Arena Anthems

The Five Greatest Sports Anthems of All Time

By John Moe
Special to MSN Music

At first glance, the placement of rock songs in sports venues would appear to be merely a distraction for the fans -- a chance to make them forget for a moment that they paid $50 for the opportunity to pay $20 more for a beer and a hot dog while watching a bunch of sweaty millionaires bump into each other.

But the emotional power of music cannot be denied and must not be ignored. Anyone who's air guitared along with an Eddie Van Halen solo, wept in perfect empathy with Morrissey's intractable sadness, or, when told by Prince to do so, went crazy, can appreciate the visceral potency of a good song. Thus it stands to reason that a well-placed song at a crucial moment in an athletic contest can alter the mood of the crowd, reposition the psyche of the players and, in some cases, determine who wins or loses. So, of the vast universe of songs that are churned out on a daily basis, why do only a handful make it into heavy stadium and arena rotation?

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It's not especially shocking that a good simple beat paired with an easily hollered tag make for a good stadium song. What's intriguing is how little the songs need to be attached to sport itself. "Centerfield" by John Fogerty is a nice enough ditty but you'd be hard pressed to find baseball fans who would admit to liking it much. "Are You Ready for Some Football" by Hank Williams Jr. has been popular among broadcasting conglomerates, but you can't sing along with it and the conceit of the song seems misplaced. After all, if we weren't ready for some football, why would we have tuned in? (And if we were to say we weren't emotionally prepared for some football, it's not like they'd postpone the kickoff.) Similarly, we sing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" once we're already at the ballgame. Were that number not institutionally mandated at the seventh-inning stretch, it would never occur spontaneously or be played by stadium staff.

Let's examine the five most inevitable stadium songs and figure out why no game is complete, or even possible, without them.

"Rock and Roll (Part 2)," Gary Glitter
This glam rock leftover owes much of its success to its utter simplicity, as is evidenced by the fact that most people know it simply as "The Hey Song," after the one word that forms its only decipherable lyric. The fact that all the crowd needed to do was occasionally yell "Hey!" made it easy for drunks to memorize the words and bellow them when cued. That, combined with a thundering bass line that echoes nicely off of bleachers, made this a favorite in multiple sports. Glitter's conviction on child sex abuse charges in Vietnam has slowed but not stopped the song's popularity.

"Y.M.C.A.," Village People
A massive team of sports psychologists, musicologists and Broadway costume designers would be required to even attempt to explain why a '70s-era song that hints at gay sex in public gymnasiums has become a staple at sporting events for nearly three decades now. All we can think is that the pounding disco beat, when matched with the idea of making letters with your arms, forms a combination impossible for fans to resist. It's difficult, though I guess not impossible, to imagine this one doing much to charge up the players, but it certainly gets fans out of their seats ready to provide vocal (and manual) support. Still, when you stand back and look at it, it's a pretty freaking weird phenomenon.

"We Will Rock You," Queen
Though operatic and emotive, Queen was not usually associated with the macho world of sports until this song, one of their most popular of all time, was created with crowd participation in mind.

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