bonanza

brass. bonanza.

the greatest professional sports team theme/celebration song in the history of competition. better than whatever that repetitive thing the chicago bulls have (or had, during mj’s career at least). better than the new york yankees and frank sinatra’s “new york, new york.” better than jim rome using “sandstorm.”

in addition to anyone who has ever played sega’s nhl ’94 video game, anyone from new england between the ages of 22 and 100 knows this song by heart.

people across the world have walked down the aisle to it. baseball players use it as entrance music. ringtones. alarms. car horns- you name it. i personally blasted it victoriously on repeat after the most magical 15 seconds of my young life.

with the 1997 loss of the whalers to north carolina (goddamn you peter karmanos), the state of connecticut never really recovered. now, close to 20 years later, there are still groups trying to get the nhl to come back with annual rallies in support of the return of the whale and a minor league new york rangers affiliate that for a few years kept the spirit alive as the connecticut whale.

sentimental memories, greed and atrocious business decisions aside, “brass bonanza” has been the one constant throughout it all. the one theme song for the state that everyone can rally around and still smile about. the whalers were never a very good team despite having a number of future all stars (and gordie howe!), but this song was always able to get an arena moving.