"Only the Strong Survive" is a 1968 song by Jerry Butler, released on his album The Ice Man Cometh. It was the most successful single of his career, reaching #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was #1 for two weeks on the Billboard Black Singles Chart, in March and April 1969, respectively.
"Only the Strong Survive" was the first of two singles which were platinum certified by the RIAA, selling over a million copies (the second was "Ain’t Understanding Mellow" in 1972).
Elvis Presley (1969) and Billy Paul (1977) also recorded versions of this song. Another version of this song was recorded by The Trammps in the Netherlands in 2003. It sounds very similar to Billy Paul's version. The song appears on the compilation album 'Only The Strong Survive'(Sony), which oddly enough shows the remaining four group members on the cover. There's also an extended clubmix of this song on this cd. The clubmix was produced by Maas and Van der Weyde.
Famous quotes containing the words strong and/or survive:
“The best reason why Monarchy is a strong government is, that it is an intelligible government. The mass of mankind understand it, and they hardly anywhere in the world understand any other.”
—Walter Bagehot (1826–1877)
“There are evils ... that have the ability to survive identification and go on for ever ... money, for instance, or war.”
—Saul Bellow (b. 1915)