Jock Jams, Volume 3: How does the Jock series hold up today?

Side 2 of the Jock Jams, Volume 3 cassette features two tracks still brightening the bookends of New York State.

The side’s first full-length track got new life in the middle of this decade along the shores of Lake Erie. Meanwhile, the last track apart from an ESPN-produced mash-up and a Ray Castoldi organ number has never really gone away. It is still a staple in one of the Big Apple’s foremost athletic venues.

The second song overall on the 1997 album has kept its running legs for two decades and counting. Others had a solid dash out of the gate before inevitably vanishing into the exponentially expanding ocean of canned music.

And yes, a handful of Volume 3 selections failed to get any kind of lift-off in the genre Jock Jams all but created. That is to be expected given the album’s point of arrival and the puzzling presence of some tunes to begin with.

At its release, the compilation’s last vocal track may have even had some fans wondering if this was the series’ swan song. It would not be, as ESPN would unleash two more Jock albums while Fox Sports had the last.

Regardless, the collective legacy of Jock Jams, Volume 3 underscores the way it middled in the middle of the series. The then and now of each of its songs on the sports scene and in general culture are as follows.

“Tribal Dance”

When mashed up with Dick Vitale, “Tribal Dance” became 2 Unlimited’s most viable game-starting alternative to “Get Ready for This.” Between the national anthem and the opening play, it is easy to cue it up from the top and hear Vitale shout, “Let’s do it, baby! Let’s do it!”

The long-defunct Colonial/United Hockey League’s Port Huron Border Cats, whose second season began one month after JJV3 was released, did just that. During the same era, spilling into the early 2000s, those who watched enough televised Philadelphia Flyers home games could hear it in the background once in a while.

Athletic events, pep rallies and related assemblies in school gyms would include “Tribal Dance” during the last quarter of the 1990s as well. Those wjo have not bothered springing for more updated mixes may still use it.

 

“Ready to Go”

Despite coming second on this track list, “Ready to Go” was an even more liable to supplant “Get Ready for This.” It has long been synonymous with the Nashville Predators and still assumes a prominent pregame position in a smattering of other major venues.

The one-hit wonder Republica even returned with a slightly altered mix of this song on Jock Rock 2000. In the Jock series, that puts it in exclusive company with “Rock and Roll Part 2” among repeat tracks.

Between its straightforward titular refrain and matching pump-up rhythm, this tune is tougher to knock into the cliché canon than most of its Jock series peers. Whether you choose the piano or guitar mix, the crescendo is perfect for a player rollout, lineup announcement or opening-play build-up.

“I Like It Like That”

With the title track, Tito Nieves cracked Jock Jams, Volume 3 the same year he released his I Like It Like That album. The tone and tempo might not be all-star caliber, but it sustains a steady groove suitable for random occasions.

As the St. Croix Source reflected in mid-June 2004, when it was hot, the salsa tune was played “regularly at major league baseball and NBA games.” All things considered, it deserved broader play in the sports world, and maybe a longer mainstream stretch. This author cannot recall hearing it at any of countless major, minor pro or college hockey, baseball, football or basketball games. It would work in any of those settings.

 

 

“C’Mon ’N Ride It (The Train)”

A decade and a half after the Quad City DJ’s broke out, the short-lived ECHL’s Chicago Express used this as their goal song. That clever touch has been aped by other sports teams bearing nicknames related to rail travel.

Outside of sports, “C’Mon ’N Ride It” appeared in an amusingly appropriate context at the end of a 2015 It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia episode. With that sustained presence in pop culture, it can still work as an occasional what-the-heck selection at a given game.

“Da’ Dip”

Despite peaking at No. 1 on Canada’s RPM magazine dance ranking, Freak Nasty’s most successful work could not catch on across the sports realm. One of its blatant flaws in that regard is its consistently hushed tone. The soft delivery of the lyrics clashes with the quick pace, essentially defeating the purpose of instilling an urge to groove.

That fatal flaw may not have disqualified “Da’ Dip” from Jock Jams, but it still sounds out of place there.

“Jump!”

Several high-profile arenas kept this song fresh by only playing its guttural opening exclamation, “Are you readyyyyyyyyyyy?”

Certainly by the turn of the century, that was the best bet for any trained ears to catch it. But even before that hard shell of The Movement beat’s self remained, the whole track was pulsating as well.

With the first countdown to the chorus (“5, 4, 3, you know the rest”), it was worthy pregame fodder. With emphasis on the instruments and the repetitious “Jump!” directive, it could pick the crowd up at any point mid- or late-game.

“Jellyhead”

This is one of two JJV3 tracks where neither the song nor the artist (Crush) has a standalone Wikipedia page. The other is “Supersonic” by Sabrina Sang, and this one at least had more of a game-day vibe to it.

When it was hot off the album, “Jellyhead” offered a long instrumental opening riff that needed no context. You could play that portion for a quick stoppage of play if you were sure it would be quick. In addition, the chorus includes the line “You must be out of your mind,” a perfect good-natured diss for an official making an unfavorable call on the home team.

For that reason alone, even if it tripped into obscurity across pop culture, “Jellyhead” deserved a little more arena action than it got.

