A few months ago, I wrote a column about Pennsylvania’s official song - entitled aptly enough “Pennsylvania.”

Many of us were introduced to the song on Gov. Josh Shapiro’s Inauguration Day in January when it was sung by the Pittsburgh Youth Chorus. Apparently, it did not catch only my attention but also the attention of state Rep. Joe Ciresi, D-Montgomery, who shepherded a resolution through the state House last month to establish an independent commission to review the history of how the state song came about and seek suggestions from the public on whether it should be changed. These recommendations would then be taken up by the General Assembly, and if a bill passes and is signed by the governor, we might have a new and compelling state song.

Ciresi’s resolution passed by a 138-64 vote and is now in committee awaiting Senate action. Ciresi would have found out the history of how “Pennsylvania” became the state song if he had read my column back in March, but that’s OK.

The General Assembly adopted the current song 33 years ago after a similar committee had been formed to establish a state song in the first place. “Pennsylvania” was co-authored by Eddie Khoury and Ronnie Bonner, and their song was selected from more than 200 submissions considered by the committee.

One of the spark plugs instrumental in setting up the committee back in the ’90s was the late Sen. James Rhoades, R-Schuylkill, whose son, Mike, is the newly appointed head basketball coach at Penn State University. Sen. Rhoades died in 2008 as the result of injuries he suffered in a two-vehicle crash on Route 209 near Brodheadsville while he and his wife were on their way to a Pleasant Valley football game.

Ciresi believes that the state song should be catchier, hummable and most of all memorable. There are not many songs with a state in the title that are top of mind awareness among members of the public.

“Pennsylvania Polka” is certainly one of the most recognizable of these, even if it is a bit dated since it became a hit recording featuring the likes of the Andrew Sisters (1942) and Frankie Yankovic and his orchestra (1959).

Ciresi said the official state song is something we should take pride in. “This is something every member of this chamber should be able to sing, even if you don’t sing well,” Ciresi said.

Rep. Craig Williams, R-Delaware, agrees with Ciresi that a change is necessary. Williams, who also was among the first to hear it at the inauguration, said, of the performing choir, “It was a great performance of a bad piece of music. I think we can do better.”

There were mixed reviews among some of the legislature’s musicians. One of them, Rep. Russ Diamond, R-Lebanon, claims that as a musician, there is no such thing as bad music, only different tastes. Despite his support for the current song, Diamond voted to go along with the establishment of a committee.

One of the songs with our state’s name in its title that I came across is “Pennsylvania,” recorded by the Scranton-based bluegrass group Cabinet (featuring Patrick “Pappy” Biondo) in 2014.

I thought the chorus has some poignant words (except excuse the poor grammar):

We spent some time in Pennsylvania/

Doing things we never done before/

And I can still feel that warm wind blow/

Pennsylvania, hold me strong, never let me go!

In “The Pennsylvania Polka,” my personal favorite, songwriters Lester Lee and Zeke Manners managed to get around the difficulty of trying to rhyme a word with “Pennsylvania” by coming up with:

“ ... Everybody has a mania/to do the polka from Pennsylvania.”

With “The Pennsylvania Polka,” immortalized in the hit movie “Groundhog Day” (starring Bill Murray), it would guarantee generational survival.

“It started in Scranton/It’s now number one ...” (clap, clap, clap, clap.)

By BRUCE FRASSINELLI| tneditor@tnonline.com

The foregoing opinions do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editorial Board or Times News LLC.