5 of the best times music has been mixed with football (and it’s actually sounded alright)
- Amos Murphy
- Mar 25, 2019
- 4 min read
Updated: Mar 29, 2019
The 1980s and 90s were bad for a lot of reasons; buffalo shoes, flared trousers and pointless leg-warmers are just a few. But by far the most annoying trend of this period were the cringey, cheesy and irritating football songs.
Whilst most were dreadful and should be locked away in a vault, along with all of the other horrendous trends of that era, some weren’t that bad. Amos Murphy has dusted down the vinyls and had a listen to 5 of the best football songs (that actually sounded alright):
5) This Time (We’ll Get it Right) – England 1982 World Cup Squad
This is a weird one. Not like somebody from your class eating worms in the playground weird. But more like this shouldn’t work, but it weirdly does weird. It’s everything that’s good about the 1980s (minus the dodgy TV and radio presenters).
England greats such as Trevor Brooking, Terry Butcher, Peter Shilton, Glenn Hoddle and Kevin Keegan all feature in this two and a half minute happy-go-lucky number. It’s hard to say how much the squad were paid to feature in this song, because judging by the look of resentment on most of their faces’ in the music video, they most definitely didn’t choose to be there
Nevertheless, it’s not as painful as some of the other tracks England players have been forced to sing in, as part of a voyeuristic attempt to conjure up support ahead of an inevitable big-tournament failure.
It turns out that it wasn’t ‘This Time’ for Ron’s 22. They limped out of the tournament at the second-round stage.
4) Wavin’ Flag – K’naan
Let your ears rejoice as you enjoy this four minute long dose of nostalgic delight, sampling Africa's beauty in its finest. It’s impossible not to love this reggae-fusion bop, taken straight from Coca-Cola’s 2010 World Cup advert.
By far the youngest song on our list, Wavin’ Flag was originally written in 2008 by Somali-Canadian artist K’naan as part of a campaign to liberate the people of Somalia from government oppression.
Two years later and it was the soundtrack of the summer. New football related lyrics were added to the original version, creating a World Cup track, inspired by the joyous sounds of Africa, which would last a lifetime and beyond.
3) All Together Now – The Farm
A homage to the 1914 Christmas Truce, in which fighting was stopped in the World War One trenches and soldiers shared a game of football, this 1990 release from Liverpudlian band The Farm, combines three of their favourite themes: brotherhood, socialism and football.
Lyrics like ‘a spirit stronger than war’, ‘only hope remains’ and the punchy anthemic chorus help to encapsulate everything good about people and football. But the real reason it makes our list is because it’s actually a cracking tune.
There have been several re-releases of this infectious track, most notably for Everton’s 1995 FA Cup final against Man United, which the blues won 1-0. Happy days.
2) Three Lions – Baddiel, Skinner & the Lightning Seeds
In stark contrast to pretty much every other football song released, this three time UK number one single speaks of the pain and sufferings of all England supporters over the last ‘30 (plus) years of hurt’.
With its catchy hook and poignant sentiment, comedy duo Baddiel & Skinner’s 1996 venture into the music industry, with the help of at the time brit-pop sensation the Lightning Seeds, is nothing short of a rousing success.
Not actually the official FA endorsed soundtrack for the ’96 Euros being held on home soil, Three Lions quickly became a fans’ favourite and was regularly belted out by the England fans before their Wembley matches.
Due to the sheer popularity of the anthem, it was released for the France ’98 World Cup two years later and has since cropped up every time a major tournament comes around.
Whilst the song is usually sent straight back to the archives later after an inevitable crashing out to a team like Iceland, it stuck around for quite a while in the summer of 2018, as the nation basked in a two-month long heatwave whilst watching the national team very nearly bringing it home for England. Yes, I’m welling up too.
1) World In Motion – New Order
We could have done a list of the ‘100 best songs of all time’ and this one would have still probably finished in top spot.
Eyebrows were raised when Mancunian new-wave rock band New Order were commissioned by the FA to record the official song for Italia ’90, but what came next was a dance-rock classic for the ages.
An England side filled with superstars like Paul Gascoigne, Gary Linekar and John Barnes went onto reach the semi-finals in Italy, but before Gazza’s tears, Linekar’s arse malfunctions and penalty shoot-out heartache, it was the former Liverpool left-winger who stole the show, with his legendary rap towards the end of the track.
Barnes had won a competition between a group of England players to perform the impromptu segment on the song, with the Englishmen later admitting that he was pissed when it was recorded. Absolute gold.
Originally titled ‘E for England’, this name was scrapped by the bureaucrats at the FA for sounding awfully like a reference to popular recreational drug ecstasy, leading to the famous 'World In Motion' title we know and love to passionately belt out today.
According to the chart-topping track’s writer Keith Allen, the song was supposed to start with the lyrics ‘E is for England, England starts with E/ We’ll all be smiling when we’re in Italy’. Unsurprisingly this line didn’t make the final cut.
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