A rousing game of the ten-pin variant known as duckpin made me wonder recently how many songs have been written in celebration of the sport of bowling — an all-ages balm for these fun-starved times.

Wayne Kent, lead singer behind The Blue Flames‘ “Bowling U.S.A.,” exalts in one of America’s favorite pastimes while bravely confessing a physical frailty that (he claims) makes it impossible for him to even hoist the ball:

Note:  audio clip for “Bowling U.S.A.” has since been pulled fromYouTube, so instead, this piece will feature “Laser Cat Bowling” by Parry (“Raining Tacos“) Gripp:

“Laser Cat Bowling”     Parry Gripp     2012

Many thanks to 45Cat contributor mickey rat, whose research reveals indie label, Strand, to have once been a subsidiary company of Consolidated Frybrook Industries — founded in 1958 by Canadian entrepreneur, Jack Kent Cooke, who would go on to own a number of media outlets and professional sports teams, including the Washington [Pig]skins, as well as – at one point – the Chrysler Building.

Listed below are a number of notable bowling-related tunes that include links to streaming audio – another public service from those tireless researchers at Zero to 180:

• “Bowling Alley”     Harry Harden & His Musette Orchestra     1941
• “The Bowling Song”     Joe Montgomery     1957
• “Gotta Go Bowling”     Guy Goodwin     1960
• “Bowling U.S.A.”     The Blue Flames    1960
• “Bowling Alley Blues”     The Flintstones     1962
• “Tenpin Bowling”     Bryan Davies      1962
• “Bowling Ball Blues”     Mack Fields     1964?
• “Let’s Go Bowling”     Bert Kaempfert     1964
• “Let’s Go Bowling”     Fred Baca     1965
• “Left Hand Bowling Ball”     Dubb Pritchett     1965
• “Bowling Alley Oop”     The Cavemen     196?
• “Bowling Brings Out the Swinger in You”     The Twilights     1967
• “The Bowling Song”     Don Lewis     1968
• “Let’s Go Bowling”     The Telefones     1980
• “Bowling with Bedrock Barney”     The Dickies     1980
• “Crayola Bowling”     Stick Figures     1981
• “Take the Skinheads Bowling”     Camper Van Beethoven     1985
• “The Bowling Ball”     Carl F. Becker     1985
• “L.G.B.”     Let’s Go Bowling     1988
• “Bowling Ball Gardens”     The Halibuts     1994
• “Inside a Bowling Pin”     Fabric     1997
• “Bowling and Beer”     Da Yoopers      1999
• “The Bowling Song”     Asleep at the Wheel     2001
• “Let’s Go Bowling”     Camera Obscura     2001
• “Bowling Song”     Stephen Lynch     2002
• “Bowling with Mark E. Smith”     The Ik Jan Cremers     2007
• “Red Bowling Ball Ruth”     The White Stripes     2011
• “Laser Cat Bowling”     Parry Gripp     2012
• “Miss Marlene”     Donald Fagen     2012
• “Beer Frame Judy”     Mike J. Laneside & the Front Four     2013

Cincinnati in Song Alert!

On the flimsiest of “related” notes, I just discovered a song composed by Roger Bowling that somehow got excluded from my vast list of songs with Cincinnati in the song title — 1967’s “I’m Leaving Cincinnati” by Larry Roberts.