Take Me Out to the Ball Game first started being played live at certain ball games in the 1930s and gained popularity in the 1940s. Organ music took off in ballparks around the country in the following decades. Frank Sinatra's movie called 'Take Me Out to the Ball Game' in the late 40s helped make the song a classic. Throughout the 50s and 60s, various events kept bringing back the song's popularity. In 1977, Nancy Faust's organ playing for the Chicago White Sox turned the song into a ballpark ritual.
Baseball fan or not, there’s one song that virtually every American knows… or at least, we think we do. “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” is one of the top three most recognizable songs in the country, next to “The Star Spangled Banner'' and “Happy Birthday.” But if you dig into the lyrics, you’ll find a forgotten message buried among the peanuts and Cracker Jack. This story comes from the Smithsonian’s Sidedoor podcast.
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Episode transcript, music, and credits can be found here: https://www.20k.org/episodes/seventhinningstretch
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