Four decades after its unlikely creation, The Super Bowl Shuffle remains one of American sports' most enduring cultural artefacts. As the current Chicago Bears enjoy an 8-3 season and their first potential playoff berth in five years, fans are remembering the bizarre rap song that became the soundtrack to their 1985 championship run.
The Unlikely Creation of a Sports Anthem
The story begins with Dick Meyer, a Chicago perfumer who had started a record label on a whim. After meeting Bears receiver Willie Gault on a music video shoot, Meyer pitched the idea of a We Are the World-style charity single performed by the entire Bears team. Gault was initially sceptical with the season already underway, but when Meyer promised proceeds would benefit struggling Chicago families, the receiver rallied his teammates.
About 30 players eventually joined the project, including stars like Walter Payton, Jim McMahon and Mike Singletary, though not without reservations. "If we don't go to the Super Bowl," Singletary recalls thinking in the new HBO documentary The Shuffle, "we're gonna be the biggest idiots ever." The players were acutely aware they were tempting fate in a city where sports curses felt very real.
Recording and Shooting Through Doubt
Meyer repurposed an existing song called Kingfish Shuffle - a questionable choice given its origins in minstrel shows and the team's predominantly Black roster. The lyrics were rewritten to reference the Bears' season, producing now-iconic lines like Payton's "They call me Sweetness / And I like to dance / Runnin' the ball is like makin' romance" and William "The Fridge" Perry's "I may be large / But I'm no dumb cookie."
The recording session in Meyer's basement studio took place just a week before Thanksgiving, with six regular season games remaining. Doubts intensified when the video shoot at Chicago's Park West theatre was scheduled for December 3rd - the day after the Bears suffered their only defeat of the season to the Miami Dolphins. The production crew worried the humiliated team wouldn't show up.
When the players eventually arrived hours late - without Payton and McMahon, who would be added later via blue screen - director Dave Thompson and crew chief Mike Fayette feared the defeat had drained their energy. Instead, Mike Singletary rallied the team, even directing some choreography. The final video cleverly avoids focusing on any dance moves for more than two seconds. "That's as long as they could keep their hands moving to the left, and keep their hands moving to the right," Fayette noted.
From Team-Building Exercise to Cultural Phenomenon
What began as a reluctant obligation became an unexpected bonding experience. "That was the fun part, working together in a totally different realm," Singletary reflects in the documentary. "There were guys that were backups teaching guys that were starters. We mixed in a way that we had never had a chance to before, and it became a rallying point."
The song's impact was immediate and overwhelming in the pre-internet era. Within a week of the video shoot, The Super Bowl Shuffle dominated Chicago radio airwaves before spreading to television screens nationwide. Recording engineer Fred Breitberg marvels: "The Super Bowl Shuffle went viral in an age where there was no viral existence like we know it today. It was a phenomenal entity as well as being a good record."
The timing perfectly captured a moment when hip-hop was gaining mainstream traction, music videos were creating stars, and the 1985 Bears featured larger-than-life personalities like "Sweetness" Payton, "Punky QB" McMahon and 335-pound "Fridge" Perry. The enthusiasm in Chicago reached Beatles-like frenzy levels.
Backing Up the Braggadocio
The Bears ultimately justified their musical confidence with one of the most dominant seasons in NFL history. Their historic defence produced four Hall of Famers and steamrolled opponents, finishing with a staggering plus-258 point differential - 110 points better than the next best team. They avenged their only loss to Miami by crushing the New England Patriots 46-10 in Super Bowl XX, then the most lopsided victory in the game's history.
The Shuffle's legacy extended far beyond the football field. The song earned a Grammy nomination for Best R&B Performance by a duo or group at the 1987 awards, ultimately losing to Prince's Kiss. More importantly, it raised over $300,000 for charity (equivalent to about $900,000 today) and inspired countless imitation songs from other NFL teams, though none achieved similar cultural impact.
As the current Bears team attempts its own unlikely playoff run, the legacy of The Super Bowl Shuffle serves as a reminder that sometimes, confidence - even in musical form - can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. The documentary The Shuffle is now streaming on HBO in the US and will air on HBO Max in the UK when the service launches there next year.
