BY MIKEY MIGO
We've all heard jock jams before. They're those loud songs that cheer leaders dance to and that they play at sporting events. Now in sports, teams have their own entrance music, rally songs, theme songs, and songs they sing themselves. That's just the tip of the iceberg. At some stadiums we still get good ol' fashion organ music. At some we hear a tune when a baseball player takes the plate, when a basketball team drives towards scoring, and when a hockey team scores a goal. The music is there.
In the past, "Jock Jam" CDs were released. These CD's were all pumped up with hype music. Stuff like "Whoop! There It Is!" and "Are You Ready For This?" were on the first ones. As time went on they went the "WOW! This is Music" route and started adding anything that was upbeat and popular. Seriously, in my research for this I saw that Madonna and Backstreet Boys were on a "Jock Jams" CD. What the hell is that about? The CD series ended, but sports still embrace music as much as ever. From the network video packages, to the songs used by the team, to the personalized music for each player the music is there.
But it's not all "Everybody Dance Now". There is a sensitive side to sports music. There's that point where emotions are so high that an AC/DC song just won't cut it. It's when the team is on the verge of losing, the agony of defeat, the glory of victory, and the rally of all rallies. In this case, a network or team may bust out...(looks around)… the sports ballad.
Let's take a look at a few…
Centerfield by John Fogerty
Nothing more American than baseball and some CCR, bro! So inspired by his bleacher seat experience at the 84 MLB All Star Game, Fogerty wrote a song about baseball. It's now considered one of the most played and popular songs about baseball of all time. In the song, he mentions a lot of players and common baseball terminology and is pretty well embraced. At the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York the song plays over and over again on a continuous loop. This past summer, Fogerty played the song live at the Hall of Fame and then donated his bat shaped guitar to the Hall itself. He's going to be famous for a lot of songs, but this one is different. It's so tied to the sport of baseball now that you could argue that it's not even his song anymore. That's a jock ballad if I've heard one.
All The Way by Eddie Vedder
Eddie Vedder loves him some Chicago sports. He's a long time fan of the Bulls and the Cubs. He's friends with the likes of Dennis Rodman, old Sox pitcher Jack McDowell, old Blackhawks player Chris Chelios, and a few other Chicago sports figures. He has sung national anthems for a game during the 1998 NBA Finals. He's done the 7th inning stretch and thrown out the first pitch for the Cubs. They even say the Pearl Jam song "Black, Red, Yellow" is about the Bulls during their dynasty era. But the song that makes the list is his ode to the Chicago Cubs. At the request of Ernie Banks, Vedder wrote a tribute to the Cubs called "All the Way". It ended up being a great love song aimed towards the team and a shared emotion of millions of Cub fans not only in Chicago, but across the globe.
I Believe I Can Fly by R-Kelly
Within two weeks of remembering this song existed, I'm already annoyed by it. It gets stuck in your head and makes you feel lame for thinking about it. But back in the day, this song was popular as they come. It won three, count them three, Grammys and was named by Rolling Stone magazine as one of the Top 500 Songs of All Time. The song is mainly connected to Michael Jordan as it's from the "Space Jam" soundtrack, but it's been used for tons of NBA and basketball related videos. It's a straight up over-sexed R&B song… but it's about basketball. There is something kind of unsettling about that.
Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life) by Green Day
This mid 90's acoustic song was probably Green Day's biggest mainstream hit until the Blvd stuff. I know they had some great hits during this time, but "Time of Your Life" was the song that was EVERYWHERE… including sports. NBC used it for the 1997 World Series, but it's one of those songs that are always used when the time is right. It's like music directors across the world has this song on guard at all times. It's not about baseball or any sport for that matter. Well, unless you consider getting broken up with by a woman moving to Ecuador a sport.
My Hero by Foo Fighters
It was used in the 1999 movie "Varsity Blues" for the big final game scene and has been pretty much attached to sporting events since. It's another one of those songs that many television networks will play to hype up a game or to use going to commercial.
My Sacrifice by Creed
Yeah, yeah, yeah. "Professional wrestling isn't a sport." Whatever. Wrestling, mind you amateur, is in the Olympics and it's called "sports entertainment" for a reason. I've always called it "athletic art". However you want to classify it, the WWE especially has always used dramatic music to build up emotions for big bouts, celebrations, or tributes. In the early 00's, WWE put out a series of "Desire" videos. Most of them were well edited tribute packages to the talent at that time and most of them used the song "My Sacrifice" by Creed. WWE had to connect an emotional attachment to a Creed song by showing clips that many of us wrestling fans grew up with. Of all the music in the world for them to use, they use the lameness of Creed. Somehow it works in these videos, specifically the Shawn Michaels one.
Wake Up by Arcade Fire
This is one of the newest songs on this list, but just as awesome as any other on it. The song was released in 2005 and has become one of the biggest sports anthems in awhile. The New York Rangers used it during their 06/07 season, Irish Premier League champions Linfield use it, and they used it for Super Bowl XLIV. It's just a great song. It's one of those songs that just kind of lifts you and pulls you into its harmony. If it's good enough for the Friday episodes of The Dan Patrick Show then it's good enough for me.
One Shining Moment by David Barrett
It's the official CBS NCAA Basketball song. Writer David Barrett was inspired by seeing Larry Bird play for Indiana State in the 1979 NCAA tournament. In 86 Barrett gave to song to an old friend who then passed it along to the Creative Director for CBS Sports Doug Towey. It was originally supposed to be played after Super Bowl XXI, but was scraped due to time restraints. The song would finally be used in 1987 for the NCAA basketball championship as Indiana beat Syracuse. It closed out the broadcast and has closed out every NCAA March Madness since. From 1994 to 1999 they used a cover from Teddy Pendergrass, from 2003 to 2009 it was a Luther Vandross version, and in 2010 it was Jennifer Hudson. This is one of those small traditions of sports that go on every year that kind of falls under the radar. It's still one I hope will continue.
We Are The Champions by Queen
Is there any other song that sums up the fighting spirit as great as this song? The song was written after Freddie Mercury wrote the song while thinking about football("soccer" to us US folk). It's the ultimate sports anthem of all time if you ask me. And of course there's that scene at the end of Revenge of the Nerds that just seals the deal with this song. Growing up watching Michael Jordan, you tend to get this song stuck in your head. This is one of the greatest songs of all time. It being about sports, makes it the best sports ballad of all time. Without a doubt.
What is YOUR favorite sports ballad?
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