The (World Cup) Friday List of Little or No Consequence #168

Record starts
12 Songs That Were Top Of The UK Singles Charts On The Day Previous World Cup Finals Began

1. Good Luck Charm by Elvis Presley (1962)
2. Sunny Afternoon by The Kinks (1966)
3. Back Home by the England World Cup Squad (1970)
4. Sugar Baby Love by The Rubettes (1974)
5. Rivers of Babylon by Boney M (1978)
6. Goody Two Shoes by Adam Ant (1982)
7. The Chicken Song by Spitting Image (1986)
8. Killer by Adamski (1990)
9. Love Is All Around by Wet Wet Wet (1994)
10. C'est La Vie by B*Witched (1998)
11. Just A Little by Liberty X (2002)
12. Axel F by Crazy Frog (2006)

16 Top World Cup Theme Tunes (Part 2)

In the previous thrilling instalment, we embarked on British TV’s journey from library music to classic opera in its search for a decent World Cup theme tune. In this concluding part, we embrace synth pop, retro Krautrock and the Great American songbook plus much more besides...

‘America’ (BBC World Cup Grandstand 1994)
Leonard Bernstein

After the rip-roaring success of Luciano Pavarotti’s Nessun Dorma in 1990, the BBC knew it had a tough act to follow, so for its 1994 outing they went for something similarly enriched in national culture. Where Italy had its opera, the USA had its musicals, and what better a song to pluck from West End Story than the unashamedly shouty America.

As unrefined and brash as Nessun Dorma was pure and graceful, America was the perfect vehicle with which to make the nation sit up and take notice (as was essential for British football fans waiting until the wee small hours for some footy action).

Though never likely to be the commercial success (of sorts) that the BBC had four years earlier with Pavarotti, the song was nevertheless a perfect choice for its coverage and a country mile ahead of ITV’s selected theme...



‘Gloryland’ (ITV World Cup ’94)
Daryl Hall with The Sounds of Blackness

An apt name for Daryl Hall’s backing vocalists given the truly uninspiring nature to this ITV theme tune. From the clichéd saxophone breaks to the wailing soft rock crooning, this indigestible slice of American schmaltz had little to endear it to the public except The Sounds of Darkness themselves.

Having said all that, it did somewhat remarkably creep up to number 36 in the UK singles chart, after which we’re guessing it crept just as quietly back down again. To make matters worse, this piece of music was usually followed by Matthew Lorenzo in a media bunker trying (but failing) to generate some enthusiasm among the British public for a competition in which no home countries were involved. In a word, ‘forgettable’.



‘Pavane’ (BBC World Cup Match of the Day, 1998)
Composer: Gabriel Fauré; Sung by the Wimbledon Choral Society

By 1998, the BBC were showing they really had the happy knack for choosing the right sort of music when there was a World Cup on. Following the formula of ‘tradition + nationality = success’, they this time plumped for the orchestral piece Pavane by French composer Fauré.

Plaintive and haunting as it steadily built to a pleasing crescendo, this piece perfectly encapsulated the sense of anticipation that comes before a World Cup match or indeed the sombre reflection of former campaigns that ended in defeat. One might even proffer that the tumultuous choral ending is indicative of the determination to strive for glory through pain and suffering.

Either way, it was enhanced no end by a clever opening title sequence that was full of understated Frenchness and nostalgic imagery to satisfy even the most disillusioned football fan. The song alone reached number 20 in the UK charts – a suitably deserving achievement for a fine piece of musical scene-setting.



Rendez-Vous 98
Jean-Michel Jarre and Apollo 440

Yet as if to prove that you don’t need a brooding, historical musical epic to compliment your World Cup TV coverage, ITV put their Gloryland nightmare behind them with a classic French synth-fest courtesy of Jean-Michel Jarre.

Working with English group Apollo 440, Jarre recreated his zingy track from the mid-80’s to instantly add some much needed credibility to the ITV programming. No doubt appealing to the younger television audience, you can imagine revellers in their thousands raving to this in Ibiza or wherever the drunken European generation were likely to take their summer holidays.

An uplifting energy-fuelled piece, ITV knew they’d hit musical gold and duly released the by now requisite single. It got to number 12 in the charts, and rightly so – this was a great World Cup theme of the sort that the BBC would probably never choose in a million years. Or so you’d think...



