A foot-Stompin’ hockey classic
Song to be inducted into Hall of Fame
From coast to coast, The
Hockey Song has been as popular as the Hockey Night
In Canada theme.
Now, Stompin’ Tom Connors’s iconic tune will be inducted in the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame in a special ceremony at this Saturday’s Maple Leafs-Jets game at Scotiabank Arena.
“I truly did want it to become the anthem that it has,” Connors told the
Toronto Sun before his death in 2013. “I tried to write it in a way where I was in an arena and hearing it myself.”
Penned in 1971, it didn’t get much airplay upon release, but sustained a pulse through Connors’ musical travels and radio stations here and there. It even found a small American audience on the weekly Dr. Demento novelty record show. The gradual rise of recorded music in arenas brought The Hockey Song back to life in 1992.
The Ottawa Senators began playing it as an alternative to rock and the fans loved it. Toronto coach Pat Burns, a country-and-western fan, wanted it played at the Gardens, where it became a third-period tradition.
Now, you’re likely to hear it at all 31 National Hockey League rinks, where people either sing, clap and yes, even stomp to it. The Leafs have expanded it to a crowd participation number this season.
“For more than a quarter-century at Maple Leaf Gardens and Scotiabank Arena, it’s safe to say that no other song has been more associated with a Leafs home game than Stompin’ Tom’s The Hockey
Song,” said Shannon Hosford, MLSE senior VP of marketing and fan experience. “Proudly played over the arena sound system nearly every night, and live on three occasions, it has been, and will remain, one of our longest standing in-game traditions and the perfect chance for fans to celebrate the game.”
In a news release, the CSHOF called it “a quintessentially Canadian song about a quintessentially Canadian game, the bestknown example of Connors’s unique brand of fervent nationalism. Its uptempo style with a cowboy-booted backbeat reflected the swift pace of the game, and in Tom’s typical catchy novelty song style, his three verses corresponded to the three periods of a hockey game with each verse calling the action like a play-by-play announcer.” The Hockey Song was covered or recorded by artists such as Corb Lund, The Good Brothers and Avril Lavigne. It reached No. 29 on Billboard’s Canadian Hot 100 chart on March 23, 2013, a few weeks after Connors’s death.
“It’s a song that took its life from kids who heard it in arenas,” said Connors, who played it live at a Leaf game intermission and at Wayne Gretzky’s Hockey Hall of Fame induction. “A lot of NHL players have told me that they grew up with it.”
Tom Connors Jr. and family will be presented with a plaque recognizing the song’s induction at Saturday’s game and rising country star Tim Hicks will perform it.
“It’s wonderful to see how fans to this day, continue to call it their hockey anthem at all levels and ages of hockey players around the world,” Connors Jr. said in a news release. “We hope his song will inspire others to pen memorable, identifiably Canadian songs in the future for all to enjoy.”
Tom Sr. won six Juno awards between 1971-and1975 and was honoured with many lifetime achievement awards, including a star on Canada’s Walk of Fame.