The Ultimate Ranking of Club Anthems: Hits and Misses

The Chart Entries

First, it is time to look at the chronological table of all major football songs that have been released by a club or a UK-based national team since 1970 – the year when England released ‘Back Home’, a song considered to be the first true football anthem:

54 entries since the start of the 1970s and it must be said a mixed bag in terms of success. Of the 54 that we have listed, 16 of them have managed to reach the top 10 and of those 16, three have managed to earn the final slot on Top of the Pops.

As mentioned earlier, New Order and England teamed up before the 1990 World Cup to sing the seminal ‘World In Motion’ but also joining them is the class of 1970 when ‘Back Home’ also topped the charts twenty years later.

While the only club to get a UK number one is Manchester United after they teamed up with Status Quo in 1994 to top the charts with “Come On You Reds” – a partnership that could not have been too bad considering the Red Devils won the league and cup double that season.

Hitting The High Notes

English Football fan, Newcastle Upon Tyne, England // Guilain Demoutiers / shutterstock

Then again, it is not all about topping the charts, there have been plenty of anthems that have been sung on the terraces over the years and we can also look at all the entries that have made the top five of the charts and above:

Once again, England are well represented by their 1982 effort “This Time (We’ll Get It Right” even if they failed to win a second World Cup that year and their Scottish counterparts teamed up with none other than Rod Stewart in 1978 in a bid for chart superiority.

A bid that saw Scotland hit the heights of chart position four and four years later they would try again with “We Have A Dream” – a dream that saw the Tartan Army’s very best rank fifth in the charts but once again fail to get out of the group stage at a major tournament.

As for respectable club efforts, Liverpool’s Anfield Rap may not have aged well but at the time it was good enough for chart position three in 1988 – the year when they were upset by Wimbledon in that year’s FA Cup final.

While Tottenham’s partnership with Chas and Dave may have been less successful in terms of chart position in 1981 – sitting fifth in the charts by comparison but that was the year the North London outfit lifted the FA Cup at the expense of Manchester City.

Across the capital and nine years earlier, Chelsea decided to release their own club anthem into the charts. Not to tie in with an FA Cup final – even though they won it two years previously but just to tell everyone that “Blue Is The Colour” and this message would also sit fifth in the charts.

Hitting The Bum Notes

English Football fans, Newcastle Upon Tyne, England // Guilain Demoutiers / shutterstock

These entries were arguably the outlier to the trend of the football song and when you take the average chart position from those outside the top five, the picture is far less music to your ears and more relegation worthy.

An average position of 33 for those who could not garner any real success in the charts and with the top 40 being considered as the benchmark between anything resembling a hit and pure flop, it is bad news for these attempts at musical success:

A genuine list of forgettable football songs and although Chas and Dave could usually hold their own when it came to Tottenham based anthems, their effort in 1991 has been largely erased from memory – even if Spurs did get the better of Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup final.

While England and Bristol City have the unwanted honour of earning the lowest chart positions in our list. Bobby Robson’s Three Lions were dumped out by Diego Maradona’s Hand of God in 1986, they only reached 66 with “We’ve Got The Whole World At Our Feet”

Which means they are in illustrious company with Westcountry icons The Wurzels. Better known for their combine harvesters. Lesser known for their “One for the Bristol City” single that was released in 2007 – also reaching number 66.

Top Of The Pops

With performance in the charts being as inconsistent as an out of sorts striker, we can at least attempt to see which outfit registered the best chart position on average and the definitive league table is as follows:

An honourable mention to Cardiff City and their “Bluebirds Flying High” that reached 15^th in the charts before the 2008 FA Cup final but with being a sole entry, we should really award the prize of consistency to Manchester United.

A total of eight anthems have been released and collectively they have averaged a chart position of 17. For every 1994 chart topper there has also been “We’re Gonna Do It Again” a year later – only earning chart position 15 and Everton also beat them in that year’s final.

United’s offering is just one average position better than both Chelsea and Scotland with an average of 18 in our charts and the Tartan Army will certainly take some joy in earning a better average than their English counterparts.

By comparison, the Three Lions ranked 26 on average and were it not for their terrible anthem in 1986, then their average would have been far higher. Then again, just two years later a Stock Aitken & Waterman-produced effort reached only 64^th in the chart an England lost every game at Euro ’88.

A miserable tournament following a forgettable effort from the best production trio of the 1980’s and sometimes it does not matter how much talent you have on the pitch or in the studio, a footballing musical effort can still go well wide of the goal.

Source

Source:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_UK_hit_singles_by_footballers

Data correct as of 29th Jan 2025.