Aesthetics matter.
The Vegas Golden Knights played their first home game on Tuesday, and released the first goal song in franchise history: Gold On The Ceiling by The Black Keys.
The catchy tune works well as a goal song. So well, in fact, it’s already used by the Nashville Predators (as part of an extended celebratory mashup led by Tim McGraw’s I Like It, I Love It).
Goal songs can have a long-lasting impact (say the words “Brass Bonanza” near a hockey fan over the age of 35 and see for yourself), and Vegas has a chance to hit the ground running here.
There’s no need for the Golden Knights to not go bold with their final selection; the Chicago Blackhawks’ Chelsea Dagger is obnoxious, but it works thanks to a mindless chorus that’s easy to sing along with. Chicago fans love it because no matter how annoying the song is, they associate the tune with success. It’s science.
Vegas should be daring. The team’s Twitter is already positioning itself as the biggest in-your-face account in the league, and what’s the point in coming into the NHL without flare? (Looking at you, Minnesota Wild.)
The Golden Knights plan on experimenting with various songs throughout the pre-season in order to find one that works best, so we figured we’d come up with some suggestions.
Viva Las Vegas – Elvis Presley
We’ll get an obvious one out of the way. Presley’s classic has a fast-paced chorus that works well and is easy enough for a large crowd to sing along with. It’s happy in nature and has a strong connection to Vegas.
It works.
Centerfold – The J. Geils Band
This is another song that scores very well in fan singability, with an upbeat tune that even the most inebriated Golden Knights enthusiast can keep up with.
Where Centerfold loses marks is in a lack of any connection to Vegas, though the subject matter does relate a bit to certain parts of the Strip.
On to option three:
Waking Up In Vegas – Katy Perry
There really hasn’t been a team with the moxie to use a pop song like this, but then again, who else wears white and gold gloves? The casino slot machine noise in the background of the song is another bonus.
If there’s a criticism here, it’s that while the chorus is catchy, there’s no real potential for a crowd singalong as it involves more than three different words/sounds.
Having said that, the music video (linked above) also features one of the guys from Dodgeball. And guess where the final tournament in that movie took place? Exactly.
Point Katy.
The Man – The Killers
Here’s a song that’s actually current.
It was only released in June 14, exactly one week before the Golden Knights unveiled their selections at the NHL Expansion Draft.
The Killers came out of Vegas, and the music video for their new hit features the city quite prominently.
The song lyrics also score well as a celebration of “the man” who just found the back of the net.
Golden Years – David Bowie
Seeing as how the Vegas game ops team already favoured a song with the word “gold” in the title, Bowie’s 1975 hit would make a solid choice.
Again, this isn’t really a song the crowd can chant to, but it’s happy and would be a unique sound compared to the rest of the league.
This choice also gets extra credit for being used in this classic scene from 2001’s A Knight’s Tale – giving it a connection to both parts of the team name.
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