How “Gloria” Became The St. Louis Blues Rallying Call

Remember the 1980’s song “Gloria”? If you do, you either have an old taste in music or you’re a fan of the St. Louis Blues because there’s been no shortage of the pop hit during their recent playoff run.

Hockey fans are probably the most superstitious fans in all of the sports. Nashville Predators fans throw catfish on the ice, as a nod to their rival Detroit’s time-honored tradition.  Adding to the long list of off ice, superstitions, the St. Louis Blues joined in by playing the 1980’s song “Gloria” by Laura Branigan.

If you’re a Blues fan, you’ve heard the song countless times since then, but if you haven’t, here’s the link to the retro 1980’s music video so you can have it stuck in your head the rest of the day. Click and listen at your own risk, it’s catchy.

How a song from the 1980s, that probably should have stayed in the ’80s, became the rallying cry for the Gateway City’s quest for the cup is an interesting one.

It came while the Blues sat dead last in the NHL. It also came when they were in a city far from home, and cheering on a different team in a different sport.

In a February article on NHL.com, Chris Pinkert explained it all began on a road trip to Philadelphia when a few of the Blues players went to a local bar to why the NFC Wild Card playoff matchup between the Chicago Bears and Philadelphia Eagles. Here’s how that pesky song came to play, with Blues defenseman Joel Edmundson going into detail.

"“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.”"

And with that, the song that predated “the Golden Brett” himself Brett Hull donning the music note sweater came along for the ride as St. Louis ascended from the NHL’s worst to among the NHL’s best. It probably had more to do with the goaltending of Jordan Binnington and coaching of Craig Berube than that song, but at this point, it won’t stop them from playing it.

With the Blue’s advancing to the Western Conference final and even closer to the Stanley Cup, the city has fully embraced the rally song. One radio station even decided to play the song for 24 hours straight following the Blue dramatic double-overtime Game 7 victory over the Dallas Stars.

24 hours may sound too long and intense, but they did it. they did it, because this is for the cup. To quote the old Bud Light commercials from a few Super Bowls ago, “it’s only weird if it doesn’t work”. And it’s working all too well for St. Louis for it to stop now.