The St. Louis Blues were sitting in last place halfway through the season, all but forgotten in the Stanley Cup chase.
It’s only fitting the team has ridden its way to the Stanley Cup Final on the back of another relic raised from the dead, Laura Branigan’s 1982 pop hit “Gloria.” The song has become an oft-sung rallying cry for the Blues, who made their first final since 1970 this week, dispatching the San Jose Sharks in six games with a best-of-seven matchup with the Boston Bruins on tap next week.
If opposing teams are sick of hearing Branigan’s resurrected pop song about “a girl that’s running too fast for her own steps,” they can thank Jacks NYB. The private Philadelphia club’s patrons introduced the St. Louis players to the tune during a Jan. 6 visit, playing it each commercial break during the Eagles’ wild card win over the Chicago Bears.
“They just went nuts when they heard it, and we loved watching it,” forward Robby Fabbri said. “So we just happened to get a win the next day and made it our win song.”
The Blues, spurred on by “Gloria” and the play of rookie netminder Jordan Binnington, won 29 of 43 games to finish third in the Central Division and have made sure their fans get to hear their new jam in the postseason, racking up 12 wins while taking down the Winnipeg Jets, Dallas Stars and Sharks. They sit just four wins away from raising the Stanley Cup for the first time in franchise history after years of dominating the regular season and falling flat in the playoffs.
Branigan’s hit is enjoying a second life on hockey Twitter, with fans posting photos and video looking for someone — anyone, everyone — to “Play Gloria!” It’s especially popular at Jacks NYB, where members in the now blue-and-gold-adorned bar are just waiting for their adopted team to give them a reason to spin it again.