Stompin' Tom revisits Hockey Song, other tracks on new album
Last Updated: Friday, October 3, 2008 | 1:59 PM ET
CBC News
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Canadian music legend Stompin' Tom Connors has dipped into the past and rerecorded beloved tracks like The Hockey Song for his upcoming new album.
The Ballad of Stompin' Tom (also the name of a biographical stage show about the singer written by David Scott) is set for release Oct. 28, but the 72-year-old Connors hosted a listening party for some reporters on Thursday.
Stompin Tom Connors, singing before NHL action between the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Ottawa Senators in Toronto on Oct. 5, 2005, says his beloved Hockey Song was 'a little thin' when he first recorded it in the early 1970s. (Frank Gunn/ Canadian Press) Connors said he felt his beloved hockey anthem was "a little thin the first time I recorded it way back in '71 or '72," before introducing the revamped version.
Other songs revisited on the new album include The Olympic Song, My Hockey Mom and Take Me Back to Old Alberta.
In June, many Canadians — including Don Cherry — suggested Connors's beloved The Hockey Song would be a fitting new theme for CBC's venerable Hockey Night in Canada broadcast. CBC lost use of the original, The Hockey Theme, after failing to reach a new deal with composer Dolores Claman. CTV subsequently purchased the rights.
Connors performed his song at the NHL awards banquet that month, and his son, Tom Connors Jr., also said his father was open to licensing the track to Hockey Night in Canada.
CBC Sports decided, instead, to hold a Canada-wide songwriting contest for a new theme song. The first round of public voting for the five semifinalists runs Saturday through Tuesday. The two finalists with be revealed next Thursday, when a second, 24-hour round of voting will take place.
The winning submission will be revealed Oct. 11, with the composer set to receive $100,000 in cash and half of the ongoing royalties. The other half will be invested in minor hockey.
At his album's media preview on Thursday, Connors said he didn't know why his song wasn't chosen, but joked he would have trouble coming up with a French-language version anyway.
With files from the Canadian PressShare Tools
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