You’d be hard-pressed to get Narada Michael Walden to pick a favorite between writing and producing hits for Aretha Franklin and Whitney Houston, or sneaking members of the San Francisco 49ers into his studio in 1984, while coach Bill Walsh wasn’t looking, to record “We’re the 49ers.”

The funky jam became the team’s, and the Bay Area’s, anthem for the team that year as it won the Super Bowl. Walden, who lives in San Rafael, revamped the song for the team’s 2019 Super Bowl campaign, and modernized it again this month as the Niners prepare to again face off against the Kansas City Chiefs in Las Vegas on Sunday.

“Whenever I see them going to the Super Bowl, I drag it out, and I put a new spin on it: new track, new names, new inspiration to give them the lift to go to victory. They’re gonna need it,” Walden, 71, said in a video call from his studio on Thursday. “They’re going up against Patrick Mahomes, who is being [labeled] as the world’s greatest of all time now. He’s ingenious. And Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift and all that. It’s gonna be a hell of a fight. So I decided I would do what I could from my heart to give them musical spiritual strength to help them win their victory on this coming Sunday.”

Walden grew up in Kalamazoo, Mich., where he pursued athletics and music from an early age. But after taking a hard hit, from his own friend, no less, the drummer decided to drop football to not hurt his music career.

He moved to the Bay Area in 1978 and fell in love with the 49ers in the early ‘80s.

At the same time, he became one of the hottest, most talented producers in the music industry, with a hard-to-fathom list of accomplishments that include Aretha Franklin’s first platinum album, Whitney Houston’s breakout album and numerous hits, as well as The Temptations, Gladys Knight, Natalie Cole, Ray Charles, George Michael, Mariah Carey, Barbra Streisand, Lionel Richie, Steve Winwood, Stevie Wonder, Tom Jones, Jeff Beck, Lisa Fischer, Wynonna Judd, Sister Sledge, the late Clarence Clemons—Bruce Springsteen’s saxophonist, Pointer Sisters, Patti LaBelle, Diana Ross, Al Green and Journey, with whom he also drummed for a couple of years.

Narada Michael Walden has won Emmys and Grammys for Producer, Album and Song of the Year.

And that’s what initially drew the attention of 49er great Ronnie Lott, with whom Walden became good friends.

“He loved artists I was producing: Phyllis Hyman and Angela Bofill. He would come by the studio because he wanted to hang out with the artists. They were beautiful girls, they were singing their hearts out, and Ronnie got inspired by the music,” Walden said.

“I watched him play, and I was incredibly turned on by how hard he was hitting—how much passion and soul he was putting into his football. Through our friendship, I may have suggested, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if we did a song for the Niners?’

“He liked the idea of that. So at some point after I wrote the song with [frequent collaborator] Jeffrey Cohen … called, ‘We’re the 49ers’–‘We will rock it ‘til we win the fight/ We’re the 49ers, we’re dynamite!’ I asked Ronnie to bring the players into the studio, and he had to sneak them in.”

That’s because everyone was sure that 49ers head coach Bill Walsh would reject the idea, treating it as a distraction for the team. Walden said he never did find out what Walsh later thought of the song. He wasn’t about to make him mad by asking.

“They recorded incredibly. It was Dwight Clark, Renaldo Nehemiah, Dwight Hicks… so many of the great players at that at that time,” Walden said.

In all, about 15 players, including Lott and Joe Montana, took part.

Walden said he would have loved to get some of the 2023-’24 team members in on re-recording the song, but that while his love for the 49ers is as strong as ever, he doesn’t have the connection with the team that he once had.

“I never really met [coach Kyle] Shanahan. I don’t know Brock Purdy, [Brandon] Aiyuk, Deebo Samuel–but I have respect for them,” he said. “They’re very humble. I watch them speak after the games. Then you can really see how sweet they are. … Hopefully, I’ll get a chance to meet them in the future.”

Instead, this time around, he had his wife, Katie Mersereau Walden (herself a songwriter), his three kids, his sister-in-law and her family join in to sing. He led them in the recording studio by conducting with his hands.

While Walden pointed out the Kansas City Chiefs have Taylor Swift on their side, he quickly squashed any possibility that “We’re the 49ers,” or any San Francisco music, is an attempt at musical competition.

“I’m a massive Taylor Swift fan. I want to produce her one day. She’s fantastic. She’s a great role model for all of our kids. Every morning I take the kids to school, and we’re listening to Taylor Swift,” he said. “She’s pulling for her side, and I’m pulling for my side, but don’t forget it’s a game.”

Less known is that Walden released “We’re the 49ers” a year before the Chicago Bears made their own theme song, “The Super Bowl Shuffle.” Within years, sports teams making their own music was a popular deal.

“We were onto a great thing, making music for a sports team. … The Bears killed it with a great video … doing that shuffle,” Walden said. “They were hot with the Refrigerator [William Perry] and their quarterback, Jim [McMahon]. They may have got inspired by us, but they came out and kind of trounced us because now they’re actually dancing in the video! So I was proud of them. Now, having music with sports is something that we’re used to.”

The San Francisco 49ers anthem isn’t Walden’s only foray into music for sports. He’s combined his two loves on numerous occasions, such as writing the anthem for Indian spiritual leader Sri Chinmoy’s Peace Run, and Whitney Houston’s 1988 Olympic Games theme, “One Moment In Time,” which he produced with the intention of inspiring his friend and Olympic track and field champion Carl Lewis.

Four years earlier, he wrote and recorded Lewis singing a song for the 1984 Olympics, “Going for the Gold.”

“I was always mixing music in with the sports cats,” he said. “Music is really a God force to uplift the spirit to go beyond our physical capacities.

Walden has remained busy making and producing music. In the next few weeks he has a couple of artists, including Chinese singer-songwriter Miist, releasing an album that includes a duet with his close friend Carlos Santana.

He also released an album of his own music, Euphoria, in November that included a collab with Santana, Sting and Stevie Wonder, “The More I Love My Life.”

He worked with numerous collaborators, including Italian producer Lino Nicolosi and songwriter Rachel Efron, as well as his wife and nephew. Tracks like “Break Free” and “Hungry 4U” were new. “So Beautiful,” meanwhile, was initially slated for Journey’s last album, Freedom, initially as a love story from Neal Schon to his wife, Michaele.

It didn’t fit, however, and was leftover for Walden as he started working on his own album.

“I’m very spontaneous. I have a lot of songs, and I’m always writing. The idea for Euphoria, came from my wife,” he said. “Once I had that title, I thought, ‘What does it mean?’ It means to be high, means to be excited, means to sweat, means when you dance, means when you’re playing your music, means when you’re running for a touchdown. I started thinking, ‘What do I have in my heart to speak about that?’ I started collecting ideas I had and writing more ideas.”

Writer Sery Morales contributed to this story. Follow editor Roman Gokhman at Twitter.com/RomiTheWriter.