‘Tarantula’ (BBC World Cup Match of the Day, 2002)
Faithless

Yes, the Beeb opted for modernity in an effort to reproduce the success of Rendez-Vous so a remix of Tarantula by Faithless was called for. With hints of the Orient punctuating every bar (and we’re not referring to the Leyton variety here), this was a musical mirror being held up to the host countries of the 2002 World Cup - Japan and South Korea.

Not immediately captivating to many, this was a tune that more than likely grew on you little by little with every listen. What was distinctive about it was its subtlety and measured approach to layering melodies and instrumentation one on top of the other. With that, hidden depths can be found and were heard every time the BBC’s World Cup coverage burst onto the TV, by now presented by Gary Lineker.

Perhaps not ranked as one of the great theme tunes of all time, Tarantula (or rather the BBC’s sampled version of the same) is nonetheless one that shouldn’t be overlooked too quickly. Of high tempo and modern to the last, it capably did its job doing what ITV had done so well in 1998. It’s just a shame that ITV forgot how to do it in 2002...



‘One Fine Day’ (ITV World Cup 2002)
Opera Babes

Ironically, ITV went in the opposite direction by adopting the old BBC tried and trusted method of having a traditional-sounding operatic theme. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem to pay off as the tune they plumped for – One Fine Day by Opera Babes – lacked any kind of verve or soul.

Taken from Madame Butterfly, this classical piece was reasonable enough in its original context and certainly didn’t lack any oriental instrumentation, but it never really went anywhere. Compared to its far more melodic equivalent on ‘the other side’, One Fine Day (or One Fine Day We Shall See, to give it its proper translation from the original Italian) was the wrong piece of music for the wrong event.

A shame, then, that ITV’s recent ascendency in the World Cup theme tune stakes should be deflated quite so badly, but the use of Italian opera for an orientally-flavoured competition just wasn’t right somehow. Perhaps not the most heinous crime ever committed, but certainly a disappointing exercise in the application of music to sports TV programming - a sentence we duly admit you're unlikely to see on any other football blogsite.



‘Sports Prepare’ (BBC World Cup Match of the Day, 2006)
Composer: Carl Davis

Heading to Germany for the 2006 World Cup, both major UK broadcasters flipped back to their winning ways of old. BBC’s coverage had perhaps been lessened slightly by its dalliance with modern music in 2002, so back they went to the classics. This time they figured a composition by German-born Handel would do the trick, so Carl Davis was asked to conjure up some magic via the chorus of Judas Maccabaeus, namely See, The Conquering Hero Comes. Quite who it was that thought Sports Prepare was a good title remains a mystery.

In many ways the German equivalent to Pavane in 1998, this was a fine example of how to stir the emotions with close choral harmonies, trumpets and melody. Once again, it hoped to make classical music more appealing by putting it under the noses of ordinary punters up and down the country waiting for their footy to start, and whether it did so is open to debate. What it did confirm, however, was the BBC’s self-imposed duty to add some reverence to the world’s biggest football tournament by putting it on a pedestal along with some of the finest music the planet has ever heard.



‘Heroes’ (ITV World Cup ’06)
Kasabian

ITV’s last outing saw an interesting change of direction taken on a well-trodden path. For the 2006 World Cup, they wouldn’t just revert to modernity as had often been the case before – instead they went for something that was modern-ish and without any obvious traditional links to the host country.

David Bowie’s hit Heroes had been released in 1977 reaching 24 in the UK charts and was covered by many artists in the years that followed. With obvious lyrical references that were all too easy to absorb for glory-hungry football supporters, ITV figured it would be appreciated by ultra-partisan Sun-reading England fans and popular music aficionados alike. Whereas it might have been acceptable to trot out the original Bowie version, however, they couldn’t resist bringing it right up to date with a re-record by someone current.

And so it was that Kasabian were invited to perform their version of the song, and all things considered they didn’t do a bad job of it. Again, it probably won’t be remembered as a classic by any means, but this was miles better than ITV’s musical failure of 2002 and happily jumped on the Bowie retro bandwagon that had begun only a few months earlier with the BBC drama serial Life on Mars.



A respectable effort on which to end and the opening title sequence that accompanied it was a work of genius for which ITV should be congratulated. Whether they or the BBC will stumble upon the visuals or indeed the music to make 2010’s World Cup coverage memorable remains to be seen, but the answer won’t be long in coming now. Enjoy it when it comes.

