Papa Roach released “Born For Greatness” as the third single from Crooked Teeth on November 12, 2017. Already available on the album, the song grew out of an early writing session with Jason Evigan that helped convince the band to look beyond its usual circle of rock producers.
Before choosing a producer, Papa Roach spent a couple of months developing demos in their own studio. Much of that material went unused. Guitarist Jerry Horton told MusicRadar in May 2017 that they began trying co-writing sessions to find a collaborator, starting with Evigan. They knew him from his band After Midnight Project, which they had taken on tour. Writing “Born For Greatness” together gave them a clearer idea of where they wanted the album to go.
“We realised that we needed to go with somebody who is more on the pop side,” Horton said. Evigan produced “Born For Greatness,” while Nicholas “RAS” Furlong and Colin Brittain handled the rest of Crooked Teeth. Horton particularly liked how the song’s bluesy guitar playing worked against its large drum-and-bass arrangement. Furlong and Brittain also encouraged Jacoby Shaddix to revisit his rapping, combining an element of the band’s early records with ideas from outside conventional rock production.
Shaddix later described “Born For Greatness” as a deliberate test of how far they could push themselves. In a February 2018 interview with 97.9 WGRD, transcribed by Blabbermouth, he said it was the first song they recorded for the album. It initially didn’t fit comfortably with the other material, so they reworked it until it belonged. His vocal approach changed across the record, too, with cleaner singing on some songs giving him another option alongside his familiar rasp.
Listeners heard the result on March 31, 2017, when the band released the song’s lyric video alongside “Periscope.” “Born For Greatness” mixed rap phrasing with synthesizers and forceful beats, changing the pitch of Shaddix’s voice before a bass drop into the chorus. Both songs appeared on Crooked Teeth, released through Eleven Seven Music on May 19, 2017. The November single followed “Help” and “American Dreams” in the album’s campaign.
For the 2018 music video, director Bryson Roatch put three performers at the center of the song’s message about facing adversity: wheelchair motocross athlete Aaron “Wheelz” Fotheringham, aerialist Jen Bricker and dancer Jean Sok. Bricker was born without legs; Sok, who has one leg, incorporated crutches into his dancing. Shaddix said the video was intended to show that people’s struggles needn’t define what they can achieve. The clip premiered through Apple Music in January before reaching YouTube on February 2.
The song also became one of WWE Raw’s official themes in 2018, with WWE using it for an opening sequence built around the show’s wrestlers.
On the Billboard Mainstream Rock Songs chart dated February 10, 2018, “Born For Greatness” climbed from No. 3 to No. 1. “Help” had already topped the same chart the previous year. That made Crooked Teeth the first Papa Roach album to produce two No. 1 singles on that tally.
