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Bear Down Chicago Bears

In 2006 my childhood friend John Steele called me after a Chicago Bears game and said, “The Bears are looking great. Let’s write a song. I feel like they are gonna make the Super Bowl this year.” At the time of that call, the Bears had just beaten The Buffalo Bills 40 to 7 and had won 5 games in a row … but I laughed and explained that the “Bears Song” thing had already been done, it was called “The Super Bowl Shuffle!” We laughed and hung up.

The following week they played on a Sunday night against Denny Green’s Arizona Cardinals. The Bears were getting their asses kicked; losing 20 – 0 at the half. I was about to go to bed, but I decided to watch one more quarter. At the end of the 3rd quarter the score was Cardinals 23, Bears 10. I had stayed up that long, and I am a HUGE Bears fan, so I stayed up and watched until the end ... THANK GOD!

With about five-minutes left in the game, the Bears’ incredible defense scored their second touchdown of the game off another turnover, making the score, Cardinals 23, Bears 17, but time was ticking away. Once again, the Bears defense came through and forced the Cardinals to punt. They kicked it right to the NFL’s greatest kick-returner, Devin Hester, and he did not disappoint … He ran it about 85-yards into the end-zone! The extra point made the score Bears 24 – Cardinals 23, and that’s how the game ended. The Bears were now 6 and 0.

After the game, I couldn’t go to sleep, I was so jacked up. Then, to make things even better; in his post-game interview, Denny Green loses it … “The Bears are who we thought they were!!!! The Bears are who we thought they were!!!! … and we let ‘em off the hook!!!! I was howling in front of my TV! It was late, but I called John Steele. He saw it was me on his caller-ID and answered his phone laughing. John asked, “Are you a believer now?” I said, “Okay, if we were to write a song, the title has to be, “Chicago Bears, We Are Who You Thought We Were!” And that’s how John Steele and I teamed up to record a hit CD, titled “Bear Fight Songs.”

Once we recorded a few versions of the song we wrote together with my band and a few studio musicians, John and I sat back and thought we needed something more to make this CD a “must have.” I grabbed my cell phone and called my friend Bill Archer, who had recorded a very famous version of the “official Bears Fight Song,” “Bear Down Chicago Bears” with his band “Bill Archer and the Big Bear Band.” If you’re a Bears fan, and went to games in the 70’s and 80’s, that was Bill Archer and his Big Bear Band playing live at the games. I even sat in and sang with them in 1985 … a dream come true. If you’ve ever parked on level-3 at O’Hare International Airport, Bill’s song is played in a loop, 24/7 for the past 30/35 years!

John and I asked Bill what he was doing with his song and we asked if it had ever been on a CD? Bill said he wasn’t doing anything and that the song was only available on cassette tapes. A deal was struck and Bill joined John and me as a third executive producer. With the CD almost completed, we needed one more song. We tried to get the rights to the “Super Bowl Shuffle,” but we were shut down immediately by the owner of the song, who told a story of embezzlement, prison and even someone dying in connection to that tune, so we backed off.

The version Bill Archer had was his famous “instrumental-Big Band” version. So one night while my band and I were enjoying our Christmas “potluck” dinner, John Steele shows up with a ton of recording gear, headphones, a great microphone and lyric sheets to “Bear Down Chicago Bears.” So my band who included, Mike Gorman, Frank Capek, Tim Scruggs, Chinbatt, Sarnia, Sundre, Bogi, and John Steele recorded a vocal track over Bill's already-great version of the tune for our CD. We recorded two overdubs with our original track, giving us 24-voices on our version, blended with the original instrumental track. I didn’t want to list us as “Joe Cantafio and the 101st Rock Division,” so we called ourselves “The Polar Bears.” The song is now played everywhere, TV, radio and even at the home games when the Bears score. One of my favorite restaurant/bars, have the song on the Juke Box! On the actual CD, my name appears as a writer, and producer, but now you know … the rest of the story!

So Bears Fans I hope you enjoy this video. Packers fans, I wouldn’t watch this if I were you! Hahahaha

I’m very proud to be a part of this great Chicago history, and my favorite football team’s musical history.

If you like it, be sure to “Like” this video and “Subscribe” to my YouTube page.

Go Bears!

Joe Cantafio