Major League Baseball

Bloop Hits: The "Say Hey" Triple Play

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 7:59 p.m. ET

share

facebookxredditlink

foxsports

As much as I love songs about baseball, I have to admit that few of them manage to transcend their “novelty” status, or warrant repeat spins for their musical value alone.

Rarest of all are what I like to call “triple play” songs — baseball songs that not only feature melodies so winning, performances so compelling, that you can happily listen to them over and over, but also include the participation of an actual ballplayer. One of my all-time favorite “triple plays” is “Say Hey (The Willie Mays Song),” a single cut and released in July 1954 by R&B icons the Treniers, with spoken contributions from the “Say Hey Kid” himself.

Reintroduced to popular culture by the soundtrack of Ken Burns’ 1994 "Baseball" documentary, “Say Hey (The Willie Mays Song)” had already long been prized by aficionados of 1950s R&B. Though they had just one national hit (1951’s “Go! Go! Go!”), the Treniers — a family group led by Alabama-born twins Cliff and Claude Trenier, which also included their brothers Milt and Buddy, and their nephew Skip — were one of the most prolific, wild and flat-out brilliant groups of the early rock and roll era. And despite their lack of chart success, their reputation as a high-energy act was sufficient to land them a number of high-profile film and television guest spots, including their incredible appearance with Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis on the "Colgate Comedy Hour," which was aired on NBC in May 1954:

Just about everything the Treniers recorded in their heyday is a total gas, and “Say Hey (The Willie Mays Song)” is no exception. The exuberance of the Treniers’ performance meshes perfectly with the song’s subject, as does the funky elegance of the musical arrangement, courtesy of a 21-year-old genius named Quincy Jones, who was working one of his very first recording dates as orchestral director and arranger. Mays’ lightly comedic give-and-take with Claude and Cliff is the icing on the cake, and the whole thing makes for a dynamite sonic time capsule from the summer of 1954, when 23-year-old Willie was well on his way to the first MVP award of his career and his only batting title and World Series ring.

Willie Mays and the Treniers — “Say Hey (The Willie Mays Song)":

The song’s genesis can be traced back to October 1953, when an All-Star barnstorming team — which included both black and white players — led by Jackie Robinson was barred from taking the field for an exhibition game against local black players in Birmingham, Alabama. A city ordinance forbade “mixed” athletic events, so Robinson and Ted Worner, the New York public relations man who promoted the barnstorming tour, made the controversial decision to compromise by seating the squad’s three white players in the stands rather than cancel the game or risk their arrest. Replacing Gil Hodges at first base for the contest was none other than Willie Mays, who happened to be home on leave from the Army.

Mays was discharged from the Army in March 1954, and the sporting press was abuzz during spring training with conjecture about what his return from the service would mean for the New York Giants’ pennant chances in the coming season. Worner, a Madison Avenue legend who always kept an ear and eye out for an interesting promotional opportunity, however eccentric — he made the papers in 1954 for buying the world’s largest wrist watch — thought Mays and his famous “Say Hey” catchphrase would make the perfect subject for a song.

Worner wasn’t a songwriter, but he knew someone who was — Jane Douglass, who’d written “Have a Heart” for popular crooner Julius LaRosa, and who’d penned the official WAC song while serving as an officer in that branch of the military during World War II. For the words, Worner tapped syndicated Broadway columnist Dick Kleiner, who had no previous experience as a lyricist but typed out some verses (which included a reference to Mays’ Army stint) and handed them to Douglass, who cooked up a tune and a chorus to go with it.

Worner and music publisher Jack Spina shopped a demo of the song around to just about every record company in town before finally finding a taker at Epic Records, an affiliate of Columbia. The label’s A&R director said they’d take it for the Treniers, but only if Mays himself would appear on the record; Worner, having already established a connection with Mays back in Birmingham, had no problem convincing the Giants star to make the session.

The label’s insistence on including Willie on the track was an extremely savvy one. The King Odom Quartette, the Singing Wanderers and bandleaders Ray Anthony and Johnny Long also released songs about Willie that summer, but only the Treniers’ single featured Willie himself; in fact, Epic gave him star billing on the label, crediting the song to “Willie Mays of the New York Giants with the Treniers.” Still, despite Mays’ presence, a decent promotional push from Epic, and the overall quality of the record, “Say Hey (The Willie Mays Song)” stiffed. Maybe Epic couldn’t wangle enough airplay, or maybe there were just too many Mays songs on the market at one time.

Not that the song’s failure hurt the careers of anyone involved, however. Douglass went on to write songs for Eartha Kitt and Sam Butera, among others, and served as assistant producer on the original version of the musical TV game show "Name That Tune." Kleiner never wrote another song, but he continued to write his syndicated entertainment column until 2001. The Treniers made more great records, appeared in several films (including the 1957 Jayne Mansfield classic "The Girl Can’t Help It"), and became fixtures in Las Vegas. Mays went on to be a first-ballot Hall of Famer. He even got a chance to flex his singing muscles in 1963, when he recorded a respectable R&B ballad called “My Sad Heart” for the Duke label.

And Worner? The renowned PR man would make his final mark on baseball history in 1975, when he got Tootsie Roll and Major League Baseball to join forces for the memorably goofy “One Millionth Run” promotion, in which contestants sent in Tootsie Roll wrappers along with their prediction of which player would score the millionth run in MLB history. Astros first baseman Bob Watson did it on May 4, 1975, crossing the plate at Candlestick Park just seconds ahead of the Reds’ Dave Concepcion, who’d homered in Cincinnati. Watson’s cleats from that game now reside in Cooperstown; hopefully, the triple-play gem that is “Say Hey (The Willie Mays Song)” resides there somewhere, as well.

share

Get more from Major League Baseball Follow your favorites to get information about games, news and more

in this topic

Major League Baseball