No. 682 – The Greatest Gift

Performer: Robert Plant

Songwriters: Chris Blackwell, Phil Johnstone, Charlie Jones, Kevin Scott MacMichael, Robert Plant

Original Release: Fate of Nations

Year: 1993

Definitive Version: None

When Scott pitched me on the idea of a backyard 500 barbecue at his place in Muncie, where he was spending the summer in between his junior and senior years at Ball State, I liked it

I can’t remember if this was entirely his idea or if it was a group effort, but it seemed natural to me that if we were going to have a 500 barbecue, we needed to do it up right. And doing it up right meant paying as much tribute to the race itself.

Aside from the inevitable banners, Danny Sullivan cutouts, beverages and processed meats, that also meant replicating the pre-race pageantry of the 500. Scott and I decided to copy everything from the invocation onward to the race start (the placing of the burgers and brats on the grill).

We lined up two charcoal grills in the backyard and pulled out one of the awesome seven-foot long nap couches that was in Scott’s living room, along with the usual assortment of lawn chairs and blankets. At the appropriate time, we assembled the guests. The barbecue was about to start.

After turning off Fate of Nations, we started with a very truncated and intentionally off-key Star Spangled Banner—our tribute to Married with Children—before moving to the invocation, in which Scott gave thanks for good weather asked for good grilling. Then it was time that all 500 fans look forward to—the singing of Back Home Again in Indiana. (The 500 is one of, I think, only two sporting events where the National Anthem is NOT the last song before the event begins. The other, of course, is the Kentucky Derby.)

Scott and I looked for the words for a while in preparation, although we knew most of them by heart. Because this was at the dawn of the Internet, we couldn’t just google them like you can now. But I found them, wrote them down and Scott and I ran through them once in the morning to be ready for the big moment.

Naturally, if you’re going to sing Back Home Again, there’s only one way to do it—in the style of Jim Nabors, operatic and overdramatic. We’re running through it in glorious fashion, and when we hit the windup line, “When I dream about the moonlight on the Waaaaaaaaabaaaaash,” suddenly everyone started cracking up.

Why? Unbeknownst to the others, Scott’s girlfriend, Shani, snuck off to a spot around the other side of the garage and on cue released from the trunk of Scott’s car the 20 or so helium-filled balloons that we had bought that morning for the occasion—the aforementioned morning chore.

When everyone saw the balloons drifting over the garage, at the correct moment of the song—just like they do at the race—they realized that we WERE doing a full-fledged Indy 500 tribute. They all got the joke.

Then followed the command: “Gentleman start your grills!” And with that, the 500 barbecue was officially under way.