Welcome to yet another offering from the UK charts of 25 years ago, as we bring you our next instalment of The Story of Pop: 1998. This week: time to polish your Jules Rimet until it’s still gleaming…
- Artist: Baddiel, Skinner & The Lightning Seeds
- Song: 3 Lions ’98
- Released: 08/06/1998
- Writers / Producers: Ian Broudie / David Baddiel / Frank Skinner / Simon Rogers / Dave Bascombe
- Highest UK Chart Position: #1
- Weeks on Chart: 17
Outside of Christmas, in an even numbered year, there lies a racing certainty regarding a certain type of record that the singles chart will end up paying host to. Largely, from June up until mid-July, at a time when the pollen count is high, beer gardens are full to bursting, and red and white flags are fluttering from open windows and car windscreens, the football songs arrive, as the FA Cup finishes and England’s national football team heads off to either the Euro Championships, or the World Cup.
Up until the mid 90s, the national squad and the singles chart had had a potted relationship to say the least. Back in 1970, the official England squad of that year had recorded “Back Home”, which flew to number one almost instantly. But from that point onwards, aside from reaching #2 with “This Time (We’ll Get It Right)” in 1982, songs for the national football team and chart success were on about as much as shaky ground as England’s own performances in both the World Cup and the Euros.
What really started to turn things around was the dawn of the 90s; Englandneworder – a combination of the then national team with legendary electronic outfit New Order, recorded “World In Motion”, with lyrics written by comedian and actor Keith Allen (more on whom next week) and were rewarded with a two week stay at the top as they headed off to the 1990 World Cup in Italy.
Fast forward six years, to Euro 96, and for the first time since the 1966 World Cup that England had famously won, an international tournament was back on home turf. Ahead of the games that year came The Beautiful Game, a compilation album curated by The FA of footie related songs by some of the then big names in Britpop at its peak; Pulp, Blur, Supergrass, as well as the likes of Massive Attack and Primal Scream.
And also on the album was the song that got put out as England’s official song for Euro 96. Written and performed by Ian Broudie with his band The Lightning Seeds, together with comedians David Baddiel and Frank Skinner, who of course were well known at this point for their hit comedy football show Fantasy Football League that aired on the BBC, “Three Lions” quickly became something approaching a national anthem, with its optimistic, prayerful chant like chorus line: “It’s coming home / It’s coming home / It’s coming, football’s coming home”.
When released it went straight in at number one in late May of 1996, even going back to the top for a second run as England progressed all the way to the semi finals of Euro 96, as fans began to sing it at the matches and bought it in their hundreds of thousands. Of course, England were only to just miss out on a place in the final when their then striker, Gareth Southgate, missed his penalty shoot out.
But such was the success of the original “Three Lions” that it meant that, the next time England were due to represent at an international level, the music industry would undoubtedly be involved again. And how. It was now a bankable commodity. Two years later, as May gave way to June, and England prepared to head to France for the 1998 World Cup, the UK singles chart was fit to bursting with singles released for the much anticipated tournament.
Everyone from Chumbawamba to Jean Michel-Jarre and Apollo 440, Collapsed Lung to Dario G, even the Latino hips of love Ricky Martin – yes, really – all released songs for France ’98. Few, if any of them, however, barely troubled the top 10.
But it seems strange to relate that the official song for England that year was actually a rather uninspiring number called “How Does It Feel (To Be On Top Of The World)”, by England United, a bizarro-world supergroup comprising members of Echo and the Bunnymen, Space, Ocean Colour Scene and all five of the Spice Girls (it was recorded months before Geri’s departure from the band).
It was met with bafflement and derision by fans and critics alike, and scraped in at #9, quickly forgotten about as the two real big guns – the other of which we’ll meet next week – squared up. Baddiel, Skinner and the Lightning Seeds decided to re-record a new version of their anthem, titled “3 Lions ’98”, but even though The FA didn’t pick up on the option for it as an official song, Sony Music still decided to roll with its release anyway.
Updating the lyrics to reference the disappointment of Euro 96 (“It could have been all songs in the street / It was nearly complete, it was nearly so sweet”), but also to build anticipation for the games to come (“And now I see Ince ready for war / Gazza good as before / Shearer certain to score / And Psycho screaming”), the song’s ubiquity in just those two years was also referenced with the sounds of fans chanting the song at Wembley Stadium opening the track, along with commentary from Jonathan Pearce (although interestingly, not on the version broadcast on Radio 1’s Official Chart Show with Mark Goodier, as Pearce was a commentator for their commercial rival, Capital Radio at the time, meaning they were playing a version that was commercially unavailable anywhere else).
But in the grand scheme of things, it seemed that two years on, England fans still believed – both in their team and in the song. It even reached a point during my time in primary school whilst France ’98 was on that we ended up singing it in assembly, where normally it’d be a bop of the “All Things Bright and Beautiful” variety. We were putting together class displays about the England team and swapping the stickers for the World Cup sticker album you got out of Sainsburys. It was one of the few times in my early life where the beautiful game had such an impact on us.
The all new “3 Lions ’98” shot straight back to number one on first week sales of 232,000 copies, and stayed there for three weeks in all as it quickly became one of 1998’s top 20 biggest selling singles. It also became the second of four times that it would become a number one single, as it has since returned to the top twice more in recent years during various World Cup and Euro tournaments with the arrival of streaming and downloads, and it is now the only song in chart history to have been number one four times for the same credited artist.
Part of the enduring appeal and why “Three Lions”, in all its iterations, has become so woven into the national psyche is because it very much taps into and speaks to the mind and soul of an England fan; even though the 30 years of hurt in the original lyrics is now almost double that, just one listen to the song’s opening bars, whether you’re at the stadium for an England match or watching it on a big screen in a sports bar, is enough to rouse the fighting spirit all over again and still believe it’s coming home.
Don’t forget to follow our brand new playlist on Spotify – updated weekly so you never miss a song from the story of pop in 1998. And you can leave your memories of the songs below in the comments, Tweet us or message us on Instagram, using the hashtag #StoryofPop1998.
The Niche Reference 