This name will mean nothing to many of you, but today all Mets fans shoud grieve the passing of Jane Jarvis.
After eight years playing for the Braves at County Stadium in Milwaukee, she was a fixture at Shea Stadium from 1964 to 1979, performing a repertory that mixed jazz staples like Charlie Parker’s “Scrapple From the Apple†with more conventional fare like “Take Me Out to the Ballgame†and “Meet the Mets.â€
The NY Times has a full obit.
If you never had the pleasure of hearing her work, believe me you would much prefer it to the modern day barrage of sound. Â Every now and then the Mets will bust out some organ about an hour before a game and it’s awesome.
I love the Organ. I love when the Mets have it going, and it’s always a surprise to realize it’s modern songs to organ music. nice twist.
Here’s a link to Jane Jarvis playing our favorite tune … and others playing other versions:
http://youngmanhattanite.com/2006/04/our-team-your-tune.html
I wonder if the Mets will do anything to honor her memory on Opening Day?
I am 100% ocnfident they will. Every Opening Day takes time to remember those in baseball who have passed away.
Common misconception…she did not write Meet the Mets but she did write a song called “Let’s Go Mets”. I have looked all over for an MP3 with Let’s go Mets…anybody have one.
Jeez, I was literally just listening to the organ solo at the end of the 7th inning of Game 5 of the 1969 World Series (first time I’ve watched it, by the way. Come on, Mets!) I was thinking how nice it was, a real old school feel to the game. If I’d read this ten minutes earlier I’d have been like ‘Pffff’. Now, I can mourn the loss of Jarvis.
RIP, Jane. First heard you live in 1970, and went to hundreds of performances at Shea. You were magnificent. And we could talk baseball while the organ was playing—unlike the screaming nonsense the Mets do now.
For the curious, Jane had a at-Shea cameo in a German film, “Alice in the Cities,” directed by the great Wim Wenders.
I don’t mind music at the ballpark per se, but too often at Citi it’s current Top 40 crap that I don’t care for or, as a co-worker likes to point out, LAST YEAR’S Top 40 crap.
But the organ music at certain points would be nice. Sadly, I think it’s all recorded these days: http://articles.latimes.com/2005/jun/11/entertainment/et-organist11. I wonder if the new ballparks even have space for an organ (let alone have one in place).
great story you linked to!
The thing i’ll remember the most about Jane Jarvis is her rendition of the “mexican hat dance” between innings. Good stuff.