Steve Goodman's family sold rights to 'Go Cubs Go' before World Series

As a Cubs fan till the day he died in 1984, Steve Goodman might well have appreciated the bittersweet deal:

Months before the Cubs’ first World Series title since 1908 made his 32-year-old “Go Cubs Go” a surprise hit, his family reportedly sold away the publishing rights to his songs.

Goodman’s family can take solace in hearing his voice woven into the collective memory of the Cubs finally ending more than a century of frustration and they did retain his share of royalties as songwriter.

But, as the Associated Press reported, their payday as the song unexpectedly has zoomed up the charts isn’t what it would have been had they held on to the publishing rights a little longer.

It has not been reported, however, who acquired the rights to Goodman’s extensive catalog or at what price.

Goodman wrote and performed a number of popular songs over his career before his death at age 36 from leukemia. Even with its recent sales and streaming bump, “Go Cubs Go” is just one component of an extensive catalog.

Likely the best known Goodman song to this point has been 1971’s “City of New Orleans,” a hit for Arlo Guthrie and Willie Nelson and covered by Judy Collins, Johnny Cash and many others.

Nielsen Music and Billboard recently reported “Go Cubs Go” gaining popularity, reporting it had 15,000 downloads and 2.5 million U.S. streams for the week ending Nov. 3.

The song made its debut on Billboard’s Pop Digital Song Sales chart at No. 21, and that was before the Cubs’ victory parade and rally on Nov. 4.

It was also before ballplayers Anthony Rizzo, David Ross and Dexter Fowler sang the song with “Saturday Night Live” alumnus Bill Murray on Nov. 5’s “SNL.”

“Go Cubs Go” was written and recorded as a jingle in 1984 for WGN-AM. An original lyric — “Baseball time is here again/You can catch it all on WGN” — is obsolete now that the station is no longer the ballclub’s radio home.

The song was revived a few years ago and turned into a postgame Wrigley Field tradition after Cubs victories and, as that became less of a rarity, became a fan favorite.

Lines such as “Hey Chicago, whaddaya say?/The Cubs are gonna win today!” reverberate in and around the ballpark after big wins.

It was an upbeat complement to Goodman’s sardonic “A Dying Cub Fan’s Last Request,” a wry, loving but clear-eyed 1981 tune that asked the musical question, “When the snow melts away/Do the Cubbies still play/In their ivy-covered burial ground?”

That song was informed by both decades of disappointing baseball and the fact that Goodman had been diagnosed with leukemia in 1969, the year the Cubs were surpassed by the New York Mets.

Goodman took a turn for the worse just as “Go Cubs Go” was introduced and died four days before the 1984 Cubs clinched the National League East and the ballclub's first postseason berth in 39 years, a prelude to losing the pennant to the San Diego Padres.