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Harbor Lights writes and records
“official” Anthem for
professional baseball team |
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Written by Mike
Truax
Great lake publishing
It's almost impossible
not to tap your feet when you first hear the Harbor Lights a
capella vocal group sing. That's what Roger Wexelberg, vice president
and general manager of the Gary SouthShore RailCats minor league
baseball team thought when he heard Harbor Light's new album,
Doo Wop '50's Chrome.
When the singing group
presented the new RailCats tune, “The Gary SouthShore RailCats
Anthem,” he knew the team had a winner.
“These guys are awesome,”
Wexelberg said.”They sent me their CD first and it was very
good.
“Next, George Carl
from the Group came in with some potential lyrics and sang them
right there in the office,” Wexelberg said. We gave him
a few ideas on what we would like included in the lyrics, and
he came back a week later with the finished and recorded song.”
The song was an instant
hit.
“ I have never seen
so many positive comments on anything before,” Wexelberg
said. “fans. Players, managers of other teams – they
all love it.” George carl, Harborlights vocalist and public
relations spokesperson, said it was a labor of love.
When we were writing the
anthem, we focused on writing a tune that was si mple and easy
for fans to sing and remember,” Carl said. “the message
needed to be positive.”
The song begins: “It's
a Region thing, one and all, Batter up, Lets play ball. First
base, second base, over the wall. Were gonna play ball today.
The group had a special
reason for doing the song.
“were all local people,
and wanted to add our contribution to something really positive
for Northwest Indiana.” Carl said. “it's top - notch
professional baseball in a beautiful brand new stadium for everyone
to enjoy.
While locally based, the
group as performed nationally, as well as internationally, and
has quite a history.
Three of the five have
performed at the White House, under two administrations on four
separate occaasions. They got the “thumbs up” from
president Bill Clinton when they sang “the Lion Sleeps Tonight”
as his introduction. They performed for the athletes at the Olympic
Village in Atlanta duringthe 100th Olympiad. They have performed
in premier theaters across the country and shared the stage with
music legends such as The Temptations, Smokey Robinson, Chubby
Checker, The Coasters, The Drifters and Dion.
Their appeal is global.
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