“No Diggity”

In 2015, a rather stingy Aaron Gordon of Vice Sports ranked every Jock Jams song. Despite slotting this in at a surprisingly lofty No. 25, Gordon concluded that it “Might be the best actual song on Jock Jams. But it is the opposite of a Jock Jam.”

Indeed, what may have fit in well on MTV Jams did not fit the Jock Jams system. Like “Da’ Dip” from earlier in Volume 3 and “Set It Off” from the previous edition, it is too slow and soft to make sense at most, if not all points on game night. 

Blackstreet deserves credit for dethroning the dynastic “Macarena” (another JJV2 track) from Billboard’s No. 1 slot after 14 weeks. But whereas Billboard takes all popular music into consideration, Jock Jams is supposed to be all about what fits in a sports setting.

Ironically, when Jock Jams, Volume 4 unleashed the series’ second Mega Mix, a faster remix of the refrain, “I like the way you work it,” was sampled. Maybe if a full-length speed-up had graced this compilation, it would have been a stadium staple for years.

 

“Let Me Clear My Throat”

With a condensed version, the Buffalo Sabres gave this DJ Kool single a revival as their goal song in 2015. Brought on by a fan vote, it has kept that designation for the last four seasons.

When it debuted in that context, Chris Peters of CBS Sports concluded, “This shouldn’t make sense as a goal song, but oh my goodness it does. They even spliced the song up a bit to make sure that it hits all the right points to keep the crowd rocking in celebration after the home team lights the lamp. How can you not smile after hearing that?”

Maybe if you’re anti-’90s nostalgia, but tough luck if you are. “Let Me Clear My Throat” had a respectable sound-system slot in the wake of its release, and it is clearly making good on its second wind. Across the pond, it’s the same story with the Fife Flyers.

The song’s lasting or renewed resonance transcends virtually all sports. As Brooklyn Nets vice president of game presentation Paul Kamras told Billboard in September 2017, “If you wanna go old school, a little DJ Kool, ‘Let Me Clear My Throat.’ Some people, they’re not gonna (know) who the artist is, but they know when they hear the first cut of that song. They start moving for some reason.”

“That’s The Way I Like It”

KC and the Sunshine Band return from Volume 2, ensuring at least one disco throwback for each of the first three Jock Jams.

As far as real-world sports action has gone, the repeated refrain in the chorus is mostly reserved for the occasional scoring play. And because of its advanced age even at the time of this compilation, “That’s The Way (I Like It)” is at a disadvantage in any bid for long-term prominence.

“Supersonic”

This little-known solo performance by the aforementioned Sang reportedly had at least one self-explanatory place in the sports world. As YouTube user KL commented, the NBA’s late Seattle SuperSonics once used it to commence the second half of their home games. Of course, that franchise bolted for Oklahoma City in 2008, and the song has been hard to come by anywhere else.

“Fired Up!”

As the title indicates, the Funky Green Dogs’ essential message is that someone has them fired up. However, the way that chorus and its bridges come out suggests they are working to fire each other up.

This is another tune whose athletic legacy consists of little more than being sampled on this series’ second Mega Mix. But any sensible DJ should have appreciated its potential as a warm-up song. Sometimes a baby-steps build-up to gametime is the way to go, and this would have suited that situation perfectly in the last quarter of the ’90s.

“Fired Up!” may not create, let alone signify the titular mood for a sports audience on its own. But it can help everyone look forward to feeling fired up when 2 Unlimited or Republica take over the PA system.

“Robi Rob’s Bariqua Anthem”

Just like 2 Unlimited, Black Box and the Village People in Volume 2, C+C Music Factory garnered a second shift. But matching, let alone eclipsing “Gonna Make You Sweat” was an inevitably tall order.

This Hispanophone hit’s hook “Que es lo que quiere esa nena” rings soundly enough to lend a break-in-the-action boost. But for the most part, it went underutilized or ignored altogether amongst sound crews. As a result, the long-term impression among specialized sports-music junkies is that C+C was a one-hit wonder.

“Don’t Stop Movin’”

The straightforward title of this Livin’ Joy single reflects its motivational lyrics, which made it suitable for the late stages of a back-and-forth game if anyone pleased. Its placement as the third-to-last vocal track on this volume was thus a sound selection. But by all accounts, it never caught on as canned music.

 

 

“Cotton Eye Joe”

Polarizing as it was (and still is), this Rednex country-techno twist on an old folk tune proved one of the more adhesive Jock Jams. Its persistent usage at the old and new Yankee Stadium can be heavily credited (or blamed) for that.

If anyone is sick of it, those who pick their spots shrewdly can avoid it at sporting events. (You should be safe in Ottawa and Vancouver.) But there was a long time when that was not possible.

As recently as 2016, the likes of NHL veteran Justin Williams could not ignore the song’s continued PA presence. Meanwhile, in the junior ranks, Sioux Falls Stampede fans have taken a when-in-Rome approach to one leader’s shirtless dancing routine for a decade.

And as another testament to its staying power, “Cotton Eye Joe” reappeared on 2003’s Stadium Anthems, ESPN’s one-off attempt at a new music series.

“The Jock Jam Mega Mix”

With 16 songs and six interstitials, the company’s picks for the best of Volumes 1 and 2 come together in a three-minute, eight-second wild ride. The mash-up came with its own music video and cracked 1997’s Billboard Hot 100. But it was sparsely used at any actual games, especially higher-profile ones.