Top of the Pops
'The bigger clubs and the England team often get their records into the charts. 'Come On You Reds,' sung by the United squad, topped the British charts in 1994. But the majority of others, like non-League club Fisher Athletic's classic 'Come on You Fish' are made by fans and probably had only 500 copies pressed, sold 50, and the rest were put behind the bar.'
Where they would have remained, forgotten, had it not been for the detective work of Mike Alway, formerly of Cherry Red Records, back in the late 1980s. 'Friends in the record industry told us, "Football and music? Forget it! The two just don't go together." But we decided this stuff had to be heard.' 'Flair 89' was issued on Confection Records and two years later Exotica Records was born to issue the legendary 'Bend It' series of four compilation CD's in the early 1990s.
Since then, Exotica and Cherry Red have managed to issue albums devoted to over 40 British clubs. One of the earliest football songs discovered was by the Lancashire film star Gracie Fields. Her music-hall ditty, 'Pass, Shoot Goal,' came out in 1931.
The first United recording dates from 1956. Called 'The Manchester United Calypso' it was sung by Edric Connor. Phelan later discovered that, intriguingly, Conor was the Royal Shakespeare Company's first black actor. Another surprising discovery was that the 1970s song 'I wish I could play like Charlie George' was written originally about George Best. Best, alas, was arrested for theft shortly before the recording, and so Charlie George's name was inserted instead. Such is fame.
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| | | Glossary | | | | intriguingly (adv.) | | 颇为有趣的是 | |
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n.侦探 a.侦探的 (初中英语单词)
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