1970 Chicago… White Sox organist Nancy Faust surprise and delights the crowd at Comiskey Park by swapping the usual ballpark jingles with player-specific top 40 hits—drawing inspiration from the play-by-play references of legendary radio announcer Harry Caray. Organists around the league follow suit and, before you know it, the walk-up song has cemented itself as an integral tradition of America’s pastime.
Now, say what you want about baseball, but walk-up songs are sick. Face-melting guitar riffs, epic beat drops, old school hip hop… you can learn a lot about a person in ten seconds or less. Really, walk-up songs can—and should—infiltrate all areas of daily life. Asking your boss for a raise? Walk-up song. Going for a new back squat PR at the gym? Walk-up song. Potty training your toddler? Walk. Up. Song.
If nothing else, walk-up songs certainly seem like a natural fit for golf. Try to tell me you wouldn’t be more dialed strutting up to the tee box with Enter Sandman coursing through your eardrums… You simply can’t. It doesn’t compute.
That’s why, in honor of Waggle’s inaugural all-staff summer scramble, we’re using this edition of Fringe Thoughts to share the songs that get our team hyped up to absolutely mash drives down the center of the fairway.
In no particular order*
*besides my own (...obviously)
Big Diva Energy
Too Little Too Late - JoJo (Kyle Beaulieu - Director of Finance)
Lose Control - Missy Elliot (Sydney Urban - Marketing Designer)
Purple Hat - Sofi Tukker (Brittney Kortbein - Lead Designer)
Rock Star - Hannah Montana (John Bickle - Social Media Specialist)
Goodbye Earl - The Chicks (Morgan House - Events & Field Marketing Coordinator)
Guy On A Horse - Maisie Peters (Meg Wojtasiak - Associate Designer)
…Ready For It? - Taylor Swift (Katie Bremseth - Inventory & Supply Chain Planner)
One Step At A Time - Jordan Sparks (Lindsay Koch - Director of Brand Experience & Stores)
Headbangers Ball
I Believe In A Thing Called Love - The Darkness (Caroline Ponessa - Director of Marketing)
Live Wire - Motley Crue (Lukas Lapoint - Sales Account Executive)
Dragula - Rob Zombie (Toni Anthony - Associate Designer)
Burn It To The Ground - Nickelback (Jordan Herz [Stewart] - Lead Designer)
Pour Some Sugar On Me - Def Leppard (Courtney Deters - Senior Accountant & Todd Field - Regional Sales Manager)
Even Flow - Pearl Jam (Derek Bond - Regional Sales Manager)
Got Sweaty at a High School Dance Between 2005 & 2011 (or wished they did)
Gasolina - Daddy Yankee (Diego Hernandez - Sales Account Executive)
Numb / Encore - Jay-Z & Linkin Park (Travis Baker - Founder/CEO)
What You Know - T.I. (Kevin Kepler - Warehouse Manager)
Champion - Kanye West (Jacob Kohner - Director of Product Design)
Till I Collapse - Eminem (Luke DeBruzzi - Director of Sales)
Gangsta’s Paradise - Coolio (Taylor DeBruzzi - Director of Human Resources)
Crank That Soulja Boy - Soulja Boy (Evan Anderson - Logistics Coordinator)
Backroad Ballad
We Got History - Mitchell Tenpenny (Claire Van Buren - Digital Marketing Manager)
Just a Huge Musicals Guy
Bet On It - Troy Bolton/Zac Efron, High School Musical (Jack Hayden - Human Resources Generalist)
How’d we do? Drop your favorite (and your own song choice) in the comments while you jam out to our official HQ Spotify playlist!