16 Top World Cup Theme Tunes (Part 1)

Back in March, Terry brought you a popular and much needed retrospective on those top UK TV football theme tunes that filled the air of our halcyon days. As he explained at the time, however, his list was devoid of classic World Cup theme tunes - namely because we were saving them specifically for our World Cup Pull-Out. Now at last, that time has come.

With the 2010 World Cup only 16 days away, let's take a trip down memory lane and ponder awhile on those musical sig tunes that had us all humming along merrily… or not, as the case may be.

Here’s Part 1 of our guide to the Top World Cup TV Theme Tunes, and watch this space for Part 2 coming soon...

'Lap of Honour' (ITV World Cup Theme 1974)
London Stadium Orchestra

Back in the mists of time, the BBC and ITV would look no further than to plunder their sound library for a piece of music to accompany their World Cup coverage that sounded vaguely appropriate for the host country in question. England '66? That'll be something bold and brassy to reflect the bulldog spirit of old Blighty. Mexico '70? Something with lots of classical guitars and castanets. It really was that simple.

Come 1974, however, ITV were more than happy to cast off the shackles of international stereotyping by using a fairly generic piece of musical bluster to usher in the 10th World Cup in West Germany. Full of shouty brass, it's very much of its era – in fact one could argue it was still clinging onto the late-1960's by its fingertips – yet ITV would continue to plod on with it for another four years while the Beeb looked for something that sounded less dated.



'Argentine Melody' (BBC World Cup Grandstand 1978)
Performed by San Jose featuring Rodriguez Argentina (a.k.a. Rod Argent), composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber

With the 1978 World Cup in Argentina appearing on the horizon, the BBC had a very clever idea. Rather than dip into its music library for something neglected and dust-ridden, they made a call to the composer behind the hit West End musical Evita – Andrew Lloyd Webber.

With the sound of Latin American guitars still ringing in his ears, Lloyd Webber was ideally suited to conjure up the sound of Argentina for the purpose of the Beeb's World Cup coverage that year. In fact so successful was the tune he produced - Argentine Melody - that the BBC released it as a single which eventually reached number 14 in the UK charts.

ITV, meanwhile, re-recorded their theme from 1974 with some added synthesisers and considered it a job well done. We're not sure about that, but Action Argentina was certainly a job easily done.



'Jellicle Ball' (BBC World Cup Grandstand 1982)
Performed by The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, composed by Andrew Lloyd WebberNever ones to leave a winning formal well alone, the BBC arrived at the 1982 World Cup having bagged the rights to another Andrew Lloyd Webber composition, namely Jellicle Ball - an instrumental piece from the musical Cats.

Full of euphoric triumphalism and without a single castanet in sight, this brilliant orchestral composition is full of the energy and momentum that a team thrives on in pursuit of FIFA's famous gold trophy.

What's great about it is that it hasn't aged very much at all, mainly because it was never intended to be a product of its time. The Royal Philarmonic fills every second with tunefulness and melody by using every player in the orchestra to generate three minutes of unadulterated gusto.



'Matador' (ITV World Cup '82)
Jeff Wayne

The man behind the musical version of War of the Worlds and countless other TV and movie projects came up trumps with this effort which was a little sombre by comparison to the BBC's equivalent. It was, nonetheless, a brilliant combination of electric guitars, flutes and synthesisers that somehow conveyed that unmistakable air of Spanishness that 'the other side' didn't have.

Modern (in an early 80's kind of way) and nicely understated in its execution, this was a good follow-up for Wayne who composed Jubilation for ITV in 1980 – its theme to The Big Match (see previous article). More wistful and reflective in tone than Jellicle Ball, Matador's aim was to gently ease you into an evening of football from Bil-bay-oh (check Brian Moore for correct pronunciation) rather than have you on the edge of your seat before a ball was even kicked. For that very reason it was no bad thing.



'Aztec Lightning' (BBC World Cup Grandstand 1986)
Heads

The 1986 World Cup brought us two of the best themes to date from the BBC and ITV. This one by Paul Hart and Helmut Zacharias (better known as Heads, but only just mind you) had all the traditional Mexican instrumentation thrown into the mix along with the kitchen sink, we shouldn't wonder.

