Football and Music

The weather is closing in, getting a bit nippy outside of a night. Perfect time to post some calypso music…

In the 50’s there was a craze for the music in Britain and this even spread over to football.

There were some notable and very famous calypso singers but the real stars of the genre were singers like Lord Kitchner and Mighty Sparrow.

It seems with calypso you gave the artist a subject he would then create a song about it. Anything at all.

So with the beautiful game being such a big obsession with us it was only natural that it would eventually be covered.

– This early one is from 1953, this is known because it was entitled as such.
In this one the singer Edmundo Ros is in the pub when some people come up and ask him to settle a bet on who is the better football team:

– Next up is from 1 year later is Edric Conner with a short one, but a long lasting one. This song has been re-recorded and re-released often since it’s first outing in 1954:

– Two years after that and the king of calypso steps up to give us some footballing history about Manchester – United and City.
He tells us in song form about the fortunes of the clubs from the 1940’s to the present (1956) day:

Then there’s a space of 8 years and in 1964 Ronnie Hilton sings about the very successful (at the time) Leeds United…
*WARNING* At the very beginning some blokes remind you – very loudly – of which team the song is about:

– Fast forward another 8 years to 1972 and the tractor derby rivals release their calypsos:

There will be more general football calypso’s posted another time, for now if you want to discover more calypso music have a look at Honest Jon’s Records, which has some history about the arrival of some immigrants to London in the late 40’s and the resultant rise and craze for the music.

Also have a visit to Muriel’s Treasure, Vol. 1: Vintage Calypso from the 1950s & 1960s which does as it says on the tin.