Phillies: Top 5 Songs We Miss Hearing at Citizens Bank Park
By Matt Rappa
3. MFSB – TSOP (The Sound Of Philadelphia)
It’s 6:30. You are stuck in traffic on Route 42, trying to get over the Walt Whitman Bridge, pay your toll and parking fee, and make it inside Citizens Bank Park.
A part inside of you wants to get past the turnstiles in time just to hear this classic Philadelphia soul song, played as public address announcer Dan Baker welcomes fans to Citizens Bank Park.
As the song kicks into the loud speakers around the venue, Baker would say: “Good evening and welcome to Citizens Bank Park for National League baseball between the Philadelphia Phillies and Atlanta Braves. …”
“TSOP (The Sound of Philadelphia)” was released in 1974 by MFSB, featuring The Three Degrees vocals.
Written by Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff, the song served as the theme for the Soul Train television show; it became so popular, it was the first theme song ever from television to reach atop the Billboard Hot 100 charts. It also reached No. 1 on the American R&B chart and adult contemporary chart.
Unlike the previous songs so far on this list, this classic hit is mostly an instrumental of strings and horn instruments. The only lyrics include: “People all over the world!” and the chorus “Let’s get it on/It’s time to get down”.
A part of what hearing this song every time at Citizens Bank Park is great, is that is carries on a piece of musical history across generations of fans. Disco surely has not reached the Billboard charts for quite a while now, and young fans just learning to understand the game might have never heard its genre had it not been for TSOP playing over the loudspeakers.
The song is only ever heard at the very beginning of the Phillies’ in-stadium “show,” yet it essentially serves as the team’s theme song for the soon-to-come game, as it did for Soul Train decades ago.