I’m going to be arranging some music for the play “Take Me Out.” It’s an excellent play about a star center fielder, an icon of the game, a five-tool player with a black father and a white mother, the kind of player everyone rallies around — who turns out to be gay. The story is of intolerance in the clubhouse, both for the central player (Darren Lemming) and for his teammates, who are black, Hispanic, and Japanese. Darren even faces the rejection of his best friend, the religious family man Davey, who plays for a competing team. The central offender is a dangerous, mercurial, inarticulate fire-slinging relief pitcher who, at a critical moment,
kills Darren’s best friend Davey with a fastball.
I volunteered to arrange about an hour worth of music for Hammond organ, like you’d hear at the ballpark, and I am looking for good songs either about baseball, that mention baseball, or that mention racism or intolerance, but are still upbeat enough that you’d hear them at the ballpark. Maybe even some of those songs like “Walk This Way” or “Walk Like an Egyptian” that the home field plays when there’s an in-game event (a walk, a mound conference or whatever).
So far I have:
Take Me Out to the Ball Game (of course)
Centerfield (John Fogarty)
Black or White (Michael Jackson)
Mrs. Robinson (Simon and Garfunkel)
I also plan to pepper the music with those little Hammond organ warm-up beats they use when the home team is at bat.
What I need is about an hour of music: 30 minutes pre-show, 15 minutes intermission, and 15 minutes exit music.
So I turn to the Dope: what are some good baseball tunes?
Thanks! I think I’m going to throw in “Son of a Preacher Man” by Dusty Springfield (and everybody else in the known world, apparently) because of the religious friend; and possibly “Missionary Man.”
Maybe also “Mrs. Robinson,” because it’s about an illicit secret affair and it does have a reference to Joltin’ Joe DiMaggio. (Not that I’ll be adding lyrics to it — it’s just a good upbeat tune.)
I may also have to do “Louie, Louie,” because it’s played at all of the home games in Seattle, during the 7th inning stretch.
Thinking about something by Queen, maybe “Killer Queen” or “Crazy Little Thing Called Love.”
There are a couple songs that are pretty well-established as a given player’s entrance music (within baseball, of course). Hell’s Bells, Enter Sandman, to name a couple. I imagine the baseball fans in the audience would get a kick out of hearing those.
Well, there’s the best baseball song ever written, A Dying Cub Fan’s Last Request, by Steve Goodman. It’s sort of a spoken blues style, but you could probably do an instrumental of the chorus. It’s a song I first heard in Olympia, too. I’d be curious if anyone at your show recognized it, though.
I found a youtube video of Goodman performing it. His remains now rest in the background of that shot.
At Minute Maid in Houston, they play “Deep in the Heart of Texas” during the seventh inning stretch. I love it! Probably not apropo for your stuff though, unless they play the Astros.
While not a “fire up the crowd” song, one that would work great during a scene change is Van Lingle Mungo, by jazz pianist Dave Frishberg. The lyrics consist completely of the names of 1940’s era ballplayers.
It’s not an entire song, but you need to work in some common song snippets, like the bugle charge “Da-da-da-dum-ti-dum” “CHARGE!”.
Come to think of it, I don’t know if she’d do it, but White Sox organist Nancy Faust has a great playlist and might be of great assistance to you. It’s worth a shot. The worst she can do is say no.
Did You See Jackie Robinson Hit That Ball?, written and performed in 1949 by Buddy Johnson.
Joltin’ Joe DiMaggio, written by Alan Courtney and Ben Homer in 1941, and performed by Les Brown. This one is in the public domain, by the way - I discovered that a few years ago when researching the rights to use the lyrics in a book.
Say Hey (The Willie Mays Song), written by Richard Kleiner, Jane Douglass White and Theodore Wormer, recorded by The Treniers in 1954.
About tolerance:
Everyday People by Sly and the Family Stone (this song popularized the phrase “different strokes for different folks.”)
Heard in ballparks:
Hit the Road, Jack by Ray Charles. The Oakland A’s used to play this when an opposing pitcher was pulled in the middle of an inning.
BTW, I assume you have a budget to pay for the royalties on all these songs, most of which are still under copyright.
I thought of this one right after I submitted the last posting:
Y.M.C.A. - This used to be very popular at sporting events. MLB teams would play it between innings, and people in the crowd would sing along while forming the letters with their bodies. The song is about men picking up other men, which makes it relevant to the play.
In my admittedly limited experience, the organ at the game is dying. It seems that parks are using canned music more and more, to the point where even the simplest things (the charge bit, for instance) are all just played from a CD or whatever, even if they sound like an actual organ. Maybe the majors are still good about this.
The last time I was at the ballpark, about two years ago, Safeco Field had a live organist. They still do play organ music, though canned, so I think the sound is appropriate for a baseball-themed play. That’s what the people here are used to hearing at the ballpark.
You shouldn’t miss out on a dynamite organ arrangement of Gary Glitter’s “Rock and Roll Part 2”.*
Though there’s a bit of baggage attached to the tune now.
*Imagine how magnificent it would be on a pipe organ.