Slugging Hard

One composer (Robert Russell Bennett) had tried to dignify the Brooklyn Dodgers baseball club with a Symphony in D (TIME, May 26, 1941). Last year George (Tubby the Tuba) Kleinsinger had the Metropolitan Opera's Robert Merrill warbling his Brooklyn Baseball Cantata. Last week, all such pretenses of musical dignity were gone, but with two new tunes in their bat box, the National League's colorful Dodgers were slugging hard in the jump, jive and jukebox league.

Fortnight ago, Decca recorded a frantic number by Negro Bandleader Buddy Johnson called Did You See Jackie Robinson Hit That Ball? All 3,000 copies were sent up to Harlem. They sold out in a little more time than it takes for a home run to clear the wall at Ebbets Field. Sample:

Did you see Jackie Robinson hit that ball?

Did he hit it? Boy, and that ain't all!

He stole home.

Yes, yes, Jackie's real gone

Jackie is a real gone guy . .

Last week another little ditty, with lyrics by Metronome Co-Editor George Simon, looked as though it might turn into a bigger hit. The tune was less catchy, but Leslie Records' Brooklyn Dodgers Jump was already in its second pressing of 25,000 copies. Reason: three Dodgers, Pitchers Ralph Branca and Erv Palica and Outfielder Carl Furillo, backed by an Ebbets Field chorus, were the recording artists.

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