Take Me Out To The Ball Game: A Centennial Tribute

Do you know what song was George Gershwin's biggest hit?

It was written in 1919.

This famous song had lyrics by Jack Norworth (1879-1959) and
music by Albert Von Tilzer (1878-1956)

Norworth said he wrote his lyrics after seeing a sign that read:

"Baseball Today -- Polo Grounds"

He then gave his lyrics to Albert Von Tilzer who set it to music. Norworth also said he actually wrote both words & music, but that wasn't until the fiftieth anniversary in 1958, a few years after Von Tilzer had died and thus couldn't dispute his claim. Tilzer had said that he was the one who first suggested that Norworth write the lyrics to the baseball song. Which story is true? We may never know. Many of these claims are discussed in the wonderful book, Baseball's Greatest Hit [listed below].

The song was copyrighted on May 2, 1908 and was first sung by Jack Norworth's wife, Nora Bayes. He later wrote different verses for the song in 1927.

Vintage Recordings

One of the first recordings of the song was made in October of 1908 by Edison's National Phonograph Company. The song is actually in waltz tempo and was sung by Edison staff announcer, Edward Meeker.

You can hear this rare cylinder recording at this link:

"Take Me Out To The Ball Game"

But the biggest hit recording was by The Haydn Quartet
which first charted on October 24, 1908 and remained at No. 1 for 7 weeks.
It became the biggest hit of that year.
--from Joel Whitburn's authoritative book, Pop Memories 1890 - 1954

There was a later performance by songwriter Albert Von Tilzer playing piano and singing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" with the original 1908 lyrics.

This wonderful rare performance was given at a special ASCAP concert
on San Francisco's Treasure Island in 1940.

Some of the songs were later released on an LP album and then they were included on a terrific 4 CD set, with many well known songs performed by such songwriters as Irving Berlin, George M. Cohan, Hoagy Carmichael, Johnny Mercer and many others.

The 4 CD set is titled:

Carousel of American Music:
The Fabled 24 September 1940 San Francisco Concerts

Modern Recordings

"In selecting the musical tracks we have tried to capture the essence of our film series, to recapitulate and distill the progression from traditional folk music to 1990's rock and roll that the film celebrates, and to honor two of our country's treasures -- our music and our national game." -- Ken Burns and Lynn Novick

From the acclaimed PBS TV series is this CD with numerous versions
of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame":

BASEBALL: A Film by Ken Burns - Original Soundtrack Recording

Hollywood Musical

There was a popular 1949 MGM musical using the 1927 lyrics by Norworth
starring Esther Williams, Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra with the same song title:

TAKE ME OUT TO THE BALL GAME (2000 DVD)

TAKE ME OUT TO THE BALL GAME (2008 DVD)

About the Song

You can read the background about the song in this fact-filled illustrated book, that also has a CD with it:

Baseball's Greatest Hit: The Story of Take Me Out to the Ball Game
by Andy Strasberg, Bob Thompson, Tim Wiles

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