A 26-year-old parody of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game"
has landed two Johns Hopkins
employees a spot in a new book chronicling the history of
the famous baseball anthem.
In the book, Baseball's Greatest Hit: The Story of
Take Me Out to the Ball Game, the authors
single out the "Bruce Springstone" rendition of the song by
Craig Hankin,
Homewood Art Workshops
director, and Tom Chalkley, an instructor in the Homewood
Art Workshops. Hankin and Chalkley's
arrangement of the timeless tune, which turned 100 years
old this year, appeared on their 1982
novelty single, "Bruce Springstone: Live at Bedrock." It
was selected by the book's authors as one of
16 rare and classic renditions of the song and was also
included on a CD accompanying the book.
Chalkley and Hankin created Bruce Springstone in the
spring of 1982. According to Chalkley, the
idea came from a party during which he was singing a song
in the style of "The Boss."
The single was released by Clean Cuts Records. The
A-Side features "Bedrock Rap/Meet the
Flintstones," a parody of Bruce Springsteen singing the
Flintstones' theme song; the B-side is a
Springsteenesque arrangement of "Take Me Out to the Ball
Game" with Chalkley on lead vocals and
Hankin on rhythm guitar. "Live at Bedrock" has been played
on hundreds of radio stations in the
United States and in 14 countries around the globe.
"Take Me Out to the Ball Game" was written in 1908 by
Jack Norworth. His words, written on a
scrap of paper during a train ride, were later set to music
by Albert Von Tilzer.
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