45 + 33⅓ = 42: The Legacy Of Music Inspired By Jackie Robinson

April 15 of every year, MLB celebrates the legendary Jackie Robinson! All players wear #42, and players and fans alike can rejoice together remembering the hurdles Jackie had to conquer to PLAY BALL!⚾

Portions of this article originally appeared in The Runner Sports, January 30, 2019, celebrating the 100th birthday of the cultural, baseball-playing legend.

Jackie Robinson was born on January 31, 1919.

Jackie Robinson Sets Baseball on Its Ear

Understandably, Robinson’s legacy has traveled far and wide… from the world of art and theatre to books by the dozens and a handful of films. Robinson’s courage, dignity, and fortitude influenced several generations of baseball players from every conceivable background and country of birth.

Lesser known, perhaps, might be the mark Robinson made on music and its makers. Rife, especially now, for foraging, is the treasure trove of songs written and recorded in the last half of the 20th century (and beyond), all produced with the respect and appreciation of Robinson’s diamond exploits embedded lovingly in their grooves.

Robinson’s “Hit Records” That Aren’t In Cooperstown

Two years after the segregation landmark etched by #42, singer Buddy Johnson and legendary jazz master Count Basie recorded 1949’s rollicking “Did You See Jackie Robinson Hit That Ball?” on Decca Records. In August of its release year, it peaked at #13 on (record industry trade publication) Billboard’s charts.

“Jackie is a real gone guy,” concludes the song’s writer, Johnson, in a song that also joyously name-drops fellow stars Satchel Paige and Larry Doby, as well as Robinson’s Dodger teammates of the time, Roy Campanella and Don Newcombe.

Buddy Johnson’s original hand-written sheet music.

For a bit of sonic contrast, here’s Natalie Cole’s arrangement from 1994 on Elektra Records, featured in Ken Burns’ Baseball film documentary:

Photos are plentiful, from 1954, of Natalie’s father, Nat “King” Cole, posing with Jackie at Chicago’s Wrigley Field, when she was just four years old.

2012 saw the release of this racially hopeful “Jackie Robinson” story song by rock group Everclear from their Invisible Stars album:

In a gentle children’s recording, folk-pop singer/guitarist and children’s book author, Ellis Paul, offers this biographical tune, “Jackie Robinson,” from his The Hero in You album, his 17th:

Paul’s album also includes songs about civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks, and many other heroes presented in a way that will guide big’n’little listeners to learn about influential Americans.

Tune + Tune = “42”: Mark Isham, Scoring From Home

2013’s well-received “42” theatrical biopic, written and directed by Brian Helgeland, featured a stirring and majestic soundtrack, composed by Mark Isham. A behind-the-scenes peek (with in-studio session footage) with Isham narrating:

“‘There was a sense of real responsibility to do a good job on this,’ Isham told MotionPictures.org in April 2013. Everyone involved in the film was committed to honoring the late, great Robinson.

“With his widow, Rachel (played in the film by Nicole Beharie), still herself a powerhouse into her 90s, there was added pressure to get it right and honor her as well. (This, of course, is to say nothing of actor Chadwick Boseman’s responsibility playing the man himself.)”

Isham: “I wrote most of the main themes of this film at the piano. In a case like this, where I’m writing more of a traditional film score, I like to grab a piece of paper and pencil and get out of the electronic world and sit at the piano for a number of days.

“We do want a traditional Hollywood score, orchestral, and we’re not going to try to be clever and modernize it, it’s going to be in the grand tradition of Hollywood scoring. Epic. Because it is an epic story.”

“Gotta be bigger than all the hate (just like Jackie Robinson)”–Everclear