The best sports songs ever
"Roundball Rock" -- and the rest
This morning as I was reading the Internet — yes, all of it — I came across an amazing story at The Ringer: An oral history of “Roundball Rock.”
You, of course, remember the tune — composed by the one and only John Tesh? If not, here’s your reminder:
The song is SO ingrained in the culture (and in my head) that “Saturday Night Live” did a parody of it in 2013:
I mean, genius.
Also, in case you haven’t heard, “Roundball Rock” may be coming back (everything old is new again!). In an interview with Dan LeBatard, Tesh said that NBC, who is bidding for the NBA rights package currently, had been in touch with him about polishing up the old classic.
“They have, actually, yeah,” Tesh said. “Nothing firm, but they said, ‘Hey, can you stay frosty on this?’ like a Navy SEALs thing.”
STAY FROSTY.
In an effort to stay frosty myself, I decided to come up with my own list of great songs that, in my mind, are closely aligned with sports. Some are by athletes. Some are in sports movies. And some are, well, just songs that remind me of sports.
My list is below. Got one I missed? Slap it in the comments section!
“The Friday Night Lights Theme”
This is my favorite TV show ever. EVER. And this music, which was composed by W.G. Snuffy Walden, fits it perfectly. Lots of people think Explosions in the Sky, an amazing ambient band, wrote this theme. They did not. The “FNL” producers approached them about using their song “Your Hand in Mine” but Explosions said no.
“They asked us for one of our songs for the theme song, and we said ‘No way!’ Boy, were we dummies,” the band later said. “We got a few chuckles when we heard the theme song they used… They ask you for something, and you say no, and they’ll just rip it off.”
“Jump Around”
Ok, I will admit that I initially came to love this song because it was HUGE when I was in college. And for a kid who couldn’t dance at all, simply jumping around was a pretty good option!
But then I came across the “Jump Around” tradition at Wisconsin football games. I mean: Electric.
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