The original version of "Tessie " was written by Will R. Anderson and was featured in the Broadway musical The Silver Slipper, which ran for 160 performances between October 27, 1902 and March 14, 1903. The song was about a woman singing to her beloved parakeet "Tessie". While a popular tune, the song gained greater notoriety when it was adopted as a rallying cry by the Royal Rooters, a collection of loyal fans led by Michael T. McGreevy, informally known as "Nuf Ced" McGreevy, owner of the 3rd Base saloon. McGreevy earned his nickname "Nuf Ced" due to the way he kept peace in his bar: when he grew frustrated with arguments over the Boston Americans and the Boston Braves, he would pound his hand on the bar and declare "'Nuff said!". Boston mayor John "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald, grandfather of President John F. Kennedy, was a member of the Royal Rooters. After the first four games of the 1903 World Series, Boston was down 1-3 to the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Royal Rooters began rallying their team with every song they could think of; ultimately "Tessie" helped win the day. There are stories that the Royal Rooters actually traveled to Pittsburgh and hired a band to play "Tessie" to annoy the Pirates on their home field. Pittsburgh outfielder Tommy Leach credited at least part of Boston's win to "that damn 'Tessie' song." He continued: "It was a real hum-dinger of a song, but it sort of got on your nerves after a while." Boston won Game 5 and went on to win Games 6, 7, and 8 to win the Series. The Boston fans remembered "Tessie" fondly through the years; Burt Mustin, who decades later became a prolific "old man" character actor in movies and television, was still regaling audiences with "Tessie" stories while in his nineties. The chorus to the original "Tessie" goes: The fans began inventing their own lyrics to taunt the Pittsburgh players, such as: etc. The Rooters stopped singing in 1918. The Red Sox won the World Series in 1918 but then endured an 86-year drought before winning again in 2004, the same year a re-release of "Tessie" was issued by the Dropkick Murphys. In the 2000s a group of Red Sox fans recreated the track with those lyrics and an additional two stanzas in addition to finishing the Wagner stanza. They also wrote a stanza on Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez: Yankee captain Derek Jeter also got a stanza.
Dropkick Murphys version
In 2004, the Boston-area celtic punk group Dropkick Murphys recorded a cover of "Tessie", released on an EP of the same name. The Dropkicks said it was their intent to "bring back the spirit of the Rooters and to put the Red Soxback on top." The goal of the Dropkicks was realized when later that year the Boston Red Sox won their first World Series in 86 years. The song is also featured as the bonus track on their June 2005 release The Warrior's Code with a lead-in from the WEEI broadcast of the final play in the 2004 World Series: "Swing and a ground ball, stabbed by Foulke. He has it. He underhands to first. And the Boston Red Sox are the World Champions. For the first time in 86 years, the Red Sox have won baseball's world championship. Can you believe it?" -Joe Castiglione The second "Tessie" — which featured backing vocals from Red Sox players Johnny Damon, Bronson Arroyo, and Lenny DiNardo, Red Sox Vice President of Public Affairs Dr. Charles Steinberg; and Boston Herald sportswriter Jeff Horrigan — has become a theme song for the Red Sox and tells the story of the Royal Rooters singing the original "Tessie". The song is featured in the soundtrack to the 2005 movie, Fever Pitch, and is the song used in the closing credits to the VHS and DVD review of the 2004 World Series, a video that was produced by Major League Baseball Productions. The video game MVP Baseball 2005 features the song. In addition to "Tessie", the EP includes "Fields of Athenry", "Nut Rocker", "The Burden" as performed live on WBCN, "Tessie " in which the song is accompanied primarily by a ballpark organ, as well as a music video for "Tessie." Proceeds from the sale of the EP went to benefit the Red Sox Foundation. "Tessie" is the second of three songs played after every Red Sox win at Fenway Park, the first being "Dirty Water" by The Standells. The third is "Joy to the World" by Three Dog Night. Trot Nixon used "Tessie" as his at-bat intro music when he played for the Red Sox. "Tessie" was played at the end of regulation, prior to the start of overtime during the National Hockey League's 2010 Winter Classic at Fenway Park. A synthesized version of "Tessie" is used by Red Sox ticketing, as the signal a customer has been selected from the team's virtual waiting room to purchase tickets during busy periods. The Dropkick Murphys tell this version of the story in the liner notes of their album The Warrior's Code:
Inspiration for Red Sox mascots
In the winter of 2015-16, it was stated that the as-yet "unknown" young sister of the popular Red Sox mascot Wally the Green Monster, aptly named Tessie, was going to join her famous "older brother" at Red Sox games starting in the 2016 MLB season.
