When Percy Mayfield wrote “Hit The Road, Jack,” he probably had no inclination that it would eventually become a staple during sporting events. Ray Charles’ rendition may have won a Grammy for best rhythm and blues song, but even he couldn’t know that more than 50 years later, people would sing along to the song anytime a player fouls out or gets ejected, just as this woman tried to do after Khris Middleton fouled out against the Cleveland Cavaliers.
We say “tried” because, well, despite the simple nature of the lyrics – “Hit the road, Jack, and don’t you come back no more, no more, no more, no more/Hit the road, Jack, and don’t you come back no more” – she clearly does not know the words. And that’s totally fine! Who among us hasn’t botched a lip-sync now and then? Let he or she who is without musical fault cast the first stone.
Music can lift us and move us even when we don’t know the words, and this woman is clearly moved. Perhaps she knew a Jack, and suffered many years with him, and one day eventually told him to not come back no more. There is freedom in her hips, defiance in her hands, and she doesn’t care who sees her incorrectly singing the song, not even LeBron James.
