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Among the dozens of framed platinum and gold discs hanging proudly at the home of retired songwriter and producer Geoff Morrow, a surprise choice takes centre stage above his sofa.
"I've had hits with Elvis Presley, The Carpenters and Barry Manilow," the former impresario of record label Ammo tells FourFourTwo. "I like to show them off because it's the cheapest way of decorating.
But the one I cherish the most? The one that takes precedence above all others? Hot Stuff, by Arsenal Football Club."
Press play on FourFourTwo's specially curated playlist of the Greatest-Ever Football Songs below for the perfect soundtrack to this article
100,000 record sales you'll never sing that
The surprise track - a rewrite of Donna Summer's 1979 smash, sung by a choir of Arsenal stars including Ian Wright, Dennis Bergkamp and Nicolas Anelka - achieved 100,000 sales in 1998 as Arsene Wenger's side won the Double.
With lyrics such as, "You're telling us we're boring, we'll just keep on scoring", the song was snaffled up by Gooners and climbed to No.9 in the UK charts.
"It was a great record and it succeeded on its own merits, despite the fact it was a football song," says Morrow proudly.
Arsenal and Morrow were back in the charts just two years later with Arsenal Number One. Adapted from Lou Bega's 1999 hit Mambo No.5, it reached No.46. The lyrics ("A little bit of Keown in defence, a little bit of Vivas makes good sense") were co-written by David Dein, the Gunners' vice-chairman at the time.
"After my family and football, theatre had always been my great passion, and I relished the opportunity to be involved in a football song about Arsenal," Dein tells FFT.
"My daughter came up with a brilliant line: "It only took a minute, but then we went and did it", referencing the 1989 league title win at Anfield. It was a family effort, and a lot of fun."
Inspired by Zebedee
By the turn of the millennium, football songs had become a regular feature on Top of the Pops.
Whether written and performed by musicians or sung by players themselves, countless efforts had entered the mainstream over the preceding decades.
That hadn't always been the case. Until the 1970s, songs associated with football clubs tended to be everyday hits adopted by supporters.
Ditties such as You'll Never Walk Alone, Blue Moon and Delilah, cherished by fans of Liverpool, Manchester City and Stoke respectively, all found fame in their own right before being picked up by fanbases later on.
Not that purpose-written football songs were an alien concept.
In 1957, Caribbean singer Edric Connor recorded Manchester United Calypso. "Manchester United: a bunch of bouncing Busby Babes, they deserve to be knighted," crooned the Trinidadian, who fell in love with the Red Devils after moving to England during the war.
The song gained popularity around Old Trafford ahead of their 1957 FA Cup Final showdown with Aston Villa.
Four years later came Tip Top (The Spurs Song) by The Totnamites, before World Cup songs became a thing: 1962 anthem El Rock del Mundial by Chilean group Los Ramblers preceded World Cup Willie by Lonnie Donegan, celebrating the 1966 tournament's lion mascot, although the song only reached No.53 in the UK chart.
In 1967, Tottenham's FA Cup final-winning team - Terry Venables and Jimmy Greaves among them - recorded Glory Glory Hallelujah.
Things really got going when, buoyed by the national team's victory over West Germany on home soil, the FA released the first ever official England song ahead of the 1970 World Cup.
Back Home, a marching song performed by the full Three Lions squad, made no reference to actually winning the tournament - how modest - but focused instead on the support they would receive from Blighty.
"Back home, they'll be thinking about us when we are far away," chorused a group including Bobby Moore, Bobby Charlton and Gordon Banks, ranked at no.66 in FourFourTwo's list of the greatest players of all time.
It wasn't the edgiest number, yet it sailed to No.1 on star power alone. A football song had finally conquered the UK charts (curiously, it also reached No.2 in Ireland).
It fared rather better than the England team did in Mexico, where the holders were eliminated in the quarter-finals by West Germany.
Inspired by the success of Back Home, pundit Jimmy Hill challenged Arsenal to create a new anthem that could rival Liverpool's love affair with You'll Never Walk Alone.
Arsenal agreed to let Hill run a competition on ITV, inviting fans to write a song.
Entries poured in, only for Hill, deciding most of them were terrible, to scrap the contest and write it himself.
He came up with Good Old Arsenal, to the melody of Rule, Britannia! (we can only imagine how bad those ITV entries must have been), which was sung by the Arsenal squad and released ahead of their appearance in the 1971 FA Cup Final.
It reached No.16 in the charts. Some Gooners considered it a bit bland, but it left a lasting impression on others.
"I absolutely loved that song," recalls David Dein. "When I proposed to my wife in 1972, I made it a condition that she had to learn the words of Good Old Arsenal, which was released the year before, when we won the Double. She did it, to be fair to her."
