With the World Cup in Brazil just around the corner I thought it's time to review some of the football songs we've had over the years that surround the major football tournaments.
New Order - World In Motion
1990 was a very important year in rap music: Ice-T and Run DMC were still going strong, Public Enemy dropped Fear of a Black Planet, Ice Cube released his first solo album after breaking with N.W.A. and England winger John Barnes of all people did his part for one of the country's best loved football anthems. It's not just the rap (that people drunkenly try to sing along to every two years) that makes this song iconic, it's a great mix of New Order's dance sound and a good old-fashioned football match sing-along, either way it's very catchy and easy to sing along to.
Baddiel & Skinner and The Lightning Seeds
Like New Order, a song very heavily influenced by its time, with The Lightning Seeds providing a britpop backdrop. What makes it really great is it captures perfectly what it means to be an England fan, being let down time and again but still believing that they can redeem themselves at the next tournament and emulate the heroes of '66.
Both the '96 and '98 versions got to #1, it turns out it's one of only two songs that has reached the top of the charts twice with different lyrics; the other you ask? Mambo No. 5, originally by Lou Bega, covered by Bob the Builder.
Pitbull ft. Jennifer Lopez - We Are One (Ole Ola)
No...not you two again. why do Pitbull and Jennifer Lopez have to keep getting together for pop songs? I've complained about 'On The Floor' and 'Dance Again' before on this blog and it looks like I have to cover them again. For goodness sake it is no surprise that Pitbull has landed himself the job of singing the official World Cup song being the generic, corporate muppet that he is. The title says it all to be honest, it's a song that is so hopelessly trying to be memorable and inviting all to sing along that it falls flat on its face, that and there's always the problem of Pitbull writing lyrics. I don't think I'll mind hearing it on TV too much this year though: the obligatory samba backdrop for the song makes it at least passable in spite of whatever the featured artists could do.
442 - Come On England
Now right off the bat I'll come out and say I don't really like 'Come On Eileen' by Dexy's Midnight Runners but this song is egregious on possibly every level. New Order mixed in a few words from Kenneth Wolstenholme's legendary commentary in '66, Baddiel and Skinner had a bit more commentary and pundit quotes from the 90s for their introduction; but 45 seconds of unbroken commentary of David Beckham's free-kick vs. Greece in 2001 is just awkward. Add to that the crime of shoehorning lyrics into a popular song means the song is like a carcrash, you want to look away but you just can't. The video also includes the singer repeatedly committing the offence of getting far too close to the camera while pulling gawky smiles as he sings the words, almost as if he knows how bad the song is already.
