In MKE Music Rewind we revisit notable Milwaukee music that was released before Milwaukee Record became a thing in April 2014. This week: Terry Sweet’s “Turnin’ Up The Heat” from 1985.
Even though your Milwaukee Brewers haven’t been amazing this week, the team has been downright incredible for much of 2025. Despite Milwaukee’s three-game losing streak, the Brew Crew still owns the best record in all of baseball, holds a six-game division lead over the Chicago Cubs, recently set an all-time franchise record for consecutive wins, and just gave Wisconsin a lot of free cheeseburgers.
Recent mini-slide notwithstanding, the Brewers have been hot heading into the final 35 games of the regular season. Fans are no doubt hoping Milwaukee keeps the intensity going strong into the postseason, which brings a certain song to mind. With all due respect to baseball-themed tracks like “Brewer Fever” and Keith’s Brewers Rap (lol), one Milwaukee Brewers song looms larger than the rest when it comes to serving as the unofficial team anthem. While you’ve probably heard “Turnin’ Up The Heat” on tailgate mixes, in shuttle busses en route to the ballpark, and rattling in your subconscious for much of each baseball season, you might not be aware of the song’s origin, its composer, and how it’s endured through the years.
Contrary to popular belief, “Turnin’ Up The Heat” was not released in conjunction with the pennant run by the famed ’82 Brewers. The song actually was written, pressed to wax, and a mainstay on local radio stations three seasons later. In 1985, the Milwaukee Brewers called upon Wauwatosa composer Terry Sweet to pen a jaunty jam that would almost instantly become the defining track for the Brew Crew.
Though he’s not exactly a household name, Sweet’s body of work speaks for itself…especially here in Wisconsin. His primary creative focus is writing, composing, arranging, and performing jingles. Some of the eternal earworms he’s responsible for includes work for Colder’s, the iconic music for Stein Gardens & Gifts, some bangers for David Hobbs Honda (“Put me in a Honda!”), a jazzy number for The Packing House, and an absolute all-timer of a jingle for 7 Mile Fair. He’s also helmed projects for national clients like Allstate and Kellogg’s Raisin Bran.
Sweet’s jingle background is evident in “Turnin’ Up The Heat,” which is by far his most famous song outside the realm of advertising. Rhythmic claps and the recurring chants of “Brewers, Brewers, keep turning up the heat!” launch the two-minute song into motion and instantly grab hold the listener’s attention akin to the way a good radio spot for a local roofing company can quickly captivate. Soon, the claps and repetitive hollers are joined by jangle-y piano that, too, gives way to an onslaughts of uptempo percussion and lively electric guitar from the so-called fictional “Brewer Band.” Then a voice enters.
The vocalist brashly bellowing lyrics about double plays, big home runs, and how our hometown team is “brewing up a barrel of fun” belongs to Ron Hawking, a Grammy-nominated recording artist Sweet called upon to bring his lyrics to life. When everything is combined, “Turnin’ Up The Heat”—while undebatably frozen in time as a mid-’80s team-sanctioned anthem written by a local jingle whiz in his ‘Tosa basement studio—is something special that always manages to be aligned with particularly special Brewers seasons. No matter how Brewers fans feel about the song itself, they have to be happy during seasons and circumstances when it’s being played with regularity.
As Milwaukee enters the home stretch of what has already been an incredible and historic regular season, here’s hoping the Brewers can keep turnin’ up the heat deep into the playoffs. And if they do, there’s already a song released 40 years ago that perfectly pairs with a postseason push.