Cup final singles quickly became more common. Chelsea followed suit for their 1972 League Cup Final clash with Stoke: Blue Is The Colour was performed by Ron 'Chopper' Harris, Peter Osgood and more, reaching No.5 in the charts, only for Chelsea to be toppled by the Potters.
It spawned covers around the world, with Ajax, Vancouver Whitecaps and even the Danish Olympic football team releasing their own versions, changing the colour where necessary.
Meanwhile, Leeds United, with vocals from a squad featuring Billy Bremner and Johnny Giles, reached No.10 ahead of the 1972 FA Cup Final, although its B-side, Leeds Leeds Leeds (Marching On Together), was the song that became more famous.
That was also the year that Ammo Records chief Geoff Morrow - the man behind some of Arsenal's most famous tunes - first stepped into a burgeoning genre.
"One of our artists was the band Edison Lighthouse, who'd just had a big hit with Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)," reflects Morrow. "We wrote them another song called Find Mr Zebedee, after The Magic Roundabout character.
Unfortunately, that one didn't sell. "One of our promotion people - a big Gunner, like myself - said, 'Why don't we change it into a football song?' He wanted to make the chorus, 'Arsenal, we're on your side'.
I thought he was mad, but it hadn't been a hit anyway, so I reluctantly agreed. We released it with new lyrics and the same backing track.
To my surprise, it caught on with the fans. Arsenal got in touch to ask if we'd like to collaborate more going forward."
The arrangement ultimately led to Morrow accepting a job offer.
"When David Dein became involved at the club, he asked me if I wanted to become Arsenal's unofficial musical consultant," the 82-year-old tells FFT.
"I said, 'What an honour - when shall we discuss my terms? David said, 'Terms?! We won't be paying you', which I found hilarious. "Of course, I agreed on the spot."
Peter Beardsley: not a rapper
During the 1970s, football's enduring hits also included Cockerel Chorus' Nice One, Cyril, adapted from a tune used on a Wonderloaf bread advert to instead serenade Spurs left-back Cyril Knowles.
It even earned the songwriters an Ivor Novello Award for best novel song.
That was followed by Ally's Tartan Army, written by Scottish comedian Andy Cameron to celebrate his nation's qualification for the 1978 World Cup under Ally MacLeod, and Head Over Heels In Love, a 1979 solo pop hit for Hamburg and England talisman Kevin Keegan, the reigning Ballon d'Or holder at the time.
It sold more than 200,000 copies in Germany and reached No.31 in the UK charts. Popular artists muscled in.
Cockney duo Chas & Dave released no fewer than three FA Cup final ditties for Tottenham throughout the 1980s; the first, Ossie's Dream, hailed star player Ossie Ardiles and featured the iconic opening couplet, "Ossie's going to Wembley, his knees have gone all trembly".
Everton reached No.14 with Here We Go in 1985, but the decade's most memorable football song was arguably Liverpool's Anfield Rap, released before the Reds' 1988 FA Cup Final against Wimbledon.
The idea was cooked up by Australian midfielder Craig Johnston, who famously invented the Predator football boot. Johnston thought it'd be fun to lampoon the squad's various accents.
Born-and-bred Liverpudlians John Aldridge and Steve McMahon led the way ("The rest of the lads ain't got it sussed; we'll have to learn 'em to talk like us"), while John Barnes, Bruce Grobbelaar and even commentator Brian Moore laid down some bars. Although it was panned by critics, even before the Culture Club slumped to a shock 1-0 defeat against the Crazy Gang, the song reached the top three of the charts.
Liverpool weren't alone in receiving a pasting from critics.
England's 1986 World Cup song, We've Got The Whole World At Our Feet, was described as "complete garbage" by the NME and failed to make the top 60.
Thankfully, a tonic was in the mix. For Italia '90, the FA recruited New Order to write England's official song, and World In Motion was like nothing before it.
With a killer synth hook, Balearic beat and memorable lyrics, it felt refreshingly modern.
"It would have been a great New Order song even without a football angle," the band's bassist, Peter Hook, later admitted to FFT.
After sharing the track with the FA, everyone agreed that they were onto a winner... but there was something missing.
Fearing it might not be quite memorable enough, the band hired actor Keith Allen to inject some humour into the lyrics.
Allen's idea was to add a rap segment performed by a player. Des Walker, Paul Gascoigne - who'd release his own hit, post-tournament, with Fog On The Tyne - and a number of others auditioned for the rap, but one man was clear of the rest.
"Even Peter Beardsley had a go, but they wisely went for John Barnes," recalled Paul Parker.
