Michael Bishop - "Steal The Night" the theme from Bloodsport. LOLZ

'Bloodsport' song becomes a surprise hit
Taken from the soundtrack of Jean-Claude Fan Damme's action film, the track has been heard in European clubs.
By Chris Lee, Times Staff Writer
January 14, 2007

After 18 years,it's a sleeper hit

FOR Michael Bishop, the question had become an embarrassing coda to his four decades working in the music business as a journeyman singer-songwriter, producer and filmmaker: "Did you do the song for 'Bloodsport'?" Little did he know that his quickie soundtrack contribution would inspire the zealous Information Age adoration of movie fans around the world.

In 1988, Bishop — who had previously written and performed songs for B movies such as Chuck Norris' "Firewalker" and for "Death Wish 4: The Crackdown" — was enlisted to crank out a one-off for the Jean-Claude Van Damme martial arts vehicle "Bloodsport" after filmmakers discovered that landing the rights to a Tears for Fears song would prove too expensive. "I got the call, watched some footage in the editing bay with Jean-Claude and the director and said, 'How long do I have?' " recalls Bishop. "I had one day to come up with something that might fit."

He wrote and cut the propulsive electro-pop single "Steal the Night" — think the "Rocky" theme meets Ultravox — in just two days; it's sequenced beneath a key scene in which Van Damme's competition pit-fighter character eludes police in Hong Kong. The movie became a modest hit, launching "the Muscles from Brussels" actor's career, and it went on to become a midnight movie mainstay. Its soundtrack release, however, notably omitted "Steal the Night." Bootlegged copies of the song, meanwhile, began to sell on EBay for hundreds of dollars.

Flash-forward to late 2005. Bishop, a TV and film composer who now operates Radius Arts, a song placement company, began finding his e-mail in box chockablock with entreaties from around the world. Where could they buy "Steal the Night"? Turns out the song had become a club hit in Iceland, a soccer anthem in Germany, a subject of blogger fascination in England and an underground hit in China.

"It made me feel like I had written 'Imagine,' " Bishop recalls.

He made a deal with an iTunes-affiliated company, Ioda, to get the song online. And although Apple has not made sales figures available, anecdotal evidence suggests that "Steal the Night" has become a below-the-radar hit in the U.S. and France — VH1 is preparing to do a segment on Bishop and "Steal the Night" for an ode to the '80s.

"This song has taken quite a journey," says Bishop. "It just shows you: The strength of music is timeless."

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