...that's where I've always thought it came from. Although it wasn't a hit, I bought it, and other people must have done too, and it just went viral, although we had to wait another 40 years before we knew what that meant.

Why do Sheffield United fans sing John Denver's 'Annie's Song'?

But was the song used as the theme to a footy highlights show along with a bit of clapping which meant it got picked up by the faithful?

sing LWTUA? I know less than fuck all about Football, but even I know that Ian Curtis was a Manchester City fan.

have famously changed the words of Sailing to "No one likes us, no one likes us, no one like us, we don't care. We are Millwall, super Millwall from The Den" which if not truly inventive has a self-deprecating humour to it. I heard it sung at a convention of foreign exchange traders recently with lyrics changed suitably. Many of the traders are likely to be footie fans and they certainly have an inventive way with insults and rhyming slang.

I am of course slightly biased but this always does it for me

My memory of this is from the Kop in the 60s. It was the St John chant (now it is Dalglish). The songs played in the warm up to the game changed as the pop charts changed but this one was obviously retained, like, I think You'll never walk alone, because the crowd adopted it. From the middle of the Kop the clapping sounded like rifle shots because it was in perfect sinc.
What I'D like to know is the name of the pop song - and the date? -used for: "Scousers here, I don't know why
After the match they're gonna die"
I heard it at Maine Road a long time ago (but is used at other grounds)

Jed

Musing on this at a Cambridge United match the other week - basically, how unthreatening terrace chanting is these days. Now when I was a lad following Preston North End around the lower leagues virtually the entire match would be malevolent medley of "You're going to get your effin' head kicked in"/ "You're going home in an effin' ambulance"/"See you all outside" etc or if we were playing Blackpool something to do with Alan Brown's "tangerine bastards" falling off the pier to the tune of the ABC minors song...or something like that.

Some golden oldies that spring to mind - to the tune of Jim Reeves "Distant Drums" - yes, unfortunately "We hear the sound of distant bums"...Steam's classic "Na Na Na Hey,Hey,Hey...Preston North End" (still given an airing now and again I believe). At Cambridge you do hear the sadly very lame "Cambridge uh-huh, uh-huh United uh-huh" to the tune of KC and the Sunshine Band's "That's the way..." but being Cambridge they may be being post-ironic.

Written by Giorgio Moroder, no less. Teddy Sheringham and Frankie Worthington were famous recipients; five-syllable footballer names being notoriously tricky to scan.

At Bolton, we always struggled with songs for Mixu Paatelainen.

Come on, Cheltenham Town.

Source: Ian McMillan.

From the Newcastle fans, to the tune of 'War':

"Ba! Huh! What did he sign for? Absolutely nothing!"

The ode to Eric Cantona sung at Old Trafford to the tune of Lilly the pink by The Scaffold. Oh and Ian Curtis might have been a Man City fan but Bernard Sumner Stephen Morris and Peter Hook are all United fans.

Gold by Spandau Ballet ... seems inventive for five minutes then get dull very quickly if they've been playing at Montrose for example, you're coming back south from an Aberdeen game, and you're stuck in the same ScotRail carriage for an hour-and-a-half

we have nothing out here like the inventiveness of your football clubs/fans when it comes to songs and chants

this is about as good as it gets - the Richmond Football Club theme song:

Lovely clip of Lally Stott doing the original of Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep, a hardy perennial on the terraces what with its versatile "where's your (....insert relevant taunt here... ) gone?" refrain. Lally never lived to see his composition establish itself as a staple of the football crowd repertoire. He crashed his Harley in his home town of Prescot in 1977.