Can you believe it was 25 years ago today, that Wayne Gretzky was traded from the Edmonton Oilers to the LA Kings? It shocked not only hockey fans but almost all of us in Canada and certainly influenced the game of hockey south of the border
I thought today would be a perfect time to share this 45 that you likely have not seen before but we do have one copy at Backbeat. It’s by a group called “Rebounds” on Wilson Records. Side A is titled “Gretzky, Gretzky – Read All About ‘Im” and Side B is called “The Legend of Gretzky”. There is more to this which brings it full circle and I think it is pretty cool.
The story goes that the night that Wayne Gretzky got traded he and his wife were house sitting and baby-sitting for a friend who was away in Oslo, Norway. Wayne’s friend saw a newspaper in Olso the next morning and noticed a picture of Wayne in it but couldn’t understand the language in order to read the article. So he called his friend Wayne to find out what happened. Gretzky told him about the trade to LA.
Well, the person he was house sitting for was Alan Thicke, the young boy (11 at the time) he was baby-sitting was Robin Thicke and the B side of this 45 was co-written by Alan Thicke! So there you have it, 25 years later Robin Thicke is riding the wave of popular music (you can get his CD here too BTW), Gretzky is laying low for now, and Alan Thicke is well, where the heck is Alan Thicke anyways?!?