REMEMBERING WHEN: The anthem that lost its home

By Keith Schell

I was reading a social media post a while back from a gentleman who was in his local Tim Hortons one evening, pre-COVID, relaxing and enjoying his usual double-double. He was about to experience a quintessential Canadian moment.

The coffee shop was crowded that evening when someone’s cellphone rang out for everyone to hear. The ringtone that reverberated through the air was the classic Hockey Night in Canada theme song.

Almost to a man, every guy in the coffee shop began to reach for their cellphones. Now that’s brand penetration! Often referred to as "Canada’s second national anthem" in the past, the Hockey Night in Canada theme song is one of the most recognized pieces of music in the country.

While talent certainly knows no gender, I was honestly surprised to learn that this most manly of Canadian hockey songs was, in fact, written by a woman.

Dolores Claman (July 6, 1927 – July 17, 2021) was a Canadian-born, classically trained commercial jingle writer for a Toronto advertising firm. She had won numerous music awards throughout her career.

Born in Vancouver, she studied music at the University of Southern California and then continued her studies at the Juilliard School in New York before deciding to pursue a career in musical composition. She moved to London, England, in the 1950s, where she composed music for ITV and wrote scores for West End musical revues.

She and Richard Morris, her lyricist husband whom she met and married in London, eventually moved back to Toronto in 1958. Together, they composed over 3,000 commercial jingles and won more than 40 international awards for their work. Claman was working for MacLaren Advertising in Toronto in 1968 when she was hired to write the Hockey Night in Canada theme song for the CBC. Known to her as The Hockey Theme, it became one of her most beloved works.

Not acknowledged in the credits by the CBC for her composition at the end of the Hockey Night in Canada broadcasts, and unhappy with the way her song eventually came to be used over the years, Claman finally sued the CBC in 2004. She alleged that the CBC was using her Hockey Theme in unauthorized ways and not paying licensing fees. These included selling it as a cellphone ringtone, including it in the NHL Centre Ice subscription package, and using it in various other ways outside of Canada after agreeing not to.

Claman claimed the CBC offered her a one-time payment of $850,000 to secure perpetual (forever) rights to the piece. The CBC countered, calling The Hockey Theme “just a song”, and   saying they offered nearly $1 million for the piece while alleging that Claman’s representatives were asking for $2.5 to $3 million. Despite crying poor during negotiations to secure the rights to The Hockey Theme, in 2024 the CBC had 143 taxpayer-funded directors, each earning $130,906 per year, totalling $18.7 million annually.  

When no deal could be reached and the CBC’s rights to The Hockey Theme expired in 2008, Claman’s representatives sold all rights to the composition to CTV for use on their own sports network, TSN/RDS. A prominent hockey broadcaster at the time of the acquisition, TSN eventually lost the rights to the NHL’s national broadcast package to Rogers Media after the 2013-14 season and was soon relegated to its current second-string status in the NHL broadcast world.

In 2009, TSN introduced a remixed version of The Hockey Theme for their hockey broadcasts by the late RUSH drummer and composer Neil Peart. While Peart was a legendary musician in his own right, the aggressive percussion remix he created for TSN's soon-to-be second-tier hockey broadcasts lacked the emotional weight and appeal it had when the song kicked off the Hockey Night in Canada broadcasts on the CBC. Having it anywhere but on Hockey Night in Canada seems like a crime against Canadian culture. It just doesn’t feel right.

Though well meant, the TSN remix currently being used has reduced The Hockey Theme to a pale reflection of its former glory. Along with the accompanying video montage, when the big orchestra composition of The Hockey Theme began at the start of the CBC Hockey Night in Canada broadcasts, it stirred passion in the hearts of Canadian hockey fans everywhere, especially during the playoffs. You felt as though a true hockey event was about to unfold. The tepid TSN remix we hear today sadly lacks the emotional appeal that originally endeared the people of our generation to the song.

At its peak, The Hockey Theme was so popular and beloved that it prompted kids all across the country to send letters and pictures to Claman over the years. Children in her own neighbourhood would often knock on her door in hopes of meeting the composer of the song. The Hockey Theme was inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2010, and on June 20, 2016, Dolores Claman was awarded the Cultural Impact Award for The Hockey Theme at the SOCAN (Society of Composers, Authors, and Music Publishers of Canada) ceremonies in Toronto.

Relegated to second-class status these days by TSN’s shrunken position in the NHL broadcast market, the current Hockey Theme remix on TSN simply does not generate the same level of pride and excitement as the classic CBC rendition. Personally, I wish TSN would sell it back to the CBC, where it rightfully belongs, but TSN has stated they will never give it up.

Some things are ingrained in the national consciousness, and for me, this is one of them. I sincerely hope that someday The Hockey Theme will be restored to its proper place of prominence in Canadian culture and will reclaim its unofficial rightful title as "Canada’s Second National Anthem."