The “Architect of Rock and Roll” has a history with Baltimore baseball.
Music legend Little Richard, who died Saturday at age 87, voiced original lyrics for the song “Go Play in The Yard” in a 60-second advertisement for the Orioles in 1993. The spot, produced by Baltimore public relations and advertising Trahan, Burden & Charles, received an international award in the category of original music and lyrics for a television or movie production, picked over more than 7,226 entries from more than 50 countries.
On Sunday, the Orioles released a video of the advertisement, which features sped-up footage of players, fans and vendors at Camden Yards, on their YouTube channel and Twitter account. The song served as a theme song for the 1993 team that featured Cal Ripken Jr., Mike Mussina, Harold Baines and Brady Anderson, and was managed by Johnny Oates. The Orioles, playing in their second season at Camden Yards, went 85-77 that season, third in the American League East, and set a franchise attendance record of 3,644,965. Their average of 45,000 fans per home game ranked fourth in baseball.
Little Richard was no stranger to the Orioles, though. In 1956, he headlined a bill at the Skatarena in the Brightwood neighborhood of Indianapolis with the influential R&B group “The Orioles,” made up of Baltimore natives.
Former Baltimore Sun columnist John Steadman also noted in 1993 that Little Richard was a schoolmate of Baltimore Colts Hall of Famer Jim Parker in Macon, Georgia.