“D-O-D-G-E-R-S Song (Oh, Really? No, O'Malley)”, Danny Kaye

Jeff Twiss Baseball Song of the Day is here today.“D-O-D-G-E-R-S Song (Oh, Really? No, O'Malley)”, Danny Kaye, with orchestra, arranged and conducted by Pete King. Lyrics co-written with Sylvia Fine and Herbert Baker. 

This way: D-O-D-G-E-R-S Song

Danny Kaye (stage name of David Daniel Kaminsky) was born in Brooklyn, New York, on January 18, 1911.  He was a multi-talented actor, comedian, singer, and dancer, equally at home on Broadway, in a recording studio, on the silver screen, or in a Las Vegas nightclub.  His performances featured physical comedy, idiosyncratic pantomimes, and rapid-fire novelty songs.  A lifelong Dodgers fan and a good friend of Leo Durocher's, Kaye often traveled with the team.  He possessed an encyclopedic knowledge of the game and was an accomplished second baseman.  –biographical notes adapted from Wikipedia.

Kaye’s “D-O-D-G-E-R-S Song (Oh, Really? No, O’Malley)” was released in 1962 on a seven-inch, 45rpm vinyl recording, catalogue #R-20, 105 on Reprise Records, a label founded by Frank Sinatra in 1960 in Los Angeles.  Kaye recorded the song on August 18, 1962, but had already been performing it on stage during his July 23-August 4 engagement at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles. “The D-O-D-G-E-R-S Song” was written for Kaye by his wife, Sylvia Fine, and her occasional collaborator Herbie Baker, to celebrate the fierce 1962 pennant race between the Dodgers and the hated San Francisco Giants. The Dodgers would lose the crown to the Giants in a season-ending, best-of-three playoff series.

A description of a fictitious encounter with the San Francisco Giants, “D-O-D-G-E-R-S” is one of the rare baseball songs which could be depicted on a play-by-play scoresheet.  It features high drama by the likes of Dodgers speedster Maury Wills, power hitter Frank Howard, and eccentric coach Leo Durocher; and the Giants’ Willie Mays and Orlando Cepeda. The highlight is a tongue-twisting finale, as the ball flies between Miller, Hiller and Haller (Giants pitcher, infielder and catcher), reminiscent of the best of Danny’s famous patter songs.

Listeners of today may be puzzled by the parenthetical addendum to the “D-O-D-G-E-R-S” song title, but it would have made perfect sense to Danny Kaye fans in the 1960s.  It was derived from a running gag on Kaye’s 1940s radio show which featured weekly variations on an old joke:

 “My sister married an Irishman.” 

“Oh, really?” 

“No, O’Riley.” 

In “D-O-D-G-E-R-S”, it became “Oh, really? No, O’Malley.”  This variation of the joke gave Kaye an opportunity to take a jab at Dodgers owner Walter O’Malley, reviled in Brooklyn for moving the Dodgers to Los Angeles in 1958. The enduring popularity of the song resulted in its inclusion on the “Baseball’s Greatest Hits” CDs released by Rhino Records.   –notes adapted from David Koening’s ‘Danny Kaye Show’ blogspot dated November 19, 2012.

 

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Thanks to Jeff Twiss for these rousing Baseball numbers!