The Chicago Bears didn’t want to seem cocky.
They didn’t want to create a jinx for themselves.
They certainly didn’t want to provide bulletin board fodder to their opponents in an attempt to bring a Super Bowl championship to their home city after the 1985 season.
A large group of players from that team, known as the Chicago Bears Shufflin Crew, said this in the lyrics of one of the most unlikely hit songs and music videos of the 1980s.
All of these thoughts weighed heavily on the minds of the 30 or so players who recorded the “Super Bowl Shuffle” 40 years ago this month, weeks before the end of the NFL regular season.
“If we didn’t go to the Super Bowl, we’d be the biggest idiots ever,” the former Bears linebacker and Pro Football Hall of Famer said in “The Shuffle,” an NFL featurette presented by HBO Documentary Films. “We have to win this, dude.”
Singletary is one of several people who shared their thoughts and memories about their involvement in what has become a beloved relic in a 40-minute documentary that premieres Tuesday at 9 p.m. PT on HBO and streams on HBO Max. Director Jeff Cameron told the Times that it was no coincidence that The Shuffle aired during its 40th anniversary season.
“Aside from some print publications and some articles, no one has really documented the entire origin, development and production of the Super Bowl Shuffle, which is so closely associated with that team,” Cameron said.
The song was the brainchild of Chicago businessman Dick Meyer, who had founded Red Label Records the previous year. With the Bears getting off to a strong start in the 1985 season, Meyer thought a hip-hop record featuring many of the Bears’ already beloved personalities might be able to find some success in Chicago.
Many players agreed to participate after learning that a portion of the proceeds would go to the Chicago Community Trust. “We’re not doing this because we’re greedy,” the running back raps midway through the verse, adding, “The Bears are doing this to feed the poor.”
Other notable Bears players include Singletary, , , Mike Richardson , and .
The vocal track was recorded on November 21, 1985. At the time, the Bears were 11-0. They continued their good form the following weekend, winning 36-0 against the Atlanta Falcons.
But their pursuit of perfection ended on December 2, 1985, on “Monday Night Football” in Miami. As it happened, a music video shoot for “Super Bowl Shuffle” was scheduled for the next morning in Chicago.
Suddenly, Gault says in the documentary, “People don’t want to do videos.”
Payton and McMahon, the team’s two biggest stars, did not appear. They filmed their parts the day after practice and then were added to the video.
“It was pretty bold to talk about going to the Super Bowl and winning it, wasn’t it?” McMahon said in the documentary. “There’s still a game left, and we lost.”
However, the video shoot may have had some unexpected benefits for the players involved.
“If it wasn’t for ‘The Shuffle,’ they probably wouldn’t have even gotten together,” Prime Minister David Cameron told The Times that day. “They probably won’t see each other until Wednesday. After Monday night they have Tuesday off and they’re right back in the film room or practice field. They can’t properly forget about the loss for a second and come together as a group that likes to play with each other and just love each other.”
Behind-the-scenes footage provided to Cameron’s team by Meyer’s widow, Julia Meyer, shows the players laughing and joking as they learn a few dance moves and lip-sync their parts, with varying degrees of success.
“We bonded in a way we never would have bonded otherwise,” Singletary said in the documentary. “It was fun working together in completely different areas. The guys who were the backups were teaching the starters. We mixed it up in a way we hadn’t been able to do before. And it was a rallying point that brought us together and refocused us: ‘This is what we said we were going to do, let’s do it.'”
The Bears did not lose any more games on the way to . And the “Super Bowl Shuffle” became a success in its own right, spreading its popularity far beyond Chicago.
The single peaked at number 41 on the Billboard Hot 100 for nine weeks and was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association. America (500,000 units moved). The music video, released commercially on VHS and Betamax, was certified platinum (1 million units recorded).
The song was nominated for a Grammy Award in the “Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals” category, but ultimately lost to Prince and the Revolution for the song “Kiss.”
“I think it was the perfect blend of top-down characters…and of course the fact that they continued to win outside of the Miami game,” Cameron said. “And it wasn’t close. I think that, along with the rise of MTV, definitely helped propel this video. It was the perfect storm of a pop culture phenomenon.”
