Friday 11 June 2010

Top 5 England World Cup songs

Well, it couldn't really be anything else. I've had a couple of weeks "off Football", a lovely holiday in sunny Cornwall and am now ready for a month of the greatest football tournament in the world.

1. "Three Lions" Baddiel & Skinner with The Lightning Seeds (1998 World Cup) - I'm really talking the original Euro 96 version but it has since been adopted as a proper England song for just about every World Cup since. I still know the lyrics word for word and they really mean something, it's now 44 years of hurt but Baddiel & Skinner genuinely captured how most England fans feel about the national team.



2. "World In Motion" New Order (1990 World Cup) - Kind of an average New Order song with Keith Allen looning about and the genius of the John Barnes rap. 1990 was a very special competition (which we should have won) and this song evokes many happy memories.



3. "Back Home" England Squad (1970 World Cup) - Proper footy song sung by the squad. Cracking little ditty with decent lyrics and a surprisingly in tune set of vocals. We should have won it this year as well.



4. "Vindaloo" Fat Les (1998 World Cup) - Keith Allen again. He's a Fulham fan and the na-na-na section was based on something Fulham fans used to sing in the early 90's. It's got some moments that make you cringe, you could say that about most of Keith's career, but it's still pretty good.



5. "We're On The Ball" England 1970 squad? - Not the Ant & Dec version released for the 2006 world cup (though I've had to use their video below) but the original that I think might have featured on the 1970 World Cup album. Baddiel & Skinner talked about it on their "Fantasy Football League" show and I always thought it was one of those songs that was both brilliant and crap at the same time. The Ant & Dec version is just crap.



.

2 comments:

Ollers said...

Although a pretty average England World Cup Song, "Sven Sven Sven 2002" by Bell And Spurling must have one of the best lyrics:

"Little Micheal Owen
Did the Argies with his pace
And handsome Martin Keown
Will scare them with his face"

alasdair said...

i remember working in a music shop in 1996, and they played 3 Lions almost every other song, but i still didn't grow tired of it... it is just a classic!