{"id":12223,"date":"2014-05-28T00:14:10","date_gmt":"2014-05-28T07:14:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/?p=12223"},"modified":"2014-05-28T00:14:10","modified_gmt":"2014-05-28T07:14:10","slug":"sidewalks-of-new-york","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/2014\/05\/sidewalks-of-new-york\/","title":{"rendered":"SIDEWALKS OF NEW YORK"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-12225\" alt=\"Sidewalks of New York - Belmont Stakes\" src=\"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Sidewalks-of-New-York-Belmont-Stakes.jpg\" width=\"572\" height=\"381\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Sidewalks-of-New-York-Belmont-Stakes.jpg 572w, https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Sidewalks-of-New-York-Belmont-Stakes-300x199.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 572px) 100vw, 572px\" \/><\/h1>\n<h1>SIDEWALKS OF NEW YORK<\/h1>\n<h2>Triple Crown? Song Should Be Restored To Belmont Post Parade Status<\/h2>\n<p>With the Preakness out of the way\u2014and with a credible Triple Crown contestant in California Chrome looming over the Belmont Stakes two-and-a-half weeks hence\u2014it\u2019s that time again for me to rail against New York\u2019s abhorrent disrespect of music tradition.<\/p>\n<p>Can you imagine what would happen if, say, the Kentucky Derby changed its theme song from \u201cMy Old Kentucky Home\u201d to \u201cKentucky Woman\u201d? Or if the Preakness switched from \u201cMaryland, My Maryland\u201d to \u201cStreets of Baltimore\u201d?<\/p>\n<p>Yet back in the Giuliani days, New York City changed its traditional Belmont theme from \u201cSidewalks of New York\u201d\u2014a poignantly sentimental 1894 copyright by lyricist James W. Blake and vaudeville actor\/composer Charles B. Lawlor that is also known as \u201cEast Side, West Side\u201d (the first words of the chorus)\u2014to the relatively garish \u201cNew York, New York\u201d title song from the 1977 Scorsese movie.<\/p>\n<p>This was in 1997. Then to add insult to injury, the New York Racing Association in 2010 went with the crass Jay-Z\/Alicia Keys hip-hop ballad hit \u201cEmpire State of Mind\u201d\u2014which outboasted the Frank Sinatra-sung \u201cNew York, New York\u201d with the singer\u2019s self-anointing as \u201cthe new Sinatra.\u201d Luckily, it was a one-time thing; unluckily, \u201cNew York, New York\u201d was restored as the post parade theme the following year.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-12224\" alt=\"Sidewalks of New York - sheet music\" src=\"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Sidewalks-of-New-York-sheet-music.jpg\" width=\"457\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Sidewalks-of-New-York-sheet-music.jpg 457w, https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Sidewalks-of-New-York-sheet-music-228x300.jpg 228w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 457px) 100vw, 457px\" \/>This all bodes bad for Cali Chrome. According to Wikipedia, it is believed that horses who have won the first two legs of the Triple Crown have been jinxed because of the change in song from \u201cSidewalks of New York.\u201d Indeed, in the years following the last Triple Crown winner Affirmed\u2019s historic victory at the Belmont in 1978, there were four dual winners who failed to complete the cycle between 1979 and 1996; in the years following the 1997 song switch to \u201cNew York, New York,\u201d eight horses fell short.<\/p>\n<p>Per Wikipedia, \u201cIt is said that the ghost of Mamie O\u2019Rourke will never let another Triple Crown winner emerge unless and until \u2018The Sidewalks of New York\u2019 is reinstated as the post parade song for The Belmont Stakes\u201d\u2014Mamie O\u2019Rourke being the one who taught lyricist Blake how to \u201ctrip the light fantastic on the sidewalks of New York.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I, for one, don\u2019t bust the ghost. \u201cThe Sidewalks of New York\u201d was good enough for everyone from Mel Torm\u00e9, Duke Ellington, Nat \u201cKing\u201d Cole and even The Grateful Dead (they played it once, in New York in 1972, as an instrumental lead-in to \u201cOne More Saturday Night\u201d). It should be restored to Belmont post parade status, not just for the sake of tradition, but for the Triple Crown prospects of California Chrome.<\/p>\n<p>Jim Bessman<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SIDEWALKS OF NEW YORK Triple Crown? Song Should Be Restored To Belmont Post Parade Status With the Preakness out of the way\u2014and with a credible Triple Crown contestant in California Chrome looming over the Belmont Stakes two-and-a-half weeks hence\u2014it\u2019s that time again for me to rail against New York\u2019s abhorrent disrespect of music tradition. Can [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4976],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12223"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12223"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12223\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12226,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12223\/revisions\/12226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}