GARY GLITTER 2020 PRO
GARY GLITTER 2020 PROFESSIONAL

Somehow, his endearingly silly glam rock struck a chord with the British public. Glitter began life in England as Paul Gadd, and he tried almost everything seeking to get off the chicken-in-a-basket circuit before aspiring Svengali Mike Leander suggested a radical “image overview.” Gadd adopted the name Gary Glitter and created an outlandish, outrageous persona. “I can’t believe that happened to my song,” Glitter said. Fans got on their feet, clapping, some punching the air as they belted out the song’s trademark “Hey!”

GARY GLITTER 2020 PROFESSIONAL

“Rock and Roll Part 2” was then played incessantly on the public address systems and by bands in every high school, college and professional arena and stadium in America. The Denver Broncos were the first to introduce “Rock and Roll Part 2” to the National Football League, admitting they took the song from the Rockies, while the Denver Nuggets did the same in the National Basketball Association.

GARY GLITTER 2020 PRO

Denver’s other pro teams felt free to adopt the song. It was solely identified with the Rockies until 1982, when the hockey team moved east to become the New Jersey Devils. It didn’t blare through McNichols Arena that often because the team stunk, but soon local radio stations were playing the three-minute tune, referring to it as the “Rocky Hockey Theme Song.” He persuaded franchise officials to play it as a rousing celebration after Rockies goals. His copy of “Rock and Roll Part 2” went with him. In 1976, O’Brien took a job as marketing director for the Colorado Rockies of the National Hockey League. “I tossed it on the stereo and immediately thought, ‘This is the song we have to use to bring the team out onto the ice.’” Tucked in a box in his basement was Glitter’s “Rock and Roll Part 2.” “So I started rummaging through my old collection of vinyl 45s.” But there was a movement to introduce some canned music during the games,” O’Brien explained. “Back then, organ music was nearly synonymous with hockey games. It got its start in 1974, when 22-year-old Kevin O’Brien was the public relations and marketing director for the Kalamazoo Wings, Michigan’s entry in the International Hockey League. In the pantheon of sports anthems drawn from rock songs, Gary Glitter’s “Rock and Roll Part 2” (nicknamed “The Hey Song”) joined the strains of Steam’s “Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye” and Queen’s “We Will Rock You.”

Gary glitter 2020