10 Best Songs To Pump You Up

A list of the 10 best songs to pump you up includes a wide variety of genres, from classic classical to 1980’s glam rock. Whenever these were composed, they are sure to get your feet tapping, your blood rushing, and your psyche psyched.  Turn it up.

1. "Gonna Fly Now." This song is more informally known as the Rocky Theme Song and was composed by Bill Conti. Just a few notes into the trumpet introduction and the blood starts to stir. This song, one of the ten best songs to pump you up, conjures images of that everyman hero, Rocky Balboa, running through Philadelphia, trailed by a legion of young admirers, as he trains for the fight of his life.
2. "Welcome to the Jungle." Guns ‘N Roses released this hard-rock song in 1987 and it’s been called the second best heavy metal song of all time. The songs theme and the scream-singing of Axl Rose definitely gets the blood running, the head banging, and the fists pumping. Do you know where you are?? You’re in the jungle, baby!!!
3. "Ode to Joy." Ode to Joy is part of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, appearing the fourth movement. This is piece of music that many people might not be able to identify, but they know it when they hear it. It’s a rousing choral piece, the culmination of a symphony that many have called one of mankind’s great achievements and certainly one of the ten best songs to pump you up.
4. "Eye of the Tiger." Survivor wrote this chart-topper in 1982 at the request of Sylvester Stallone. Another Rocky song on this list of the 10 best songs to pump you up, this tune was used in Rocky III and was named the 21^st-best song on Billboards All Time Top 100 list.
5. "Gonna Make You Sweat." This song, subtitled “Everybody Dance Now,” was put out by C+C Music Factory in 1990 and immediately was a success. Its upbeat rhythm and driving beat, along with raspy vocals from Martha Walsh imploring us all to dance, immediately gets the blood flowing. Ice-T’s understated rapping in the song adds a perfect touch, and by the time the song is over, you will surely be pumped up.
6. "Pour Some Sugar on Me." This rock classic from Def Leppard is definitely one of the ten best songs to pump you up. The song was a long-standing success on the radio and MTV, in heavy rotation for several weeks. It’s familiar chorus and themes of sexuality and wantonness make this a song that will get your heart thumping.
7. "Introduction, Beethoven’s Fifth." Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony starts off with one of the most familiar eight-note sequences in music history and takes off from there, on a rousing, spirited romp. It is usually played in movies against a dramatic back drop and is a signature piece of this composer who was known for his aggressiveness and rule breaking.
8. "Rock and Roll, Part Two." Gary Glitter wrote this song in the early 1970s, but it rose to prominence in the early 1990s when sports teams, notably the Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins, began playing it in their arenas. At certain points in the song the entire crowd screams “Hey!” The association with sporting events and the audience participation makes this easily one of the ten best songs to pump you up.
9. "We Like to Party." The Venga Boys are an unexpected member on this list of the ten best songs to pump you up, but this electronica tune is upbeat and non-stop. People may best know it today as the theme song of the bizarre “Mister Six” in Six Flags’ commercials.
10. "Here I Go Again." The slow, ballad-like intro for this song, one of the ten best songs to pump you up, belies the hard-edged driving rock song that’s to come. Whitesnake rode this classic hair-band, anthem rock song to great success, and it was named by VH1 as one of the greatest songs of the 80’s. If the song doesn’t get you pumped, the antics of Tawny Kitaen in the video probably will.