Uploaded December 2010 | Updated September 2026, 11 minutes ago
"When the going gets tough, the tough get going" is a popular English proverb. A song of the same name was recorded by Billy Ocean in 1985 at Battery Studios North London.
Written by Wayne Braithwaite, Willy Head, Barry Eastmond, Robert John "Mutt" Lange and Billy Ocean, the song was used as the theme song for the Michael Douglas film, The Jewel of the Nile.
Aided by a video featuring Douglas and co-stars Kathleen Turner and Danny DeVito as lip-synching backup singers, the song became a major international hit reaching number one on the UK Singles Chart for four weeks in February 1986 and number two on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart.
In 1994, the song was used for a clip of the 1986 edition of the BBC The Rock 'n' Roll Years featuring coverage of the People Power Revolution in the Philippines. Three years later, it was also used as a background song in the 1985-86 football season edition of Match of the 80s, during coverage of the challenge Kenny Dalglish faced on his appointment as player-manager of Liverpool F.C..
"When the going gets tough, the tough get going" is a popular English proverb. A song of the same name was recorded by Billy Ocean in 1985 at Battery Studios North London.
Written by Wayne Braithwaite, Willy Head, Barry Eastmond, Robert John "Mutt" Lange and Billy Ocean, the song was used as the theme song for the Michael Douglas film, The Jewel of the Nile.
Aided by a video featuring Douglas and co-stars Kathleen Turner and Danny DeVito as lip-synching backup singers, the song became a major international hit reaching number one on the UK Singles Chart for four weeks in February 1986 and number two on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart.
In 1994, the song was used for a clip of the 1986 edition of the BBC The Rock 'n' Roll Years featuring coverage of the People Power Revolution in the Philippines. Three years later, it was also used as a background song in the 1985-86 football season edition of Match of the 80s, during coverage of the challenge Kenny Dalglish faced on his appointment as player-manager of Liverpool F.C..