Barnes' verse ("You've got to hold and give, but do it at the right time...") added an unforgettable element to a tune that shot to No.1.
Despite his performance, the winger received just �200 for his efforts.
"I'm sure New Order did very well out of it!" Barnes told FFT years later.
"An agent came to us and said that we had a choice of royalties or getting �5,000 to split between the squad.
"Someone said, 'Well, do royalties mean that if we don't sell any records, we get nothing?' This was before we knew it was going to be a New Order song. Had we known about that, we would have made a different decision!"
For some, World In Motion remains the definitive football song. For others, it's not even the best football song of the decade.
The FA opted for Simply Red's We're In This Together as the official song for Euro '96, the first tournament England had hosted since 1966, but the tune drew poor reviews when played at the group-stage draw months before the finals, and it was decided that they needed to go bigger.
The Lightning Seeds were recruited, and after coming up with a melody, songwriter Ian Broudie invited Fantasy Football hosts Frank Skinner and David Baddiel to pen some lyrics.
"We were kind of the nation's football fans, so he said we should do the words, Baddiel later said.
"Cheekily, particularly given my vocal talents, we said we wanted to sing as well!"
Three Lions eschewed messages of glory in favour of something that felt more real, considering England's lack of success over the past three decades.
"The FA hated it when they first heard it," revealed Broudie. "They said, 'What's all this about? "We're gonna throw it away?" The players were the same."
They won around the doubters, and the rest is history.
Three Lions was released in May 1996 and sold 100,000 copies in its opening week, topping the charts as England progressed to the semi-finals. Along with its sister version, released for France '98, it's been called the 'de facto England anthem'.
LEE SHARPE 1 BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN 0
Three Lions was the third England song to top the charts, but only one record by a football club has reached No.1: Manchester United's Come On You Reds, released for the 1994 FA Cup Final.
Teaming up with Status Quo, it was a rewrite of their 1988 banger Burning Bridges, with the United players' names threaded expertly into the bridge section.
"Schmeichel, Parker, Pallister; Irwin, Bruce, Sharpe and Ince; Hughes, McClair, Keane and Cantona... Robson, Kanchelskis and Giggs!" warbles Lee Sharpe without a moment's hesitation when FFT mentions it.
"It still comes into my head at random times! It was brilliant and Status Quo were legends."
In the accompanying music video, the Quo are backed by a choir of United stars while Sharpe is front and centre, strumming a guitar, hogging the mic.
"All of the other lads were shuffling to the back, so I got involved to take the pressure off them," continues a grinning Sharpe (we don't believe the 53-year-old for a second).
"I remember Gary Pallister having a cracking voice, but Paul Parker, Roy Keane and Denis Irwin were hating it.
That was a great day and a lot of fun. Beers were laid on at the studio and we went out on the town afterwards."
The song's huge success means that Manchester United have more UK No.1 singles than Led Zeppelin, Dolly Parton, Amy Winehouse and Bruce Springsteen put together.
"Not too bad, given I'm probably the worst singer in history," laughs Sharpe. "I'm quite proud of that!"
A free bar was also key in coaxing a rambunctious performance from Liverpool's players for the Merseysiders' second-biggest hit - Pass & Move (It's the Liverpool Groove), before the 1996 FA Cup Final against Manchester United.
"The manager let us have a day out on the drink and we recorded it in the same Liverpool studio that the Beatles used we really let that studio down, didnt we? former defender Neil Razor Ruddock jokes to FFT, confessing that their own musical skills fell some way short of the Fab Four.
Following his experience with Anfield Rap and World In Motion, John Barnes again took a leading role.
He got there early because he wouldnt rap in front of us, says Ruddock, smiling.
Barnes was the veteran of a fun-loving squad nicknamed the Spice Boys, including Robbie Fowler and Steve McManaman, who famously rocked up at Wembley wearing cream suits.
I remember my line in the song was, You get cut... playing with the Razor, says Ruddock.
Then we sung, Go Robbie, go Robbie, go! Robbie and Stevie Mac were worse than me, though disgusting voices. They would have got a buzzer straight away from Simon Cowell!
There was a bar in this place and we all had a few too many, drinking, singing and dancing great memories, even though we lost the final.
I got dropped for the final. Sorry, I got rested, didnt I? In your piece, I did not get dropped! There was a big season coming up...
While the 1990s packed in plenty of other belters from Ian Wrights 1993 solo effort, Do The Right Thing, to Suggs Chelsea song ahead of the 1997 FA Cup Final, Blue Day the decade also marked the end of an era.
Post-millennium, footballs jukebox began to steadily wind down.
Englands tournament tunes lost their magic, and official FA Cup final songs faded from tradition.
