A's win? 'Celebrate good times, come on!'
OAKLAND -- Whenever the A’s finish off a win at the Coliseum, it’s a celebration. Seriously, “Celebration” by Kool and The Gang blares over the stadium’s speakers.
They say real music can stand the test of time, and that has been the case with this gem. It is still going strong in Oakland.
The A’s began playing “Celebration” after every home win in 1981, the year the song topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart for two weeks as the No. 1 song in the country. The song choice came shortly after the Haas Family purchased the club and searched for ways to improve the fan experience at the ballpark -- one of those being a switch over from organ music to playing actual songs during batting practice and between innings.
That doesn’t mean the hit record has gone unchallenged along the way.
In 1998, the A’s experimented with a different post-win tune, switching to “Rock and Roll All Nite” by Kiss. The song was played only after night-game victories, so “Celebration” was still in rotation at the Coliseum. The A’s ended the combination in 2005, switching back to Kool and the Gang’s hit on a full-time basis.
Looking to inject more of a local flavor into their post-win entertainment, the A’s ditched “Celebration” in 2015 for “Theme for Oakland,” a song composed by a local band called The Phenomenauts. The song made its way to the Coliseum one year prior during the seventh-inning stretch.
It was a creative attempt, but the song change did not go over well with fans or players. After complaints from both sides, the A’s changed back to “Celebration” later in the year and have kept that as the post-win song ever since.