Quick, name three baseball-themed songs.
Got 'em yet? No?
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"You can't do it," Sharknado director Anthony C. Ferrante told me Friday afternoon. "And I couldn't do it either."
Buying rights for the two everyone can name – "Take Me Out To The Ballpark" and "Centerfield" — were "definitely cost prohibitive" for Ferrante's second Syfy-channel film centered on those flying, carnivorous fish. This one was going to have key scenes at Citi Field, home of the New York Mets, and it needed musical accompaniment.
But when you're building the most inexplicable phenomenon in made-for-TV movie history, you don't let a few budgetary issues get in the way.
"When I started making my movies, Robbie Rist, who's a good friend of mine, said 'come on over to my studio,' " Ferrante said. "My first movie we needed some blues songs, and they sounded great in the film. That became a thing.
"So (for Sharknado 2), we said we have to write a great baseball song, no matter if anyone hears it or not."
The result: "One Swing Away (Batter Up!)" with Ferrante — yeah, the director for Sharknado — on lead vocals.
The song plays as a devastating sharknado descends on the Mets' ballpark — which a stunning 3.9 million viewers watched happen Wednesday night.
"It's actually pretty incredible," Ferrante said. "You don't get lightning in a bottle twice. Who would have figured?"
The duo's album, appropriately named "Great White Skies," is on sale now at the iTunes store.