http://youtube.com/watch?v=4N1iwQxiHrs?version=3
There are few British bands with baseball-themed names that have tasted success in mainstream American popular culture…in fact, now that I think about it, I can’t recall any.
Except for, of course, The Outfield. Wait a second, who?
That’s the general reaction I get when mentioning the band who is best remembered for “Your Love”, which reached No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1986 and remains my go-to song for live band karaoke. Chances are you know the song above by heart, or at least the opening bars and chorus.
Josie’s on a vacation far away
Come around and talk it over
So many things that I wanna say
You know I like my girls a little bit older…
And who doesn’t, really? But in all seriousness, who were these guys and how did a British power pop act get a baseball-themed name? After all, baseball’s about as popular in England as cricket and rugby are here in the States.
According to the band’s official website, it was actually the suggestion of lead guitarist John Spinks.
“John wrote the words ‘Baseball Boys’ on the spine of one of their demo cassettes, albeit it was a similar name to one of the street gangs from the movie, ‘The Warriors’. It marked the first time ‘they’ (John and Mark) were thought of as a band.”
Of course, while record execs in England liked the moniker initially, the manager who would help them break through in the United States had a bit of a different idea.
From a 1986 Chicago Tribune profile on the band:
“The manager, an American living in England, recommended a new band name, however. “He`s a total baseball freak, so he liked the idea of the Baseball Boys name,“ says Spinks, “but he said it was just a little bit too tacky and tongue-in-cheek to be accepted on a commercial level in America. We were offered loads and loads of new names, but the Outfield was the most left-wing kind of thing we liked.”
The baseball theme worked for the band (which also includes bassist/singer Tony Lewis and drummer Alan Jackman), for whatever reason, despite the fact that none of them really cared much for the sport itself. The Tribune profile goes on to report that while the band did attend at least one baseball game, their focus was more on the food and drink than on the game action itself.
Of their 13 albums, five have baseball-related names, including their biggest commercial success “Play Deep”, which peaked at No. 9 on the Billboard charts back in 1986. Oddly enough, none of their actual songs are about sports though. In perusing their discography, part of me was hoping to find a rendition of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” or something that included baseball-themed lyrics just to continue playing on the name.
So what became of these guys after Josie went on his vacation far away? They’d go on to score a number of other moderately successful hits including “Winning It All”, “Say It Isn’t So” and “All the Love in the World”. Billboard reports that they broke up in the early 90s but reunited in 2006. The band released “Replay” this past May and judging by a couple of clips posted on their website, haven’t changed their signature power pop sound all that much. The songs are still guitar driven with a steady beat, a reminder of a simpler time before Twitter and cell phones took over our lives.
But there is one question that still remains — was the mythical Josie a real person? And did Tony Lewis really like his girls a little bit older?
