Which is the first World Cup tournament that you remember ? Which was the most significant for you ? Many of you might answer 1990, but for me it was 8 years earlier and España ’82.
Beamed live by satellite straight into our homes, those bright and vivid images are burned into my memory.
Also memorable because of the closeness of the World Cup, only an hour away, and the teams that were there. Yes even Scotland and Northern Ireland got a chance to shine. They were there along with Paolo Rossi and Italy, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge with West Germany, Zico and Brazil…
The official mascot is still very recognizable. Naranjito, an anthropomorphised orange wearing the host nations team strip.
Not just as a static mascot either, he was animated too.
Here’s an episode called “De Madrid al Cielo” (from Madrid to Heaven):
Not just Spanish, he was in French as well.
In the competition for the tournament TV themes, neither came out best. The BBC opted to ask Andrew Lloyd Webber who himself decided to phone it in and reuse a composition he first used in the Cats musical.
ITV also went with something big and very overblown when they got Jeff “War Of The Worlds” Wayne in with his also-could have-been-in-a-musical orchestral theme:
The official anthem for the tournament was done by local boy done good Plácido Domingo – and the host team had their anthem too, which was err… the same song. Which was apparantly sung by the actual team. *raises eyebrow*
As for England – They said before they went to the finals, because of their failure to qualify for the 1974 & 1978 finals, that this time (they’d get it right). There was also a fan effort which made an even bigger promise.
England did fine in their group (P3 W3) but for the next stage there was another group of games (at table of three teams) in which they were drawn with the hosts Spain and the eventual finalists West Germany.
The Germans had three(!) official singles and a couple of fan efforts. I’ve selected the b side of an official tune which had an English title but was sung in German. The other one was from Stephan Baal and is a typical schlager music style song.
If you were wondering why the national team had three singles. Well… that was the tip of the iceberg. They did the same as the England team back in ’82 and released a full album.
I don’t have this LP right now, but if I ever do obtain you will be the first to hear.
Northern Ireland topped their first round group with only 1 win. They drew the other two games and that was enough to send them through. In the next group their luck ran out and went home after a draw and a loss.
For their World Cup song they enlisted the 1970 Eurovision Song Contest winner Dana.
She sang about “Yer Man” and around the same time Sammy Mackie, a NI comedian recorded his tune:
As mentioned Scotland were there and hoping to improve on their previous World Cup appearances. In 1974 they finished 3rd in their group and went home. In 1978 they again had another group finish in 3rd. And then for 1982 though they…. finished 3rd for the 3rd tournament in a row.
Their musical performance faired far better and is better remembered to this day. As opposed to this fan effort which you are probably first hearing right now. Little is known about Benn Gunn or this single.
Bonus: Again possibly the first time you’ve heard this – the B side of the 1982 Scotland single:
I’ve selected the tracks above as ones that I think you’d be more interested. There are lots more from other teams at the 1982 World Cup and if you go to the mighty 45football.com website you can listen to them all.
From there comes the last two for now. Both of them worth a listen for the following reasons:
The first one is from “Master” (no more info found about them) and again a very, very well known riff that you heard everywhere in 1982.
The other is from “Die Linienrichter” (The Linesman) and you will recognise the bassline. The lyrics mention some of the 1982 West German team.
Final score: ITA 3 - FRG 1
’82 was the first international tournament I remember. Maybe it’s because I not only had the England single but the album too! *oh the shame*
Two prominent players of the Hungarian world cup team also “sang” a song. Andras TOROCSIK and Tibor NYILASI (both played on 1978 and 1982 world cups) recorded the SP before the 1982 world cup. They were much better players than singers…
https://www.discogs.com/T%C3%B6r%C5%91csik-Andr%C3%A1s-Nyilasi-Tibor-Hajr%C3%A1/release/4126313
Really trying to watch the ITV collage of goals at the end. No videos I those days. Spine tingling but only watched once.