New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Football is electric. The excitement that trails the game is unbelievable, right from the stadium throbbing with fans to the punters savoring fantastic odds on their teams on meta.reviews.
It even gets more mesmerizing when you hear fans in stadiums passionately sing their club anthems. Of course, the crowds don't sing as melodiously as Ed Sheeran nor Beyonce.
But neither of the two musical megastars can replicate the energy of thousands of fans clamoring their undying love for their club. It is magical, to say the least.
You must have wondered how the famous songs came about. How did they get adopted into club anthems religiously passed on from one football generation to another?
In this piece, we will educate you on some of the most popular football songs and their history.
You'll Never Walk Alone
Liverpool fans live and die by this song. A typical big match day at Anfield sees the famously energetic Kopp bellow this song at the top of their voices as the players emerge from the tunnel.
But would you be shocked to learn this song goes back to the 1960s?
Yes, back in the '60s, Liverpool was teeming with British rock music. The Beatles pulled global attention to Liverpool, with Merseybeat fast becoming an international obsession.
In 1959, Gerry Marsden and his cohorts formed Gerry & The Pacemakers with their song 'You'll Never Walk Alone', topping the UK charts.
The sense of collectivism and emotional togetherness the song roused was so powerful that Liverpool fans sang it on the Kop (in Anfield) every week consecutively for one month.
Gerry Marsden gave Bill Shankly (at the time Liverpool manager) a personal copy of the song in Liverpool's pre-season tour at the beginning of the year.
So madly in love were Liverpool fans with the song that the Liverpool media authoritatively declared the song the 'new song of Liverpool FC'.
Since then, the song has been entrenched in Liverpool's DNA, cementing its place as the Kop Psalm.
The Blue Moon
Yes, Man City have its sacred anthem too. Composed by Hart and Rodgers, the Blue Moon was quickly adopted and integrated into Man City's football culture.
And yes, the song was melodiously rich enough for such reception. The likes of Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley both sang their custom versions of the song.
By the 1989/90 season, Man City fans seized ownership of the song. The song retains a symbolic sacredness among Man City fans, given its role in the club's first victory in the 1989/90 season.
In that season, Man City went on 41 games without a win. By April 1, 1990, Man City went to Villa Park to play Aston Villa, who were chasing the Premier League trophy.
With no single victory in 41 previous games, it was an April Fool's hoax to expect Man City even to leave Villa Park with a point.
However, the Blue Moon song thundered through the Man City faithful throughout the match, and Man City unbelievably executed a feat that happens in a blue moon indeed. They triumphed 2-1 for the very first time.
Since then, Man City fans have irrevocably embedded the song into their identity, and it is not uncommon to hear the fans singing it on their biggest matches or fierce derbies with Man United.
Z-Cars
With the red half of Merseyside (Liverpool F.C) raving with the "You will never walk alone", the blue half (Everton) needed a powerful response. Everton fans found that response in the Z-Cars anthem.
Back in 1962, an engrossing TV series, Z-Cars, hit the British media. It had little to no connection to football, except that a prominent actor in the movie, Leonard Williams, was a die-hard Everton fan.
The movie was a resounding success by the metrics of that time. As things would have it, Everton emerged victorious in the 1962/63 season. The Z-Car song prominently depicting the boys in blue quickly had an Evertonian sentiment attached to it.
Since then, Everton fans have adored the song as it commemorated their conquest of England in that football season. A misadventure from Peter Johnson - Everton Chairman in the 1994/95 season - led to another anthem being adopted in the place of the Z-Cars.
Expectedly, the new anthem lacked that sentimental spice that aroused Evertonian hearts. Quickly in November 1994, Joe Royle reinstated the Z-Cars back as the club anthem when he returned.
