To commemorate the Detroit Tigers’ incredible late-season run, Local Spins has compiled a special playlist filled with iconic hits from the 1968 and 1984 championship seasons, plus current hits. Go Tigers!

Remembering ’84 and ’68: Are the Detroit Tigers are ready for another championship soundtrack?
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Considering the youthful makeup of the ever-surprising Detroit Tigers of 2024 — they’re the youngest team in Major League Baseball — it wouldn’t come as a surprise if many of the players romp to the current No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100: Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy).”
After all, plenty of Tigers fans have been reveling in “a party downtown,” as the song goes, since the team’s amazing sweep of the Houston Astros in the wild-card round of the playoffs.
And while the team struggled in its opening tilt in the American League Division Series, getting crushed by the Cleveland Guardians 7-0 on Saturday, the Tigers send their pitching ace Tarik Skubal to the mound to even things up on Monday. .
For the team that defied all odds by steamrolling into the playoffs after being eight games under .500 on Aug. 10, it might be more apropos to adopt soundtracks from the 1984 and 1968 World Series championship seasons as theme songs to spur them on to even greater heights.
Take, for example, the No. 1 hit during the 1984 World Series. What could be more fitting for a Tigers team than a blockbuster single from a Michigan native who rose to superstardom in Motown? Stevie Wonder’s “I Just Called to Say I Love You” topped charts in early October as the boys sporting the olde English D topped the major leagues.
(Wonder, by the way, plays Detroit’s Little Caesars Arena on Oct. 22 and Grand Rapids’ Van Andel Arena on Oct. 30, by which point, the Tigers might have moved to even “Higher Ground.”)
Of course, Prince & The Revolution’s “Let’s Go Crazy” (at No. 2) made for a great theme 40 years ago, too, along with The Cars’ Motor City-appropriate “Drive” (at No. 3) and a sizzling track from another Michigander, Madonna, who jumped to No. 5 with a bullet thanks to “Lucky Star” (under which the Tigers clearly shined).
And going waaaay back — 56 years ago — the Tigers joined the greatest rock band of all-time at the top of the mountain in October: The Beatles’ iconic “Hey Jude” spent nine straight weeks at No. 1, tying the record in 1968 for the longest run at the top of the U.S. charts.
Meanwhile, the fabulous Aretha Franklin, yet another Detroit legend, was in the Top 20 that week with “The House that Jack Built” (could she have been referring to Tigers owner John Fetzer?) and “I Say a Little Prayer,” while The Chamber Brothers made it clear to Tigers fans that “Time Has Come Today” (at No. 11).
Then again, the current Top 20 boasts plenty of fodder as themes for the resilient, 20-something Tigers, including Hozier’s “Too Sweet,” Benson Boone’s “Beautiful Things” and Chappell Roan’s “Good Luck, Babe.”
So as you prepare to cheer on these “October Ready” boys again on Monday night, check out the Top 10 from 1968, 1984 and 2024 in the playlist below. It’s an ear-opening, time-traveling journey, to be sure.
TIGERS TOP 10 (1968, 1984, 2024): The Local Spins Playlist on Spotify
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