Hockey Play Gloria Shirt Blues Gloria

Fans of the St. Louis Blues have been noticing that Laura Branigan’s smash single from the early 1980s has been playing in the locker room after wins these days. The song was first heard last week in Florida after a come-from-behind 3-2 win against the Panthers and could also be heard following wins in Tampa Bay and back-to-back wins against the Nashville Predators.

So what’s the story behind the new victory song, which was nominated for a Grammy, went platinum and spent 36 weeks on the Billboard Top 100 chart in 1982?

It all started with Alexander Steen, Joel Edmundson, Robert Bortuzzo, Jaden Schwartz and Robby Fabbriwatching the Eagles/Bears NFC Wild Card game in Philadelphia back on Jan. 6.

“We got together with some friends and watched the game with a bunch of Philly guys who grew up there,” Edmundson told stlouisblues.com. “They had a DJ in the bar and whenever there was a commercial break, they would crank the tunes and all these guys from Philly would get up and start dancing around. They played this song Gloria a couple of times, and this one guy looked at the DJ and said ‘keep playing Gloria!‘, so they kept playing it. Everyone would get up and start singing and dancing. We just sat back and watched it happen. Right there we decided we should play the song after our wins. We won the next game, we got a shutout, so we just kept on playing it.”

Until then, the Blues’ postgame victory locker room song was Dion’s Runaround Sue because of its fun, energetic and happy vibe – the same vibe the players feel now with Gloria.

“Most of the time, when you try to figure out a song to play, it has something to do with the team or something that happened throughout the year,” Steen said. “We started with Runaround Sue, which is a happy song. It’s like the feeling you get after wins in our building now (with Runaround Sue playing). It was the same vibe with Gloria – it’s an old school song and it puts the boys in a good mood.”

“It’s great,” Edmundson added. “Whenever we come back in the dressing room (after a win), we’re yelling ‘play Gloria, play Gloria!” It makes us smile and have a good time. It’s working, so we’re going to keep it.”

And as for that line from the chorus, I think they got your number…

Actually, they don’t.

Nobody has the Blues number these days.