Music at sporting events
On March 25 of that year, "the Philharmonic Orchestra played the national anthem and the first Olympic Hymn, written by poet Kostis Palamas and set to music by the well-known Greek composer Spyridon Samaras."Composer Carl Orff's O Fortuna is most commonly played over a sports venue's public-address system, just before the start of many important, significant professional and collegiate games.Within its first two notes, coupled with its booming operatic vocals and percussive instrumentation, Orff’s O Fortuna is based upon a 13th-century poem from the collection known today as Carmina Burana.However, that band stayed intact in the area and began playing at other events, including the Preakness Stakes, and was used for the two-year CFL experiment known as the Baltimore Stallions.The song "Big Easy Mafia" is played prior to all New Orleans Saints games while the players are warming up and the fans are pouring into the stadium to hype everyone up.[4] Manchester City have adopted Blue Moon as their song whilst I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles can be heard at games involving West Ham United.Slate notes that Major League Baseball players "can pick several songs as personal themes for their plate appearances, sometimes a rotation of four different tracks a game."The practice of using a heavy metal theme song to signal the entrance of a relief pitcher began at Qualcomm Stadium in 1998, when the San Diego Padres started playing "Hells Bells" by AC/DC to accompany Trevor Hoffman's taking the mound.At Fenway Park, Neil Diamond's song, "Sweet Caroline," is played during the eighth inning of Boston Red Sox home games, and has been a regular part of the program since 2002.Hockey was the first to adopt "Rock and Roll Part 2" as a goal song when the Kalamazoo Wings would score, the DJ of that team went onto work with the Colorado Rockies and started the practice there.[citation needed] As part of Barry Hearn's vision for the future of the professional game, walk-on music was introduced from the 2010 World Snooker Championship.Some wrestlers like Ric Flair and "Macho Man" Randy Savage are known for their one particular entrance theme song, Also Sprach Zarathustra and Pomp and Circumstance respectively.Perhaps the most extreme example of this can be found in professional wrestling and some mixed martial arts promotions, where almost every wrestler has an entry theme written to suit their particular character.An album entitled "ESPN Presents Stadium Anthems" has been released that includes many songs that are played over the Public Address system at North American sporting events.