Music That Matters: Top 50 Movie Symphonies (#43 Training Montage by Vince DiCola)

Here is another great one from Bill Conti from the Rocky franchise Whoa, wait a minute! Due to being heavily busy working on the scores for The Karate Kid parts I and II, he was not able to create the music for Rocky IV. Although there are snippets of Conti's themes in the movie, Rocky IV is the only one in the franchise that was not actually scored by Conti. The task was given to Vince Dicola, an Italian composer and keyboardist that Stallone had previously used to score his Stayin' Alive. Dicola brought a more progressive style to Rocky IV relying heavily on keyboards, guitars, and synthesizers. The first of his two main contributions to the movie was the Training Montage Theme. It's hard to remember which scene used which piece of music considering the movie features a plethora of montages set to different tunes. There were actually two training montages during Rocky's stay in the bitter cold Russian wilderness. Dicola's piece was used during the first training montage before Adrian arrives to boost Rocky's spirits. After Rocky and Adrian reconcile, we then get another montage of Rocky and Drago featuring John Cafferty's epic tune, Hearts On Fire. I suggest downloading and adding the Training Montage song to your ipod workout mix, and go full blast with those free weights. It willl pump.. you.. up!

Ladies and gentleman, #43 Training Montage by Vince DiCola