England Football Songs

The idea of a football team having an official song might seem more than a bit silly to many, which is entirely understandable. Yet it is also something that both teams and supporters have got on board with over the years, producing more than a few memorable tunes that will raise a smile.

When it comes to England, it happened for the first time in 1970, when the Football Association gave its approval to a song ahead of the 1970 World Cup. In the years that followed, it was often unofficial songs that performed better in the charts, even though official ones continued to be released.

What Are the Songs?

First things first, then, and a look at the official songs that have been released by England over the years, as well as the position that they made it to in the charts:

Looking at the Number 1s

Whilst we could take a closer look at all of the songs, some of them are so bad as to mean that they don’t really deserve such time spent on them. The fact that Sing 4 England didn’t even make it into the charts probably tells its own story, for example. As a result, we are instead going to have a look at the songs that did make it to number one, exploring why they did so and what kind of an impact they had on England supporters and the tournaments as a whole.

Back Home

In 1966, England hosted the World Cup and the Three Lions went on to win the trophy for the first time. World Cup Willie had been the official song of the tournament, paving the way for what was to follow. Four years later and England went into the competition in great spirits, buoyed by a song written by Bill Martin and Phil Coulter called Back Home. It began the tradition of seeing the England squad taking part in singing the song, hitting the top of the charts and remaining there for three weeks, also becoming a hit in Ireland where it reached number three.

Sadly, it didn’t do enough to inspire the players on the pitch. Instead, they crashed out of the World Cup at the quarter-final stage, losing 3-2 to West Germany. It was also something of a death knell for England in the tournament, with the Three Lions failing to qualify for either of the next two World Cups. Even when the team did qualify for the knockout stage of the World Cups of 1982 and 1986, recording official records as a result, they did not manage to get back to the top spot for two decades. It was later used as the theme song for Fantasy Football League, the TV show.

World in Motion

Do songs do well because the football team that they represent do well, or do the football teams do well because they have a song to inspire them? World in Motion is probably a good argument for the latter, having been written by New Order and performed by the players. It is, in fact, the only number one that New Order managed in the UK Singles Chart, which maybe tells its own story. In the middle of the song, there is a rap performed by England player John Barnes, whilst some of the additional voice work was carried out by the comedian Keith Allen.

Allen had co-written the lyrics, which originally said, “E is for England, England starts with E, we’ll all be smiling when we’re in Italy.” The Football Association vetoed the idea, however, when it became suspicious that it sounded as though it was a reference to the drug ecstasy. The recording took place on the afternoon of the 25th of March 1990 before the squad met up, with Barnes, Peter Beardsley, Paul Gascoigne, Steve McMahon, Chris Waddle and Des Walker turning up to the studio to help. Kenneth Wolstenholme re-recorded his line ‘They think it’s all over’ to be used on the track.

Three Lions

Perhaps no football song has ever caught the zeitgeist quite like Three Lions, which was written by Ian Broudie of the Lightning Seeds with lyrics written by comedians David Baddiel and Frank Skinner. Released on the 20th of May 1996 by Epic Records, it was a huge hit and told the story of the general feeling of positivity towards the England team that summer, when the nation played host to the European Championship. It reached number one again in 1998 when it was re-released, but that wasn’t an official England song sanctioned by the Football Association.

Broudie had been asked by the FA to come up with a song for the Euros and decided to create one that he thought would be a good chant on the terraces. There is crowd noise at the start, which is actually supporters of Brøndy that Broudie had recorded at Anfield when they played Liverpool in a UEFA Cup tie in 1995. The ‘three lions’ refer to the England badge, whilst the ‘it’s coming home’ lyric is a reference to the fact that it was the first time that England had hosted a major tournament since winning the World Cup. It remains a popular part of England fan culture, still heard on the terraces today.

Shout (Shout for England song)

There was an ensemble put together in order to create Shout (Shout for England song), led by the rapper Dizzee Rascal, as well as the comedian James Corden. It was actually an unofficial song for the 2010 World Cup, featuring extracts from the Tears for Fears song also called Shout. Whilst many might feel as though James Corden really shouldn’t be allowed to be any part of a number one song, it did make it all the way to the top of the charts after having been released by Syco Music in association with TalkTalk, the telecommunications company.

Dizzee Rascal wrote additional lyrics that he performed for the song. It debuted at the top spot in the charts, making it there thanks to download performance alone. There were actually two other unofficial songs released in the same summer, including Wavin’ Flag (The Celebration Mix) by K’naan. All of the royalties from the song went to Great Ormond Street Hospital. The song spent two weeks in the top spot before being replaced by Katy Perry’s California Gurls. In 2012, a remix of the song was released but only made it to number 43 in the charts.