Many of us have fond memories of the 1970 World Cup, even though many of us have never actually seen it. But yet it still stays fresh in our minds.

This is because we’ve seen the clips, we’ve read of those historic moments and we hear of people still talking about it all the time. It remains to this day as legend, one unmatched ever since ?

Might it also signify the peak of when football was great™ and there’s nowt like it nowaways ? That’s one for you to discuss.

Mexico ’70 (not the band) was the first major international tournament to be broadcast in colour. The first sight of Brazil’s bright yellow shirts was burnt into our minds. After 1966 the whole of the country stopping to watch the World Cup holders fly to a far off land to defend their title. But with Bobby Moore’s arrest just before the tournament and then Banksy’s stomach bug just before the Germany game, it seemed that the football gods had decided that it wasn’t going to be two in a row.

But for Brazil it was a third time win and for this achievement they kept the Jules Rimet trophy.

Before I get to some music a few more firsts and a last:
Mexico ’70 as mentioned was the first broadcast in colour. It was also the first time that there was an opening ceremony and the first World Cup not to have any sendings off.

It was also the last World Cup for Pele, who’s last goal for Brazil was the opening goal in the final.

So to the actual tunes and to begin with – an instrumental (which I think was used as theme music for their telly coverage) and some commentary from David Coleman at the end:

[See post to listen to audio] » Unknown Artist – Good Morning Mexico

Oh and… Go and have a listen to Coleman giving the TV director some constructive criticism.

I’m cheating with this next one:
It was actually used back in 1968 as the theme for the UK Olympic team back then.

[See post to listen to audio] » Long John Baldry – Mexico

Top of the pops…

The website EveryHit.com has a page which looks at each World Cup and what were the biggest sellers during that time.

- A couple of hits from the summer of 1970 to finish things off and I’m not going to choose the obvious ones, but a couple of tunes pretty much forgotten now from way back then:

Via Wikipedia:

“Yellow River” is a popular song recorded by the British band Christie. Written by band leader Jeff Christie, the song was offered to The Tremeloes, however they turned it down so Jeff Christie added his own vocals and released it. The song became an international hit, reaching number one on the UK Singles Chart for one week in June 1970.
The song is the thoughts of a young man whose time in the army (possibly the Vietnam War, given the time the song was recorded) is over and he is looking forward to returning to his home town in the country on Yellow River. The actual location of Yellow River is not known.

Via Wikipedia:

“Mr. Bloe was the alias used by the DJM record label producer/arranger and multi-instrumentalist, Zack Lawrence.

“Groovin’ With Mr Bloe”, written by Bo Gentry, Bernard Cochrane, P. Naumann and K. Laguna, and featuring Harry Pitch on harmonica, and Zack Lawrence on piano, entered the UK Singles Chart on 9 May 1970, peaking at Number 2.It was denied the number one spot by “In the Summertime” by Mungo Jerry. In total “Groovin’ With Mr Bloe” spent 18 weeks in the chart. A follow up single, Curried Soul, failed to chart,and an album, also entitled Groovin’ with Mr. Bloe, was released in 1970 but flopped, leaving the act with the one-hit wonder tag.

Additionally this one: ” The song was partly recorded by The Fall in 2003, for a Peel session as the beginning of their song, “Green Eyed Loco Man”.

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