John Kellette – “I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles”
The song composed by John Kellette was first performed in 1918 and is therefore older than many a football club in the professional business. In the early decades of the 20th century, the waltz from a Broadway musical was a real hit. Numerous well-known singers of the time included him in their repertoire.
At the beginning of the 1920s, the success also spilled over to Great Britain. The song eventually found its way to West Ham United via variety shows and theatres. The London blue-collar club rose to the Premier League in 1923 and its fans established ‘I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles’ as their club’s anthem.
New Order – “World In Motion”
In the midst of the Madchester hype and ten years after Ian Curtis’ death, New Order set out to record a song featuring parts of the England national team to celebrate the 1990 World Cup. They enlisted comedian Keith Allen to co-write the project, whose daughter Lilly Allen is. The then FA press officer was very passionate about Joy Division. He contacted Tony Wilson, one of the most influential people on the Manchester music scene in the 1990s and co-founder of the label Factory Records to which New Order were signed. The story took its course.
Although some players from the English national team showed little interest in working with New Order, the recordings for “World In Motion” with the ultimately participating athletes around Paul Gascoigne proved to be quite successful. John Barnes, a fast Liverpool left winger, made a name for himself in British football culture with his rap performance. To this day, the passage enjoys great popularity. The song was also a special feature for New Order. It is their only number one hit in England.
The Lightning Seeds – “Three Lions”
We stay in England but skip six years. England hosted the 1996 European Championship on home soil, which Oliver Bierhoff decided for Germany with the first golden goal in history in the final against the Czech Republic. Similar to New Order’s “World In Motion,” comedians had a hand in the Lightning Seeds song “Three Lions.” Frank Skinner and David Baddiel wrote a self-deprecating anthem with clairvoyant abilities, which experienced a true revival two years later at the 1998 World Cup in France with modified lyrics and only recently at the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
While England overcame years of trauma on penalties in 2018, Baddiel and Skinner’s prophecy was also fulfilled last year. As at every tournament since winning the 1966 World Cup, the Brits went into the tournament with high hopes, only to endure the disillusionment of losing to Croatia in the semi-finals. The next attempt will be made in 2020 “years of hurt” (the years of pain) to end. With a highly talented eleven, the chances are certainly not bad.
DFB-Elf – “Football is our life”
The German national team won the European Championship in 1972 and enjoyed great popularity ahead of the World Cup on home soil two years later. At the same time, the social status of professional footballers changed drastically over the course of the 1970s. On the one hand the celebrity and on the other hand the increasing salaries removed the players further and further from the average. In public representation, on the other hand, Franz Beckenbauer, Gerd Müller, Uli Hoeneß and colleagues swayed over the German television screens in a buddy-like, laboring manner.
“We always play, even in wind and rain. Even when the sun is shining and others are having fun, the reward is nice when a hundred thousand friends stand together.”
The pseudo-authentic tradition of national team songs was established in 1974 with the help of Jack White. Yes, you read it right. Jack White’s real name is Horst Nußbaum and he himself can look back on a career as a professional soccer player. He gave up his career in 1966 and tried his hand at singing under his stage name. At the time, its more successful namesake in this field wasn’t even being planned. Nussbaum, aka Jack White, didn’t get very far with it. As a result, he focused on composing and producing hits for Roberto Blanco, Hansi Hinterseer or Tony Marshall. Well thanks too.
Dizzee Rascal & James Corden – “Shout”
Numerous attempts to match the success of Lightning Seeds regularly appear in the run-up to World and European Championships. Not only in England. There, the collaboration between Dizzee Rascal and James Corden actually made it to number one in the English singles chart in 2010.
The questionable performance is dressed in a grime guise by Dizzee Rascal, who immediately bites with boy band charm. James Corden says hello. He later underscored his fondness for hit songs that can be smashed along loudly in his hugely successful Carpool Karaoke series. But there was one good thing: All royalties were donated to a children’s hospital in London.
The White Stripes – “Seven Nation Army”
January 2002, The White Stripes were on tour in Australia. The sound check before their show in Melbourne unexpectedly became a pivotal moment in the duo’s career. Jack White played the famous seven notes of the riff of “Seven Nation Army” for the first time.
