The Writer Of The ‘SpongeBob SquarePants’ Song ‘Sweet Victory’ Has Died

The music world has gotten some rough news in recent months in the death of a number of influential artists. The latest name to that sad list is Bob Kulick, a guitarist with a long list of credits to his name including one of the most beloved songs in the history of cartoons.

Consequence of Sound reported Friday that Kulick died at the age of 70, a note confirmed by his brother Bruce in a Facebook post.

Kulick was a veteran session guitarist who actually auditioned to be in KISS in 1972, missing out on the gig to Ace Frehley. He’d performed with a number of musical legends over his career, working with Lou Reed, Meat Loaf and others like Diana Ross. He was also reportedly the brains and bars behind the SpongeBob SquarePants song “Sweet Victory.”

Over the years, Bob also did session work for Diana Ross, Michael Bolton, and W.A.S.P., and produced Motörhead’s Grammy Award-winning song “Whiplash”. More recently, he composed, produced, and performed the SpongeBob SquarePants song “Sweet Victory”, which appeared in the episode “Band Geeks”.

The song actually had a bit of a resurgence in 2019 when fans created a groundswell of support to make it part of the Super Bowl halftime show. Despite SpongeBob not actually performing, the song did make its way into the show as an introduction for Travis Scott’s “Sicko Mode.”

That, in turn, made the song even more popular on streaming services in the wake of its use. Kulick’s career has a number of achievements more notable and influential than a song from Season 2 of SpongeBob SquarePants, but it’s yet another part of music history lost in what’s already been a strange and difficult year.

[via Consequence of Sound]