBlue is named "You're the best! Around!" and another named "Nothing's Gonna Keep You Down".
• The achievement called "You're the best around!" is awarded for completing the video game Splosion Man in single player.
• An achievement/trophy in Dante's Inferno called "You're the best around!" is awarded for earning a player score of 250,000 in the Trials of Saint Lucia DLC pack.
• The Adult Swim game Jetpack Jackass uses the song as its soundtrack.
• The song is part of the Saints Row: The Third soundtrack, featuring prominently the mission "MurderBrawl XXXI," a wrestling match between the player and Killbane, the Luchador antagonist.
• In the 2013 video game Shadow Warrior. when the player picks up a Fortune Cookie and it reads "You're the Best. Around. Nothing's Ever Going to Keep You Down."

Other songs

• Jason Mraz' song "The Dynamo of Volition" from the 2008 album We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things. concludes with the chorus of this song.
• In 2011, the song was parodied by The Fringemunks as part of a medley that recapped Fringe episode 3.21, "The Last Sam Weiss".^[4]
• During the Warped Tour 2010 and other various shows, Every Time I Die often used the song as their entrance music.^[5]

References