Every year at this time, the spirit of my dad looms large in our house for March Madness. He lived and breathed basketball, and this was his absolute favorite time of the year. His birthday was April 1st, and we often celebrated his birthday by watching a Final Four game. (Although the Sweet 16 weekend was always his favorite.) He loved the brackets, the close games, the underdog, the Cinderella story. He loved basketball.

We spent last weekend watching game after game. There were a few that were down to the wire! I figured this was the perfect time to feature a little basketball here on Music Monday.

Basketball Jones by Cheech and Chong

Here are a few fun facts about this song:

1. I never actually heard “Basketball Jones” until I wrote this post. My dad loved to sing parts of it with a huge smile on his face (in falsetto, of course), and that’s the only way I ever heard it.
2. I had NO IDEA it was by Cheech and Chong. Total surprise there.
3. Apparently Barry White and Chris Rock remade this song for the film Space Jam, but with different lyrics.

Alley Oop by The Hollywood Argyles

Per wikipedia,

An alley-oop in basketball is an offensive play in which one player throws the ball near the basket to a teammate who jumps, catches the ball in mid air and puts it in the hoop before touching the ground.

The alley-oop combines elements of teamwork, pinpoint passing, timing and finishing.

Okay, so technically, this is NOT a basketball song. At all. When you listen to the lyrics, you will realize that this song is actually about the old comic strip Alley Oop. But I think my dad loved this song because of the basketball term. 🙂

Bonus: Alley-Oops in the NBA

A few alley-oops in action! My dad would have preferred college clips, but I could only find NBA.

Happy Monday!

Rules from Lauren:
Every Monday share one or two of songs you’ve been enjoying lately.  It doesn’t have to be a specific genre, new, or one of your favorites – just something you’d like to share with others.  If possible, share a music or lyric video of the song and your thoughts on the song(s), artist(s), and/or music video(s).

If you would like to participate in Music Monday, please join the link up by sharing your post’s url over at this week’s post on Always Me.