Ever wonder how "Chelsea Dagger" became the Blackhawks' goal song?
If you've been to just one Hawks game in the past decade, the team's goal song — the Fratellis' "Chelsea Dagger" — is still probably on repeat in your head.
Not only is it a catchy tune, but it's become synonymous with the Blackhawks' renaissance and decade of dominance. For the vast majority of the past 10 years, when Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews and other already legendary Hawks were having big nights and playoff series were being won, you were hearing the "do do do do do do" chorus.
In a Zoom conference call interview with NBC Sports Chicago, former Blackhawks intern Matthew Benjamin said he would work the song into the rotation during 2008-09 preseason games when he was controlling the music.
"They were trying to do some other songs, and pretty much right from the get-go, give them a lot of credit for trusting me to run the music and trusting an intern basically three or four months out of undergrad, working for an Original Six team to try this out," said Benjamin, a diehard and lifelong Detroit Red Wings fan, whose car with a license plate reading "WingsIn7" could be spotted in the UC employee parking lot while he was helping write Blackhawks history.
Benjamin had been playing the song for Hawks employees around the office before getting a crack at playing tunes for games.
Former president of the Blackhawks John McDonough and executive vice president — still with the team — Jay Blunk were at Madison Square Garden to see the Hawks take on the Rangers for the 08-09 season opener and came to the realization that the organization may need one standalone goal song after hearing the same one repeated in New York four times.
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According to NBC Sports Chicago Blackhawks pre and postgame host Pat Boyle, prior to 08-09 the Hawks mostly played Joe Satriani's "Crowd Chant" and had individual songs for players like Jonathan Toews ("Johnny B. Goode"), Patrick Kane ("Rock You Like a Hurricane") and Patrick Sharp ("Sharp Dressed Man").
McDonough and Blunk polled Blackhawks headquarters and the overwhelming majority determined a lone goal song was needed.
Due to Matthew's persistence, the song made it into Pete Hassen and Ben Broder of the marketing department's top three. It was worked into games more and more, along with a Fall Out Boy and Gwen Stefani number.
The Madhouse on Madison responded the most to the Fratellis' jam and the rest is history.
"When you see something . . . the work, the time you put into it and you see it kind of come together, you see other people enjoying it, it's a nice thing," Benjamin said.
As he told his story, there seemed to be some relief and closure for Matthew, who spoke very highly of his time with the Hawks, for finally receiving some acknowledgement in helping provide the theme song for the golden age of Blackhawks hockey.
"This is something that I've known that I've been a part of. I've told some people [but] it's pretty hard for anybody to believe me, It's not like there's a lot of proof," he said.
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