Football and Music

Yesterday it was a song sung about him. Today it is songs sung by him.

Before the World Cup holders went to Mexico they were ushered into the studio to record an album which involved the players covering some popular tunes of the day.

The 1970 England Football Squad - “The World Beaters Sing The World Beaters“. If you ever see that album on ebay buy it. It’s available on that link to eil.com there right now, they have 1 copy at £40.00. The cover was a cut out round football shaped sleeve with full colour photographs from the 1966 squad and on the front cover autographs from the 1970 team. A rare and very collectable item.

It was repackaged and re-released on CD a few years back as: Sing ! - Jeff Astle & The 1970 England World Cup Squad”

So from that album a cover version of the 1969 number 1 hit Sugar Sugar by the Archies, done by Bobby with Francis Lee getting in there on the last verse:

» Bobby Moore and Friends - Sugar Sugar

- and since the England are playing a friendly against France in Paris in a few hours, a repost of what I originally thought was the 1982 World Cup team singing it, but I found out later that it was the 1970 squad:

» 1970 England Squad - Oh Sweet England

“C’mon England !”

- This is a follow-up to last week’s post about Argentina in 1978.

Previously it was the whole tournament and the music associated with it, today we are looking at the Scotland team, who at the time had a few world class players amongst them.

But unfortunately apart from one brief moment they didn’t perform up to their potential and went home after the first round.

I’m sure the Scotia fans don’t want me to go over it here, but if you do want to be reminded of the events then click here.

The music before they were sent off to South America was obviously very upbeat and celebratory. Especially since they beat England before this and they weren’t going.

There were a couple of acts who got in on this cup fever, the first one was a comedian:

» Andy Cameron - Andy’s Tartan Army

Sample lyrics: “We’re on the march wi’ Ally’s Army, We’re going tae the Argentine, And we’ll really shake them up, When we win the World Cup, ‘Cos Scotland is the greatest football team.

We’re representing Britain, And we’re gaunny do or die, England cannae dae it, ‘Cos they didnae qualify!”

Then like Tottenham with Chas n’ Dave there’s a musical artist always associated with Scotland who’s seemingly always there when they need a song. This time old Rod the mod went with a samba:

» Rod Stewart - Ole Ola (MulheraBrasileira)

Sample lyrics: “Ole ola, Ole ola
We’re gonna bring that World Cup back from over thar, Ole ola, Ole ola, We’re gonna bring that World Cup back from over thar…”

This is the first post of a few that will remember the legend that was Sir Bobby Moore.

I know he wasn’t knighted when he was alive, but that was the fault of the powers that be who only realised their mistake after his passing and made up for it by giving a gong to Geoff Hurst. So why not award him a knighthood posthumously eh ?

Today though it is a look at a bit of trouble for Sir Bobby (which I’ll call him from here on it because as I said he deserved it) when just before the ‘70 World Cup he was accused of nicking a bit of jewellery.

A quick reminder of the event via Wikipedia:

“1970 was a bittersweet, mixed and eventful one for Moore. He was again named as captain for the 1970 World Cup but there was heavy disruption to preparations when an attempt was made to implicate Moore in the theft of a bracelet from a jeweller in Bogotá, Colombia, where England were involved in a warm-up game. A young assistant had claimed that Moore had removed the bracelet from the hotel shop without paying for it. There was no doubt that Moore was in the shop - he had gone in with Bobby Charlton to look for a gift for Charlton’s wife, Norma - the accusation was not proved. Moore was arrested and then released, he then travelled with the England team to play another match against Ecuador in Quito. He played, winning his 80th cap, and England were 2-0 victors, but when the team plane stopped back in Colombia on the return to Mexico, Moore was detained and placed under four days of house arrest. Diplomatic pressure, plus the obvious weakness of the evidence, eventually saw the case dropped entirely, and an exonerated Moore returned to Mexico to rejoin the squad and prepare for the World Cup.”

As the article mentions was this a bit of trickery to put Sir Bobby off his game ?
Either way it didn’t work and he was cleared and as it says on this BBC - On This Day page, there were documents released in 2001 and 2003 in which the head of the Colombian police believed Moore was innocent and that the prime suspect was in fact an unnamed woman who had touted the bracelet to members of the Colombian underworld.

They never found the bracelet and never caught the woman.

This Bobby Moore website has a page with collected articles concerning the event.

A band previously mentioned on here, which I discovered thanks to an email from Al, sang about the incident:

» Serious Drinking - Bobby Moore Was Innocent (Peel Session)

and the album version…

» Serious Drinking - 12XU/Bobby Moore Was Innocent

Last week we looked at Denis Law and the 70’s. Today it is the turn of a bloke who was Law’s team mate at Man U for a couple of seasons.

Probably the best (no pun intended) player never to play in a World Cup.

Georgie Best.

These songs are not reflections of his performance on the pitch, there’s been (obviously) loads of songs recorded about him in relation to that - and I’ll do them at a later date. Today we are looking at his life and loves.

Bestie had a fondness for drinking and gambling but what he most liked was his dolly birds.

Click on the image to the right to view a slideshow of Georgie and his flames.

I just noticed looking at the slides that he liked the blondes…

To the music then and from a studio created group named: “Her” and a song about an obsession with the man.

» Her - Georgie You’ve Broken My Heart

Next up is an interview with the man himself talking about the girls he preferred, plus TV news items about his troubles:

» George Best - My Ideal Woman

Extra time video:

Keep a lookout for “Best”. A biographic-type movie made in 2000 starring John Lynch as Bestie and Roger Daltry as Rodney Marsh. It follows his life from the halcyon days playing for United & Northern Ireland and to his off the field activities.

Yesterday it was 1966 and all that, today we move on to the 1978 World Cup which took place in Argentina.

These were the finals which included the best ever Scottish team never to win the cup, as well as Archie Gemmill and that goal.

And like in 1966 it was the host country what won it. That team included one Osvaldo César Ardiles and Ricardo Julio “Ricky” Villa.

- Wikipedia has the full story of the whole tournament.

As for the music… well as mentioned Scotland had probably the best players they’ve ever had and there were a few songs released to celebrate their appearance. But those are for another day. For this post, like yesterday’s we are concentrating on some songs that commemorate the event.

The best of this lot, in my opinion is from a much underrated singer Moon Williams.     A note about this next song from his own site:

…Before the next release Moon secured a deal to record the theme song for a six week TV series on the World Cup. The series was called Game of the Century and the song was called Argentina Heroes. This beautiful ballad encouraged the England team to come back as Argentina Heroes – sadly the England team never got the chance to go, let alone return. They failed to qualify. The record company failed to get the single out for week one of the series and thus missed a golden opportunity to chart. It finally drifted out in week 5 of the series and went straight to no 67 and then the series ended. Coupled together with the failure of England to qualify no one, except Moon and his management, saw any point in continuing the push.

» Moon Williams - Argentina Heroes

Next up: Ennio Morricone, which is a name that should ring a bell. He composed the soundtracks for A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly plus loads and loads more.

» Ennio Morricone - World Cup Argentina

Finally one from a local band:

» Buenos Aries City Band - World Cup March