BY TIM PEELER
RALEIGH, N.C. – The Boston Red Sox have Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline.” Ohio State has The McCoys’ “Hang on Sloopy.” And Wisconsin has House of Pain’s “Jump Around.”
So what will NC State have? To be quite honest, Wolfpack football coach Tom O’Brien doesn’t care, as long as the fanbase chooses something catchy that everyone at Carter-Finley Stadium can stand up and sing to between the third and fourth quarters of home football games.
“I don’t have any preferences, since I won’t be a part of it,” O’Brien said Friday after practice. “The fans can choose what they want, just as long as they do something. It can be anything they know the words to, that’s not rap and that’s acceptable to Chancellor Oblinger.”
It’s not necessarily a bad thing that the coach doesn’t want to vote, since he might prefer hearing the stadium rockin’ out to ABBA’s “Fernando.” But, like he said, he won’t be paying very close attention, since he generally has a lot of other things to do during that time of a game.
So, without any more delays, here are the five finalists, based on more than 300 entries GoPack.com received from a recent query. Click on the provided links for a You Tube version of each song. Vote for your favorite on the bottom right hand side of the front page of the new GoPack.com or on any sport page.
[Perhaps I should mention that the “little-known facts” were little-known to me, and that’s why I included them.]
1.“Hey Baby” (1962), Bruce Channel: The original sounds like a good song for shagging, and those of you who love beach music know what I mean. For the last couple of years, the NC State Marching Band has been playing a live version of this song, which was recently selected as one of the Top 20 beach music songs of all time. Grammy-award-winning country and blues artist Delbert McClinton gave the original recording its distinctive opening note on the harmonica. But it translates well to the trumpet, too.
Little known fact: When Bruce Channel toured the UK in 1962, one of his opening acts was a local band called “The Beatles.” Legend has it that McClinton taught the band’s young guitarist, a chap named John Lennon, how to play the harmonica.
2.“You Give Love a Bad Name” (1986), Bon Jovi: The top single from this 1980s hair band’s third album, Slippery When Wet, became a rock anthem and started the group on its path to international stardom. However, it should not be confused with another Bon Jovi song called “Shot Through the Heart,” even though those are the first four words of the song and opening of line the chorus.
Little known fact: This song was originally written by for 1980s Canadian cheese band Loverboy, though that band never recorded a version of the song. Thank the good Lord.
3.“Song of the South” (1989), Alabama: Alabama was the most commercially successful country band of the 1980s, which is one of two decades since the 1910s that the University of Alabama did not win a national championship in football. Coincidence? Probably so, since one has nothing to do with the other. This song, one of the group’s 32 No. 1 country songs, is an ode to Depression-era Dixie, referring to pickin’ cotton and eatin’ sweet-potato pie, which everyone knows is a much better Thanksgiving Day dessert than its mealy-tasting pumpkin cousin.
Little known fact: Walt Disney’s first live-action film was called “Song of the South” (1946), but it has never been released on DVD or VHS in the United States because of racial insensitivity. The Academy Award-winning song “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah” was first featured in the movie. It, however, is not a candidate in the poll.
4.“I Won't Back Down” (1989), Tom Petty: The veteran front man backed away from his band, The Heartbreakers, on his first solo album and this single was the runaway hit. Petty included this rock anthem during his four-song halftime performance at the 2008 Super Bowl. The late Johnny Cash does a great version of this song as well. Personally, that’s the version I would like to hear on the stadium loudspeakers heading into the fourth quarter.
Little known fact: Both George W. Bush and Hillary Clinton, as well as successful Virginia senatorial candidate Jim Webb, used this song during political campaigns, often against Petty’s will. His publishing company sent Bush a cease-and-desist order in 2000.
5.“Start Me Up” (1981), Rolling Stones: Before they sang this song at halftime of the 2006 Super Bowl, Mick Jagger and the boys sang it twice at Carter-Finley Stadium, on Sept. 16, 1989, [ticket price: $28.50] and Sept. 7, 1994, [ticket price: $50]. Those were two of the few mainstream concerts hosted on the Wolfpack’s home turf in the last 20 years. So that’s gives the Pack fans a good reason to snag this as a late-game anthem. Then again, the Stones also sang it three years ago at Wallace Wade Stadium in Durham [ticket price: $98.50]. NC State might have to beat Duke to the punch. The Stones played this at halftime of the 2006 Super Bowl as well.
Little known fact: Some of the original version’s lyrics and drum beats were recorded in a New York City bathroom in 1980.
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
Courtesy: Peyton Williams/NC State
