The true story of 'Go Cubs Go!'

Regular readers of this blog may have noticed that I'm a die-hard Cubs fan. And almost anyone within reach of the sports section must have noticed that the Chicago Cubs, the team with the best record in the National League, have made the playoffs for the second consecutive season, the first time our lowly but beloved team has accomplished that, well, since we last won the World Series in 1908. Since Lou Piniella took over as manager last year, Cubs fans have sensed that something special is in the air --we've been winning, winning a lot. And whenever we win, since sometime early last season, the fans at Wrigley Field celebrate by singing a joyous anthem, "Go Cubs Go!"

As with so many things involving the Cubs, the song has a bittersweet history. It was written in 1984 by singer-songwriter Steve Goodman, just months before the Cubs clinched their first postseason berth in nearly 40 years. Sadly, Goodman never got to see a playoff game -- he died in September of that year of leukemia. Goodman was a songwriter of many talents, having written an Arlo Guthrie hit ("The City of New Orleans"), a batch of wonderfully wistful ballads ("My Old Man" and "The Dutchman") and some wonderfully comic tales, including a country music spoof (co-written with John Prine) called "You Never Even Call Me by My Name."

A lifelong Cubs fan (he also wrote the wry "A Dying Cubs Fan's Last Request"), Goodman would've loved this year's team, which has overachieved, triumphed over every adversity and has a colorful pitcher named Carlos Zambrano who not only throws 95 mph fastballs but is a switch-hitter with a .337 batting average. (If one of this week's Cubs-Dodgers games goes into extra innings, expect to see him as a pinch hitter.) There's a great story behind the recording of "Go Cubs Go!," which turns out to have background vocals performed by some of the Cubs who played on that first great 1984 playoff team.

The song was produced by Goodman and Hank Neuberger, one of my old friends who worked as an engineer for everybody from Goodman and Prine to Cheap Trick, Ramsey Lewis and the Ohio Players. With the first Cubs playoff game scheduled for this week, I asked Hank to recount the back story to the song that we fans hope will be sung over and over after some stirring Cubs victories during the next few weeks. Here's Hank's fond memories about how the song came to be:

The national anthem: Love it or leave it alone

You could have a lively all-night argument about what's the hardest thing to do in entertainment--write a good third act for a thriller? Play a credible love scene? Do improv comedy? Compose the perfect three-minute pop song? Try to direct a scene with Keanu Reeves and Jessica Alba?

But my money is on singing the national anthem. As a big sports fan (blog readers--be prepared for a lot of baseball items, especially with my beloved Cubs in first place), I get to hear a lot of amateur anthem renditions and it's pretty obvious that the anthem is a song best left to real professionals, even though they often have some embarrassing moments too.

All of these thoughts came to mind reading a typically funny post the other day from Ken Levine, who as host of "Dodger Talk," the Dodgers post-game show on KABC radio, gets to hear lots of anthems. (A talented TV writer, Levine has also spent years doing play-by-play for the Orioles and the Padres, so he really has put his time in at the old ballyard.) When it comes to the anthem, Levine is unabashedly Old School, admonishing the anthems many misguided modernizers:

Yo! The National Anthem is also not a hip-hop jam. Do not sample “Happy Together” in the middle of it. Do not shout out “Clap your hands, y’all!” when you’re near the end. It is not meant to be whistled, beat boxed, played on spoons, washboards, ukuleles, kazoos, or sung in Klingon.

The big question: Why is the darn song so hard to sing?