Top of the Pops – terrace style

Football songs hold a certain attraction for me. It stems from the sound of a few thousand people singing in unison, a sound that I’ve always felt captures raw passion and delivers a feeling of union and bonding. It’s a magical thing to hear and often the sheer grandness of it can definitely send a tingle down your spine.

So when a member of the Forest Forum within this site suggested that people post their best and worst football songs, it instantly made me stop what I was doing and spend a bit of time listening to what the other clubs sing. Obviously, being a Forest fan I’m most familiar with Forest songs, but this particular thread was non-Forest, so it gave a good insight into other clubs.

LTLF’s editor Alex Walker recently did an article about football songs. It was origin based though, and he was mainly pointing out some of the more famous songs that every club’s fans sing, albeit if they change the words a little. So, to steal his idea but tweak it a little, I’ve decided to recommend my top 5 Club Songs (and I’m not talking about the Ministry of Sounds newest compilation CD).

5. ‘Blue Moon’ – Manchester City

Many moons ago (forgive the pun), before Man City were bought by the billionaire owners that now run the club, before they were christened with the nickname “Moneybags”, and before a new generation of kids wanted Man City shirts at Christmas, I had a certain fondness for them. It was pointed mainly at the fact that I’m not overly keen on Man Utd, so preferring City over them only felt natural. The song itself, ‘Blue Moon’, is one I have a fondness of anyway. Being an Elvis fan I always remember him doing a rendition of it, and the hyped up rock version that the Manchester club use always puts a smile on my face.

4. ‘No one likes us, We don’t care’ – Millwall

It’s a pretty short rendition of the Sutherland Brothers’ ‘Sailing’ that you tend to hear from the Millwall fans, but still a bit of terrace classic, and one that is easily recognised by the opposing fans wherever they play. It was first sung by Millwall fans in response to the amount of bad press they were getting in the late seventies as they were constantly being shown as nothing but hooligans.

3. ‘Penny Arcade’ – Rangers

The song itself was a Roy Orbison (written by Sammy King) classic which Rangers have adopted. What a rendition they do, just watching footage of them singing it on YouTube in their thousands is good, I cannot begin to imagine how spine tingling it must be to be stood within those thousands.

2. ‘Greasy Chip Butty’ – Sheffield Utd

I’ve only just been exposed to this properly, despite being at Bramall Lane twice on Forest away days, so I suppose I’ve just never took any notice of it before. It gripped me with its humour and magnificent tune. The lyrics that Blades fans sing are fantastic in that they stereotype themselves into the classic Yorkshiremen, with references to woodbines, chip butties and pinches of snuff.

1. ‘Amber and Blue’ – 12th Stag (Mansfield Town)

I’m not even sure if Stags fans still sing this, it was done by Mansfield’s 12th Stag fan site when the Stags had their recent date at Wembley. You may well be thinking, what the hell is this palaver? Why is this his number one? Well, it holds a personal fondness to me. I have a brother who’s a massive Stags fan, he doesn’t live in this country anymore, but on his last visit to the UK he naturally wanted to take in a Stags match. I went with him as Forest were away in Southampton, and I saw it as a good opportunity for some brotherly bonding. I’d never been to Field Mill before, and I didn’t know what to expect, but one thing I would never have expected would be to get to my seat and be surrounded by Stags fans shouting “Yellows, Yellows!” in between Elvis Presley’s verse lyrics to this song coming through the speaker system. Now, whenever I hear ‘The Wonder of You’, it always takes me back to that day, half drunk in the Ian Greaves Stand with the brother I barely see. A truly priceless moment.

Follow Richie Andrews on twitter: @Richie_Andrews_