The last one featuring a squad came 17 years ago, when second-tier Cardiff reached the 2008 FA Cup Final: Bluebirds Flying High reached No.15 in the charts, but Portsmouth won the showpiece 1-0 and songwriter James Fox, a former Eurovision Song Contest contestant, conceded, No one will listen to this again.
International tournaments are now the only real source of football songs.
From Shakiras Waka Waka (This Time for Africa) reimagined for Qatar by Wales fans among others in 2022 to Bellinis Samba do Brasil in 2014, theres life in the genre yet, even if a return to tipsy footballers rubbing shoulders with rock stars appears to be a thing of the past.
Players these days wouldnt want to embarrass themselves, and their agents would all want a slice of the pie as well, laments Ruddock.
For those who were involved in the glory days of football songs, however, such as the No.1 hit Come On You Reds, fond memories remain.
Loads of kids dream of growing up to be a footballer or pop star, muses Sharpe.
Thanks to that song, I got a taste of both.
Football's Ultimate Top 40 Songs of All-Time
Football's Ultimate Top 40 Playlist
Swipe to scroll horizontally
RANK | ARTIST | TITLE | RELEASED | ORIGINAL CHART POSITION |
|---|---|---|---|---|
01 | Baddiel and Skinner & The Lightning Seeds | Three Lions | 1996 | 1 |
02 | New Order | World In Motion | 1990 | 1 |
03 | Shakira feat. Freshlyground | Waka Waka (This Time For Africa) | 2010 | 21 |
04 | Dario G | Carnaval de Paris | 1998 | 5 |
05 | Fat Les | Vindaloo | 1998 | 2 |
06 | Collapsed Lung | Eat My Goal | 1996 | 18 |
07 | Suggs | Blue Day | 1997 | 22 |
08 | Knaan | Wavin' Flag | 2009 | 2 |
09 | West Ham United Cup Squad | I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles | 1975 | 31 |
10 | Leeds United | Leeds Leeds Leeds (Marching On Together) | 1972 | 10* |
11 | Tony Britten | UEFA Champions League Anthem | 1992 | - |
12 | England World Cup Squad | Back Home | 1970 | 1 |
13 | Manchester United Football Squad feat. Status Quo | Come On You Reds | 1994 | 1 |
14 | Atomic Kitten | Southgate Youre The One (Footballs Coming Home Again) | 2021 | 14 |
15 | Liverpool FC | Anfield Rap | 1988 | 3 |
16 | Chelsea Football Team | Blue Is The Colour | 1972 | 5 |
17 | Bellini | Samba do Brasil | 2014 | - |
18 | Andy Cameron | Ally's Tartan Army | 1977 | 6 |
19 | Black Grape, Joe Strummer and Keith Allen | England's Irie | 1995 | 6 |
20 | Lonnie Donegan | World Cup Willie | 1966 | 53 |
21 | Chas & Dave, Tottenham Hotspur 1981 FA Cup Final Squad | Ossie's Dream (Spurs Are On Their Way To Wembley) | 1981 | 5 |
22 | Bell & Spurling | Sven Sven Sven | 2001 | 7 |
23 | Ant & Dec | We're On The Ball | 2002 | 3 |
24 | Everton | All Together Now | 1995 | 24 |
25 | Gazza and Lindisfarne | Fog On The Tyne (Revisited) | 1990 | 2 |
26 | FC Barcelona | Cant del Bara (Official Club Anthem) | 1974 | - |
27 | Dafydd Iwan x Ar Log x The Red Wall | Yma o Hyd | 2022 | - |
28 | Louis Dunford | The Angel (North London Forever) | 2022 | - |
29 | Chumbawamba | Top Of The World (Ole Ole Ole) | 1998 | 21 |
30 | E-Type | Campione 2000 | 2000 | 58 |
31 | England National Team | This Time (We'll Get It Right) | 1982 | 2 |
32 | Ian Wright | Do The Right Thing | 1993 | 43 |
33 | Everton | Here We Go | 1985 | 14 |
34 | England United | (How Does It Feel To Be) On Top Of The World | 1998 | 9 |
35 | Edric Connor | Manchester United Calypso | 1957 | - |
36 | Roy Green | Let 'Em Come (Millwall FC) | 1985 | - |
37 | Kevin Keegan | Head Over Heels In Love | 1979 | 31 |
38 | Glenn Hoddle & Chris Waddle | Diamond Lights | 1987 | 12 |
39 | Cockerel Chorus | Nice One Cyril | 1973 | 14 |
40 | Andy Cole | Outstanding | 1999 | 68 |
*As B-side to song Leeds United
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