Songs About Tennis

I'm scheduled to play tennis tomorrow morning with a group of experimental and documentary filmmakers (some of us have been known to make a narrative or two as well). I haven't played tennis in more 20 years and last time I tried, I couldn't serve. I don't mean I was serving badly. I mean I literally couldn't serve. I couldn't hit the ball with the racket. It was...humbling. So in preparation to be further humbled, I'm going to pump myself with these songs about tennis.

There really aren't that many songs about tennis, but I do know that Philadelphia Freedom was written for Billie Jean King and her tennis team, the Philadelphia Freedoms. Elton, you made a rockin' song about tennis. Your genius is untouchable.




Cream - Anyone For Tennis. Label this under WTF?




Pavement - Stop Breathing. Keith correctly (and incredibly) pointed out that the first verse of this song was about tennis. I NEVER would have known this, even though I've heard this song roughly a thousand times since 1994. See if you can spot the tennis references: Got struck by the first volley / Of the war in the courts / Never held my serve / Send'em a wire, give'em my best / This ammunition never rests / No one serves coffee, no one wakes up




The Brat - Chalk Dust - The Umpire Strikes Back. Ha ha! No comment, other than this was a big hit in England, satirizing actual John McEnroe tantrums, in the magical year of 1982.