Origins The song was originally featured as the official theme of the
1980 Winter Olympics, held in
Lake Placid,
New York. The TV network
ABC had used Mangione's recordings four years earlier during their coverage of the
1976 Summer Olympics, and the then President of ABC Sports,
Roone Arledge, asked the musician to create the theme song for the Winter games. The C minor version was also used for
sign-off music on
CBUT Vancouver and
WFLD Chicago in the early-to-mid 1980s. It was also used by
WJAR-TV in
Providence, Rhode Island in their 1986 sign-off. Released as a
single just before the Olympics, "Give It All You Got" peaked at No. 18 on the
Billboard Hot 100 chart in March 1980. The song charted at No. 32 on the
Billboard R&B chart and spent three non-consecutive weeks atop the
Billboard adult contemporary chart. The song was nominated for a
Grammy Award in
1981 in the category
Best Instrumental Composition, losing out to composer
John Williams and his score to the film
The Empire Strikes Back. Mangione has described the process of composing the instrumental's music, saying that his "vision was to think about the athletes and their efforts to do their best now. They're giving it all they've got. And we almost got to be like the athletes because we also got to perform the song at the ceremonies for a worldwide audience." ==Personnel==