Baddiel, Skinner & The Lightning Seeds
The Lightning Seeds and comedians David Baddiel and Frank Skinner collaborated in 1996 with the official anthem of the England football team, Three Lions, for that year's European Championships, which were held in England. The music was written by Ian Broudie, with comedians Baddiel and Skinner providing the lyrics with the title title referring to the emblem of the England football team, which is in turn derived from the Coat of Arms of England. The song was re-released with different lyrics in 1998 for the Football World Cup, Three Lions '98. This song was the only single to ever go to top the British charts twice with different lyrics.
The original version of the song still receives regular airplay in England around the time of a major football tournament. It has been adopted as a terrace chant and is occasionally sung by fans at England international matches today. When it was sung by England fans at the 2006 World Cup after England took the lead against Paraguay, commentator John Motson remarked, "As football songs go, Three Lions is certainly the best".
The lyrics, unlike most football songs, spoke not of unbounded optimism for victory, but instead told of how, ever since 1966 and the one unequivocal success of the English football team, every tournament has ended in dashed hopes. However, the repeated failures have not dampened the feeling that England could again reach those heights ("Three Lions on a shirt, Jules Rimet still gleaming. Thirty years of hurt, never stopped me dreaming")
The song makes reference to English heroes of the past, specifically Bobby Moore, Gary Lineker, Bobby Charlton and Nobby Stiles. According to Frank Skinner's autobiography, the original lyrics submitted to the FA included the line "Butcher ready for war", in reference to Terry Butcher's notorious heroic performance in a qualifying game against Sweden. The FA requested this was changed, so as to avoid hooliganism imagery, and the "Bobby belting the ball" was written as a replacement. The "ready for war" motif was later used in the 1998 version of the song, attributed to Paul Ince.
The commentary of the end of the song contrasts that of the song's opening with positive lines which suggest that England could win a major football championship. The crowd noise in the intro of the track is in fact Brøndby fans recorded by Ian Broudie at Anfield during a UEFA Cup tie in October 1995.
The Britpop phenomenon was at its peak in 1996, and the Lightning Seeds were one of its leading lights, so their involvement gave the song very wide appeal. It reached number one in the singles chart, and as England progressed to the semi-finals, stadia around the country echoed to the sound of fans singing the song after English victories over Scotland, the Netherlands and Spain. It was so popular, in fact, that even other teams liked it. England faced Germany in the semi-finals, and Jürgen Klinsmann said later that the Germans were singing the song themselves on the way to the stadium, and the German team and the crowd sang the song as they paraded the trophy on the Römer balcony in Frankfurt. The single as a result even made #16 in the German singles chart. The song is still heard frequently on German radio stations.
Three Lions re-entered the charts at number 10 (as of 13 June) during the World Cup in 2010.
The 1998 version.
England lost in a penalty shootout against Germany in 1996, and so the song's lyrics rang true once again. It was subsequently re-recorded with different lyrics (under the title Three Lions '98) as an unofficial anthem for England's World Cup campaign in 1998 and landed the number one spot in the singles chart for a second time, beating the official England song "(How Does It Feel to Be) On Top of the World?" by England United to the top spot by eight places.
Where the 1996 "Three Lions" song mentioned various memorable moments from the previous 30 years, the 1998 version made more specific reference to events from the preceding two years (including Euro '96), and sang about a number of the then-current players, specifically Paul Ince, Paul Gascoigne, Alan Shearer, and Stuart Pearce. However, Shearer was ruled out of the crucial qualification match against Italy due to injury, Ince missed during the penalty shoot-out against Argentina, and neither Gascoigne or Pearce were selected for England's World Cup squad, which wasn't announced until some time after the song had been recorded.
As well as a karaoke version of the new song, the single featured a song called "Tout est Possible" (French for "Anything is Possible") as a B-side. The song was largely composed of a recurring chorus, samples from commentators and pundits, and the occasional short verse. It also started with a French speech sample referring to "Le Coupe de Monde" (The World Cup).
The video to the 1998 version of the song portrays a match between a group of English fans (including Baddiel, Skinner and Lightning Seeds' singer Ian Broudie) and their German equivalents, most of whom have the name "KUNTZ" printed on the back of their football shirts (except for one, who instead has "KLINSMANN"). This was a reference to German player Stefan Kuntz, who had played an instrumental part in Germany's semi-final victory over England at Wembley in 1996. Baddiel and Skinner mocked him on their Fantasy Football television programme, making use of the name as a sexual innuendo; the segment was often cut by broadcasters. The video also featured cameo appearances from Geoff Hurst, John Regis, Robbie Williams and Chris Evans.
The scene from the video when Frank Skinner dips a ball into custard and pretends it's a World Cup trophy was shown on German TV station Das Erste a few days before the final was to be played.
Although Frank Skinner had dismissed the possibility in early 2010, Skinner, Baddiel and Broudie were joined by Robbie Williams and comedian Russell Brand under the name "The Squad" for a new version of the song for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, produced by Trevor Horn. The song features added vocals from the ACM Gospel Choir, a soprano (Olivia Safe) and commentator John Motson. It entered the UK singles chart at #21. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.
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