On a listing of the numerous issues the Cubs would possibly want for a profitable season, a brand new track just isn’t close to the highest. But that’s what the group has now, a track just lately found, a track not heard for greater than 50 years, a track with lyrics equivalent to …
Come out to Wrigley Field
The house of the Cubs
Your cares’ll fly proper over the wall
You strike out troubles and woes
When you let your self go
And see the National League play ball
There is extra to this track, in fact. It is titled “Come Out to Wrigley (The Home of the Cubs)” and was written and recorded by a person named Pasquale “P.J.” Panico. It will probably be carried out in public for the primary time on the night time of Aug. 2, when gifted singer Sam Fazio, backed by a bass-keyboard-drums trio, sings it to the gang gathered outdoors Wrigley Field at that adjoining out of doors tavern/playground referred to as Gallagher Way.
“It’s going to be a real treat and pleasure for me,” Fazio tells me. “It’s such a catchy song and the lyrics cleverly tie together so much … the field, the sun, pitch your worries away. You can’t help but love it.”
The track got here to mild after Panico’s loss of life in 2016 at 95 years outdated. While going by way of a pile of outdated recordings, Panico’s grandson, Rob Sarwark, discovered it. “There were hundreds of albums that he had collected over the years,” he says. “Most of them were in the basement of his home but this one we found in a small pile upstairs. I had, of course, heard my grandpa play many times but this tune was new to me.”
Sarwark is the son of Panico’s daughter Maria, one in all his 5 kids. A local of Glenview, he lives in Atlanta and works as a librarian but additionally is “an entrepreneur in various cultural realms.”
Among these is because the co-founder, with Andrew Joncas, of Tiki Core Records, a report label that has launched greater than 75 digital tracks since 2011.
He was fairly taken together with his grandfather’s track. It was within the type of a 78 RPM demo report, labeled “Cubs Song” and in addition contained one other identify, that of Paul Geallis, a pal and someday musical collaborator of P.J., who died in 2012.
The track was first performed at P.J.’s wake. Those in attendance have been grabbed by the full of life lyrics. Sarwark gave it its new title and set to work.
“I knew it was something special. Other family members and I knew immediately that it was P.J. singing and playing the accordion, likely in the 1950s or ‘60s and I knew we had to preserve this,” he says.
He labored with Steven Serra, a musician, producer and proprietor of Small House Studios in Palatine. They remastered the unique and created a few new variations, a rock-influenced “Wrigleyville Version” and a jazzy “Old Town Version.”
Fazio was pleasant with the Panico clan and as soon as he discovered in regards to the track, after which heard it, he was decided to carry out it.
“I had met P.J. a couple of times but unfortunately never got to hear him play,” says Fazio. “But this song really grabbed me. And P.J.’s life balancing his music and working life mirrored mine.”
Fazio says is a lifelong Cubs fan, including that “the head of the grounds crew lived across the street from my grandparents. When I was a kid we got to watch the game from the dugout. Yes, crazy, but so cool. One year, I was able to help out as a bat boy for a couple of games during the season.”
After learning vocal and opera efficiency at DePaul University, graduating with grasp’s diploma in 1987, he left city for Las Vegas the place he carried out for a couple of years.
He got here house however stopped performing with a view to make a dwelling. He earned an grasp’s diploma in gerontology from Northeastern Illinois University in 1995 and a doctorate in developmental psychology from Loyola University in 2005. He has labored ever since for the Alzheimer’s Association in Chicago, the place he’s the senior director of high quality care and psychosocial analysis. He writes scholarly papers for publication and is the writer of a 2008 e-book, “The Enduring Self in People With Alzheimer’s.”
He got here again to music in 2009 and has since had success juggling his two careers, singing in such locations as Andy’s Jazz Club, Jazz Showcase and for 5 years on the Coq d’Or within the Drake Hotel.
He has carried out at Gallagher Way earlier than, likes it too. “It’s not inside the park but this is so close,” he says. “It’s an exciting place to perform.”
There are, as even essentially the most informal fan is aware of, quite a few Cubs-related tunes, official and never so. Among them are “You’re My Cubs” by the good Alan Barcus, composer for some 2,400 commercials; two from the late Steve Goodman, the so-so rah-rah “Go, Cubs, Go” and his brilliantly poignant “A Dying Cub Fan’s Last Request”; “Hey Hey Holy Mackerel” by Johnny Frigo, the legendary jazz violinist and bassist; and there are others.
Sarwark is flying in from Atlanta to be at Fazio’s Gallagher Way efficiency. He too is a longtime Cubs fan and will probably be with buddies and a dozen members of the family.
“It’s very exciting for us,” he says. “It’s just too good a song to remain hidden. My grandfather was a modest man but I think his dream was to one day have his song played in Wrigley and Sam is helping get close to realizing that dream.”
Panico was born and raised within the nice Italian neighborhood centered on Taylor Street. He served within the Marine Corps within the Pacific throughout World War II. Though he labored pretty steadily as knowledgeable musician, for a time at WLS radio and TV, his major profession was working for the City of Chicago.
“He worked into his 80s, riding on the back of a garbage truck as a streets-and-san guy,” says Sarwark. “He was proud of that too, that and his music made for a full life.”
And, oh, yet one more factor: he was a proud White Sox fan.
Sam Fazio Quartet performs for Cubs Pregame 6 p.m. Aug. 2 at Gallagher Way, 3637 N. Clark St.; free for ticketholders, extra at www.gallagherway.com and www.samfaziomusic.com
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Source: www.bostonherald.com