The NHL lockout has been in effect for more than two months now, and so, with no actual games to report on, we’re going to link to a different hockey video every day until a new CBA is reached. Today: the musical stylings of Ooh-La-La.
For those unfamiliar, “Hockey Sock Rock” was a novelty song featuring former Rangers Phil Esposito, John Davidson, Dave Maloney, and Ron Duguay, under the group name Ooh-La-La. It’s pretty much the best, worst thing ever. Here’s a brief list of things we love about this video:
• Those sweet, sweet dance moves.
• J.D. “playing” the ketchup dispenser like it’s a saxophone.
• The lyrics, most especially “You’re my favorite chick / you’re my first draft pick.”
When we interviewed Dave Maloney for this blog last year, we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to ask him about it. Here’s our favorite part:
Is that actually you guys singing on the track?
Yeah, we did sing it, but I think they fixed it up. A lot of the final copy is Phil, because Phil and Alan Thicke were good buds. Most of what I can recognize of my participation is basically background yelling. Actually, the final salvo was, we were awarded, I guess it was a bronze, or a platinum, record for 100,000 copies sold. But the story goes that Alan Thicke and Gordon Lightfoot were great pals, and that Gordon Lightfoot actually bought 90,000 copies. I’m not sure it was a big seller beyond Gordon Lightfoot.Is that true?
I don’t know verbatim if that’s true, but that seems to be the lore of the story. Ultimately, it all went to a good cause, but 90 percent of the sales were to one guy.
Gordon Lightfoot! God, we hope that’s true.
In any case, there are actually two videos below. One is a skit, apparently from a hockey bloopers video, in which J.D. gets his V.J. on and introduces “Hockey Sock Rock” and another music video by Los Angeles’s Triple Crown line. (We actually laughed out loud at this line: “Hey, you might find this hard to believe, but that entire video was shot in just one day.”) The other is the full-length “Hockey Sock Rock” video. Do you think Mitchell & Ness makes throwback No. 14 Alan Thicke jerseys?
And so on Day 74 of the NHL lockout, we present to you Ooh-La-La, “those hockey rockers from the Big Apple.” Don’t forget to call 1-800-555-HOTT to cast your vote!