After months of Met fans’ complaining about “Sweet Caroline,” the Mets are having a contest – again – to replace the song. (So much for last year’s contest for a new eighth-inning sing-along!)
Squawker Jon, as a Yankee fan, I feel compelled to give your team some guidance as to a a better sing-along pick than the creepy “Sweet Caroline.”
According to Metsblog, there will be eight songs competing. The Mets’ front office has picked four songs for this contest:
- “Meet the Mets”
- “Shout”
- “This Land is Your Land”
- “Twist and Shout”
“Meet the Mets” is good, but both “Shout” and “Twist and Shout” rival “Whoomp There It Is” and “Rock and Roll Part II” is being completely overplayed at sporting events. A little originality, please.
Then again, who the heck picked “This Land Is Your Land”? While it certainly is an original choice, is this supposed to be competition for the Yankees playing “God Bless America” in the seventh inning? (Remember, that’s literally why Woody Guthrie wrote the song in the first place, as his response to Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America.”)
It makes me wonder if, much like how Ronan Tynan sings the forgotten first verse of “God Bless America,” that the Mets will play this forgotten verse to “This Land Is Your Land”:
As I went walking I saw a sign there
And on the sign it said “No Trespassing.”
But on the other side it didn’t say nothing,
That side was made for you and me.
Free those luxury suites! Let the masses into the Ebbets Club! Power to the people!
The Met front office also asked WFAN hosts Boomer and Carton to come up with some choices. Here are their picks:
- “Blame it on the Boogie”
- “Curly Shuffle”
- “I Like It Like That”
- “Mama Said Knock You Out”
While “I Like It Like That” is another played-out song, bringing back the “Curly Shuffle” tradition would make sense.
LL Cool J’s “Mama Said Knock You Out,” with its lyrics about “Don’t call it a comeback/I been here for years/Rockin my peers and puttin suckas in fear” is a great choice for an at-bat of a once-struggling, now hot hitter. It would be great at-bat music for, say, Gary Sheffield. For an eighth-inning sing-lalong? Not so much.
“Blame It on the Boogie,” as popularized by the Jackson Five, is a catchy – and original – choice. Unfortunately, I can see it being used as an excuse in postgame interviews:
Reporter to Jerry Manuel: Why did you pitch Sean Green in that situation?
Manuel: Blame it on the boogie.
Reporter to Johan Santana: Why did you pull a Mike Gundy and yell “I’m a man” when Manuel took you out of the game?
Santana: Blame it on the boogie.
Me to Squawker Jon: Why did you write that post slamming the Yankees?
Squawker Jon: Blame it on the boogie.
But really, why don’t the Mets just kick it old-school and bring back the 1986 hit “Let’s Go Mets Go”? When you’ve got a video featuring Joe Piscopo, Howard Stern, and Dr. Joyce Brothers, among other celebs, how do you leave that sitting on the shelf? Good times!
What do you think should be the Mets’ singalong song? Leave us a comment!
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