Now on HBO is “The Shuffle,” the first in a new documentary series of short football films, made in partnership with NFL Films, and will debut in advance of the new season of “Hard Knocks: In Season with the NFC East.”
“The Shuffle” chronicles the making of the 1985 Chicago Bears’ iconic rap music video that became a cultural phenomenon enroute to the team’s storied Super Bowl XX championship. Featuring rare behind-the-scenes footage and new interviews with the star players who performed the song, the film explores the conception, execution, and impact of the GRAMMY®-nominated track that energized the city of Chicago and football fans everywhere 40 years ago.
In watching and reliving that magical season of the 1985 Chicago Bears, here a thing we learned about the making of the iconic song “The Super Bowl Shuffle.”
- The story of the making of the Superbowl Shuffle. It’s the 40th anniversary of the song, the accompanying music video and the Superbowl in the Bears.
- Bears team members Willie Gault and Mike Singletary recruited the players and as a group got together to record the song with proceeds going to charity.
- It was a winning season for the team and they had recorded the audio and were scheduled to record the video after the loss to Miami the next day.
- Because of the loss to Miami, moral was down and they didn’t want to do it, but they did it anyway, minus Payton and McMahon who didn’t show up to record the video. Their portion of the video was recorded separately and edited in.
- The song, released during December 1985 and the season wasn’t over yet, the team put pressure on themselves to not only win the rest of the season, but to win the Super Bowl.
- The song reached Top 40 on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart and was nominated of a Grammy, losing to Prince.