In October 2003 the whole football thing started. Belgian club Club Brugge played away in the Champions League group stage against one of the best teams in the world at the time, AC Milan. Before the game, the accompanying fans from Belgium whiled away the time in a bar in downtown Milan. Between the conversations about the certain defeat against the Italian giants, the clinking of beer glasses and the backs of chairs, a very incisive guitar riff suddenly rang out that even the most drunken Bruges fans could remember. The White Stripes’ “Seven Nation Army” took off. Together with the little football miracle in the evening.
In the 33rd minute Andrés Mendoza scored the winning goal for Brugge and the fans went wild. They recalled the catchy tune they’d heard that lunchtime (though not the lyrics to it) and roared, “Oh…oh-oh-oh oh OHH OHH.” They took the song back to Belgium and established it in their own stadium.
Primal Scream & Irvine Welsh – “The Big Man And The Scream Team Meet The Barmy Army Uptown”
Scottish football fans have a running gag that they belong to a drinking nation with a football problem. Her national team hasn’t played in an international tournament since 1996, which didn’t make the joke go away. When the Scots last got it, indie legends Primal Scream and Trainspotting writer Irvine Welsh took the story and turned it into the song “The Big Man And The Scream Team Meet The Barmy Army Uptown”.
Dub DJ Adrian Sherwood produced the unofficial anthem of the ‘Tartan Army’ en route to the group stages at the stadiums of their eternal rivals England, whose team they even played against. Scotland lost 2-0.
Thees Uhlmann – “This is football”
Thees Uhlmann is a friend of pathos, whether on tomte records or his solo albums. He maintains a no less strong friendship with FC. St. Pauli, for which the term love relationship is clearly more appropriate. Given the circumstances, writing a party song about his favorite club seemed completely out of the question for him. In 2005 he made his contribution to the “Übersteiger-Sampler”, which clearly stands out from other football songs in its orientation.
In an interview, he commented on the song by saying: “Back then I just wanted to do something for FC St. Pauli, but not a party anthem or a cheering song. I was then long past the deadline for the sampler, sat down and started writing. The song should express how exhausting it is to be an FC St. Pauli fan.”
Die Toten Hosen – “Bavaria”
With their insulting song against FC Bayern, Die Toten Hosen not only managed to prepare an evergreen for those football fans who don’t keep up with the record champions from the south of the Federal Republic. They also obviously stepped on the toes of the club’s management level with the song and made Uli Hoeneß’ head swell red. “This is the dirt that will eventually choke our society”so the comment of the manager.
A few years later, Die Toten Hosen insisted on playing the song at their concert in Munich’s Olympiahalle. FC Bayern won the treble of championship, DFB Cup and Champions League in 2013. Shortly thereafter, the Düsseldorf band made a guest appearance in the Bavarian capital. Campino later let it be known that one did not want to be said to have had the courage to play the song in Munich in this situation. They went one better and rewrote a line into “Ten Little Jägermeisters”. “Six small Jägermeisters wanted to save taxes, Hoeneß was holed up, five were allowed to pay back”.
Gerry & The Pacemakers – “You’ll Never Walk Alone”
No list of football songs without “You’ll Never Walk Alone”. The song was originally written by Broadway composer Richard Rodgers and lyricist Oscar Hammerstein. It premiered in 1945 as part of the musical Carousel. Probably the most famous cover version by Liverpool’s Gerry & The Pacemakers was created in 1963 and directed by a certain George Martin. The band shared Brian Epstein as manager and George Martin as producer with the Beatles. It wasn’t far to Anfield Road, home of Liverpool FC.
Legend has it that the club’s supporters sang it before a game in the mid-1960s after the stadium’s boxes, which entertained the crowd before kick-off, broke down. They had previously heard it at the Cavern Club, where Gerry & The Pacemakers performed regularly. “You’ll Never Walk Alone” quickly became the unofficial anthem of Liverpool FC. But the song is now an integral part of every match day, and not just in England. A little further north, Scottish series champions Celtic Glasgow have made the song their own. In Germany, Borussia Dortmund and Mainz 05 in particular are associated with “You’ll Never Walk Alone”.