Footballers Trying Their Hand at the Music Industry

Footballers Trying Their Hand at the Music Industry

Although not particularly common, there have been some notable instances of footballers trying their hand at the music industry. Back in the 1970s, a trend started of clubs reaching the FA Cup Final, recording a song to celebrate.

It was a strange crossover that was arguably little more than a marketing gimmick. Come the time of major competitions like the European Championships or the FIFA World Cup, national teams have even got in on the act.

You would, of course, expect the players that you see listed in markets for today’s football betting, to be focused on their main job, and you aren’t likely to see any of them making a play for the top of the music charts over trying to reach the top of the Premier League.

But there have been some famous individuals who went the musical route during their careers. Here’s a look at them:

Kevin Keegan
Former Liverpool legend Kevin Keegan was one of the first football superstars to release a single. Keegan put out “Head over Heels in Love” in 1979. At the time, he was playing with Hamburger SV in the German Bundesliga.

The song, a romantic pop ballad, wasn’t a huge hit, only reaching number 31 in the UK charts. Still, it was a performance that was sort of groundbreaking at the time for a footballer to break into this realm as a solo artist.

Glen Hoddle and Chris Waddle
Duo Glenn & Chris, as they were called, released “Diamond Lights” in 1987 while they were both playing for Tottenham and England.

Looking back now, the synth-pop sounds couldn’t have been any more ‘80s. Glenn & Chris performed the song on the famous TV music show Top of the Pops and it was widely ridiculed.

The lip-synching performances of the footballers, with Hoddle taking centre stage and Waddle looking like he would rather be anywhere else but there, took heavy flak, as did the song itself.

It’s reported the only reason they had to perform was because the music video for the song was so bad, that Top of the Pops refused to show it. Despite the song doing well in the charts, almost breaking into the Top 10, it was criticised for its lyrics and was widely mocked.

Paul Gascoigne
England star Paul Gascoigne, affectionately known as Gazza during his playing days, made two assaults on the UK charts. The first of those was with the band Lindisfarne in 1990 with the song “Fog on the Tyne”.

Lindisfarne released the song in the 1970s and revised it with Gazza chipping in with the vocals, and it reached number two in the UK charts. That was no doubt helped by the popularity of Gazza at the time, after his memorable performances at the 1990 World Cup.

The same year, Gascoigne went it alone and released a song called “Geordie Boys (Gazza Rap)”. It didn’t perform anywhere near as well on the charts as his previous effort, and as can be garnered from the title, involved Gazza doing his best impression of a rap in this thick Geordie accent, while largely parading shirtless and performing hilarious dance moves.

Ian Wright
Arsenal goal-scoring legend Ian Wright topped the charts in 1993 with a song called “Do The Right Thing”. The song barely made it into the top 50 and it was released at a time when he was just at the fledgling stage of his Arsenal career.

It’s arguably the most polished of the songs on the list and Wright probably deserves more credit for having better vocals than most of the other efforts here.

Andy Cole
Andy Cole, a former Newcastle and Manchester United striker, put out “Outstanding” in 1990 at the height of his career with the latter club. Of all the songs on this list, it performed the worst, spending just one week in the Top 75, reaching a high of 68. It was a slow-paced hip-hop effort that was quickly forgotten.

Vinnie Jones
Former football hard-man turned actor Vinnie Jones went all out when he released a full album called “Respect” in 2002 and even appeared on Top of the Pops 2 with a performance of one of his songs. That was almost 10 years after he released “Woolly Bully” as a single.

Football Songs
There have been some great football-related songs, perhaps none more legendary than “Three Lions” by Skinner & Baddiel. Manchester United’s 1994 effort “Come On You Reds” which featured the likes of Bryan Robson and Steve Bruce was a catchy belter as was “World in Motion” by New Order for England’s national team.

Singing footballers have become less of a commonplace thing, which perhaps, with the unfortunate releases like Gazza’s “Geordie Boys” and Liverpool’s 1988 “Anfield Rap”, that isn’t a bad thing.