The main musical motif is a phalanx of horns which keep the melody chugging along and which also herald the start of the tune itself. With a synthesized bass providing a percussive backbeat and the occasional carnival whistle to remind us we’re in Latin America, this is an exercise in upbeat rabble rousing, but good though this was, many felt it had met its match in ITV's offering that same year...



'Aztec Gold' (ITV World Cup '86)
Performed by Silsoe, composed by Rod Argent

No, we haven't heard of Silsoe either, but that's to miss the point. Here was a theme tune that was so good, ITV used it for various projects many years after Mexico ‘86, most notably Saint and Greavsie.

With some similar elements to the BBC’s Aztec-oriented theme tune, ITV once again out-moderned its rivals with a piece of music that was brighter and some would say more melodic. Rife with the ubiquitous clickety-click of the castanets plus a searing electric guitar element that made it borderline soft-rock, the song was inevitably released as a single which reached number 48 in the UK charts. Probably not high enough, in our opinion, for this was a true 80’s classic.



'Nessun Dorma' (BBC World Cup Grandstand 1990)
Sung by Luciano Pavarotti

Not strictly a specifically commissioned piece of music for a World Cup TV programme, but the BBC does deserve the credit for recognising the beauty and passion that lies within this aria by Puccini.

Before 1990, no-one would have thought to plunder an operatic work to front its World Cup coverage, but the UK populous took to it like Gary Lineker to a penalty spot. Suddenly everyone knew who Luciano Pavarotti was, everyone was discovering opera and everyone understood the raw emotions it conveyed. For that reason alone it was the perfect choice of musical accompaniment for the four-yearly footballing rollercoaster that we all found ourselves on. Overlay some visuals of Gazza blubbing his eyes out and Marco Tardelli wheeling away after scoring a goal in a state of near orgasm and you have the true connoisseur’s choice of World Cup theme tune.



'Tutti Al Mondo' (ITV World Cup '90)
Composed by Rod Argent and Peter Van Hooke

Unfairly overshadowed by Pavarotti & Co, Tutti Al Mondo takes the operatic oeuvre and drags it kicking and screaming into the 1990's.

Blending the traditional towering Italian vocals and orchestral overtones into a tasteful hip-hop fusion, this concoction of funk and fortissimo was improved yet further by a brilliant computer-generated title sequence (see below). Put together, ITV had created a potent opening package for its Italia '90 programming, but even without the visuals this was a vibrant and enthralling musical piece that in any other World Cup year would have gained greater exposure and admiration. Of all the years to run into Pavarotti...



Coming up in Part 2: Synth pop, retro Krautrock and the Great American songbook plus much more besides...

SPAOTP's Advent Calendar: Day 19

As it's the weekend, we thought we'd go easy on you by providing a musical interlude by which to relax and be peaceful. Rather than going out shopping for last minute Christmas presents, for instance.

So here's a song which is short on festive appeal but strong on football influences, but we don't suppose you'll mind. Here's 'The Referee's Alphabet' by Half Man Half Biscuit, as inspired by a blog post from our good friend at TwoFootedTackle, Gary Andrews.

Enjoy...

The Friday List of Little or No Consequence #66

Altogether now, you all know this one...
16 Songs By Football Teams That Were Once Available To Buy On The Open Market

1. 'Back Home' (England World Cup Squad, 1970)
2. 'Anfield Rap' (Liverpool, 1988)
3. 'Good Old Arsenal' (Arsenal, 1971)
4. 'Tottenham Tottenham' (Tottenham Hotspur, 1982)
5. 'Glory Glory Man United' (Manchester United, 1983)
6. 'Easy Easy' (Scotland World Cup Squad, 1974)
7. 'Hot Shot Tottenham' (Tottenham, 1987)
8. 'Here We Go' (Everton, 1985)
9. 'We Can Do It' (Liverpool, 1977)
10. 'Hot Stuff' (Arsenal, 1998)
11. 'Leeds United' (Leeds United, 1972)
12. 'Blue Is The Colour' (Chelsea, 1972)
13. 'We Have A Dream' (Scotland World Cup Squad, 1982)
14. 'Ossie's Dream' (Tottenham, 1981)
15. 'Come On You Reds' (Manchester United, 1994)
16. 'Ole Ola (Mulher Brasileira)' (Scotland World Cup Squad, 1978)