More Cubs Music: "Take Me Out To A Cubs Game"

With Eddie Vedder's recent addition to the ever-growing canon of Cubs devotional hymns, I thought it might be a good time to review a collection of these songs that came out at the beginning of the season.

The CD is called "Take Me Out To A Cubs Game" and it features an eclectic mix of famous play-by-play calls, classic tributes, newer novelties and non-Cubs-related Chicago songs. If you're a true Cubs fan, it's definitely worth owning, even if there are a few songs you will be skipping on a regular basis. The album is $14.99 plus shipping and handling, so load the good tracks into your iPod and call it a worthwhile investment.

Here's what you'll get:

Best tracks: 2, 6, 8, 9, 12, 13, 14, 17

Worst tracks: 5, 8, 10, 18

1. Ernie Banks 500th Home Run Call by Jack Brickhouse
Mr. Brickhouse calls one of the most famous Cubs plays in history in all his "Hey! Hey!" glory. The best part is when he just lets out a whoop of joy near the end of the track.

2. Go Cubs Go by Steve Goodman
I think we all know how fantastic this song is and, fortunately, the Cubs brass realized it in time to make it the official anthem of a Cubs win at Wrigley. If Goodman were still alive today, we would make him our king.

3. Sweet Home Chicago by The Blues Brothers
I guess it's only fitting that the Blues Brothers make an appearance on a Cubs-themed album. After all, they live at 1060 W. Addison, right?

4. Hey, Hey, Holy Mackerel by The John Crawford Jazz Band
The original version of this song sounds a lot more authentic and archaic, but this updated version tries hard.

5. Talkin' Baseball (Baseball and the Cubs) 2008 by Terry Cashman
This is where things start to unravel a bit. According to the album's site, Cashman has written over 70 songs about baseball and has the nasty habit of rewriting his sub-par "Talkin' Baseball" song about different Major League teams. The schtick is that he strings together the names of past and present players. Our only solace is the fact that he will one day run out of teams to musically abuse.

6. Curse of the Billy Goat by Chuck Brodsky
Brodsky's contributions to this CD are some of the best Cubs songs you've never heard before. This track traces the ill fortunes of the Cubs from the Billy Goat to the Black cat to the Bartman.

7. Kosuke Fukudome Home Run Call by Pat Hughes and Ron Santo
This radio clip is from Opening Day, when the Cubs still felt blessed to have won the Fukudome Sweepstakes and no one was quite sure what his contributions would be, but everyone was sure he would contribute in a big way. He did for a while...

8. Fukudome, Bring It Home by Mark Harrod (with Pat Hughes and Len Kasper)
Oh boy. We've come to the winner! No thanks to Fukudome, this track brings home many prizes: Most Likely to Get Stuck in Your Head to the Point of Insanity (the repetition of the misguided "K!...Foo!" chant will haunt both your dreams and your waking hours), Most Inane Lyrics (Take me to Clark and Addison//Cover me in ivy),Most Unrequited Lyrics (Fukudome...tell me you//Fukudome...hit home runs, too) and Best Rob Thomas Impression for Mark Harrod (At this point in the season, Fukudome probably wishes the real world would just stop hassling him.)

There are so many things wrong with this song--from the misbegotten lyrics to the awkwardly forced Fukudome commentary by Hughes and Kasper--that it ends up being one of the highlights of the CD. If you don't play it again and again intentionally, it will already be stuck in your head from the first time you heard it, so resistance is truly futile. K! Fu!....K! Foo!...K! Foo! Enjoy a small taste.

9. Land of Wrigley by Stormy Weather
This tribute to the 1984 Cubs team always reminds me of summer, plus I'm kind of a sucker for good a cappella. If you haven't added this track to your Cubbies mix tape yet, it's a definite keeper.

10. The Cubbies Are Rockin' by M.C. Gary/D.J. Berry and the Aggregation
1989 Hip Hop + Cubs = Skip this track and run for your lives!

11. Lake Shore Drive by Aliota Hanes Jeremiah
It's a Chicago classic--and it's not a drug song, OK?

12. It's A Beautiful Day For A Ballgame by Harry Simeone Chorale
This song sounds somewhat ancient, but is quite awesome and actually from 1960. Although it's not specifically Cubs-related, it was WGN's intro for Cubs broadcasts in the Brickhouse days, and bits and pieces of it continue to appear in commercials and other random places. You'll recognize it when you hear it.

13. Bonehead Merkle (1908) by Chuck Brodsky
This guitar-strumming folk song is Brodsky's best work on this album. It tells the little-known tale of Giants player Fred "Bonehead" Merkle, who's baserunning gaffe helped the Cubs win the pennant in 1908. The lyrics are clever, the story is compelling and Brodsky strums the heck out of his guitar.

14. Finally Next Year by the Ides of March
From the group that brought you "Vehicle" in 1970, this rockin' tribute to the 1998 Wild Card Cubs is a somewhat-catchy-but-mostly-just-interesting time capsule. A few lyrics: "Beck is the man when the game's on the line."
"And we can always count on a little Grace to get us through in the pennant race."
"Kerry's on the mound and he's throwing fire." (I guess some things stay the same...if you wait long enough.)

15. You're My Cubs by Gary Pigg
The most interesting thing about this take-it-or-leave-it song is that it was written by Alan Barcus, one of the world's foremost songwriters, who also crafted the critically acclaimed "Rattle Rattle, Thunder Clatter, Boom, Boom, Boom" theme song for the Car-X commercials of yester-year. I guess he's a Cubs fan, too.

16. Here's to You, Men in Blue by J. Ritz and A. Petrowski (with 1984 Cubs team members)
That parenthetical statement should be enough to make you steer clear of this track.

17. Take Me Out to the Ballgame by Harry Caray (his final performance)
No Cubs musical collection would be complete without this one.

18. A Letter to Harry by Chuck Brodsky
Chuck, you did so well on this album. Why did you have to leave us with this one? I appreciate the sentiment of a "Let's win it for Harry song," but this track isn't very well-executed. The lowpoint comes when Brodsky sings Take Me Out to the Ballgame and adds the direct address of "Harry" to almost every line.

Visit the site for a sample of each song and artist information.

All in all, this album is fairly comprehensive, but there are some good tribute songs that didn't make the cut. We'll save those for a future post...

Matt Paolelli

Matt Paolelli has been root, root, rooting for the Cubbies since before he could stand on his own during the Seventh Inning Stretch. More