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, 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 Daniel LaRusso's first All-Valley Tournament in The Karate Kid. Esposito revealed that the power ballad 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 favour of "Maniac" by Michael Sembello. The Karate Kid's director, John G. Avildsen, liked the song so much that he used it in the movie.Usage
The track has been used since in numerous homages to eighties movies, including:Animated television
- South Park, Season 9, Episode 5, "The Losing Edge"
- Futurama, Season 3, Episode 22, "30% Iron Chef"
- Bob's Burgers, Season 3, Episode 11, "Nude Beach"
- Homestar Runner, the Strong Bad Email "montage"
- Regular Show, Season 1, Episode 4, "Death Punchies"
- Back at the Barnyard, Season 2, Episode 18a, "Mission: Save Bigfoot"
- The Simpsons, Season 28, Episode 18, "A Father's Watch"
Live-action television
- It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Season 2, Episode 5, "Hundred Dollar Baby" and Season 6, Episode 4, "Mac's Big Break"
- Rob & Big, Season 1, Episode 4, "Let's Get Physical"
- Reaper, Season 2, Episode 1, "Episode IV: A New Hope"
- Greek, Season 3, Episode 10, "Friend or Foe"
- Sport Relief 2010
- Mongrels, Season 1, Episode 6, "Destiny the Infection Risk"
- Happy Endings, Season 3, Episode 17, "She Got Game Night"
- Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Season 1, Episode 15, "Operation: Broken Feather"
- Scorpion, Season 3, Episode 16, "Keep It in Check, Mate"
- The Goldbergs, Season 4, Episode 16, "The Kara-te Kid"
- Blackish, Season 3, Episode 17, "ToysRn'tUs"
- Lucifer, Season 3, Episode 11, "City of Angels?"
- The Detour, Season 2, Episode 6, "The Tournament"
- Happy!, Season 2, Episode 5, "19 Hours and 13 Minutes"
- DC's Stargirl'', Season 1, Episode 2, "S.T.R.I.P.E."
Live-action film
- The Italian Chef Movie
- .
- Strays, a short film by Gareth Nolan
- Big Stan
- The Wedding Ringer
- ''Kickboxer
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 played the song when Martin Brodeur made a great save.
- 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 segment on George Brett.
Commercials
- 2006 McCoy's Ridged Tortilla chips commercial in Britain
- 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 gonna ever 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.
- The song is also occasionally used as bumper music by Scott Ferrall on his CBS radio show Ferrall on the Bench.
- The song is used on the Dave and Mahoney Morning Show in Las Vegas on X107.5 whenever a listener wins a contest
Video games
- Plays in "Radical Heights" after being the last man standing in a Battle Royale match.
- 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 '.
- 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 ' 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."
- In "The Evil Within 2" during a shooting mini game when you got the high score, the nurse will say "you're the best around, detective" and Sebastian will follow up saying "nothing's ever going to keep me 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".
- During the Warped Tour 2010 and other various shows, Every Time I Die often used the song as their entrance music.