Classic Pop Icons

For football fans, the waiting is over. World Cup 2010 kicks off today in South Africa. For England, it’s been a 44-year wait since they last lifted the trophy, but there’s one area in which England is a world beater – the dodgy World Cup song! With no official England World Cup song this year, there’s at least 30 vying to be the most popular and most are as bad as you would imagine. So if most England World Cup songs have been terrible, which are the best?

At this point I was going to do a top 10 list of songs, but finding 10 that were even vaguely listenable proved impossible, so I settled on four (two of which are pretty terrible. 🙂 ) Here goes…

Baddiel and Skinner/The Lightning Seeds – Three Lions 98 (1998)

This one was originally made for the 1996 European Championships, but it really caught on as a football anthem and was re-released for World Cup 1998. There’s even a new version for World Cup 2010 featuring Robbie Williams.

England had a poor tournament in 1998, only making it to the second round. They were knocked out by Argentina on penalties.

England World Cup Squad and New Order – World in Motion (1990)

This collaboration between 80s electro-pop legends New Order and the England team resulted in a fairly credible song. There’s even a rap from John Barnes which falls into the “it’s so bad it’s good” category.

England made it to the semi-finals and were knocked out by Germany on penalties.

England World Cup Squad – Back Home (1970)

This is really where the tradition for World Cup songs began. Unlike now, where the four-yearly “England CAN DO IT” utterings start to feel a little optimistic, in 1970 England were the holders. As things turned out, the cup that was won in 1966 didn’t come “back home” and England didn’t appear in another World Cup until 1982.

England made it to the quarter-finals in 1970 and were knocked out by West Germany.

England World Cup Squad – This Time (we’ll get it right) (1982)

Back in the cup after 12 years (failing to qualify in 1974 and 1978), the England team were keen to assure us that they would “get it right.” With the likes of Keegan, Francis, Hoddle and Shilton in the team, it seemed reasonable to be positive about England’s prospects, but despite not losing a match, “Ron’s 22” failed to progress to the knockout stages.

FIFA’s World Cup 2010 song

Although there is no official England World Cup song for 2010, there is an overall FIFA World Cup 2010 song – “Shakira feat Freshlyground: Waka Waka (This Time For Africa)”

Charity single – “If I Can Dream”

And finally, if only as a reminder of how well Elvis sang this song, we have former England manager Terry Venables singing “If I Can Dream” for World Cup 2010.

This is a charity single and can be purchased here

The World Cup at Glastonbury

Glastonbury Festival organisers have announced that they will broadcast England’s World Cup games. The group match against Slovenia on June 23 will be broadcast on a large screen at the Pyramid Stage at 3pm. An alternative location will be made available to view the next game, if England progress to the knock out stages. This will be on either Saturday at 7.30pm (if group winners) or Sunday at 3pm (if group runners up).

The first England match will also be shown at the Isle of Wight Festival this Saturday.

For those of you with a team in this great tournament, good luck and I hope you enjoy it.