England's most successful World Cup song is filled with NSFW innuendo and no one realised
When it comes to the biggest songs England have had to underscore a World Cup, there’s one clear answer.
And no, it’s not ‘Three Lions’ – that was actually originally recorded for Euro 96 (save that one for the pub quiz).
It’s obviously ‘World in Motion’ for the 1990 Italia World Cup. Far more successful than the likes of ‘World at Your Feet’, the New Order banger featured an iconic rap from England footballer John Barnes.
But what perhaps make the song even more iconic is that it’s filled with NSFW innuendo that plenty of people never even realised.
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Several members of the 1990 English team have vocals on the track and comedian Keith Allen co-wrote the lyrics.
To be fair, you could argue the way things wee going to go when it was originally going to be titled ‘E for England’.
Lyrics had apparently initially run with: “E is for England, England starts with E / We'll all be smiling when we're in Italy.”
However, the FA soon vetoed this title when it became clear it was suspiciously sounding like a reference to taking ecstasy.
Allen previously explained that he’d been tasked with injecting a bit of ‘lightness’ into New Order’s music.
But that initial contribution was quickly rejected.
However, he explained on the podcast Transmissions: The Definitive Story of Joy Division and New Order that the rap ended up being pretty much all innuendo.
“Basically, if you break it down, most of it is either homosexual innuendo or drug-taking innuendo. ‘You've got to hold and give and do at the right time. You can be slow or fast, but you must get to the line,’” Allen said.
“It's all about referencing drugs and homosexual activity. So I’m furiously trying to write this and there was this one bit – duh duh duh duh! – and I always wanted ‘It's one on one’ which was, the big thing of the day: ‘Are you on one? Are you on one?’”
The comedian reckons it’s all ‘quite clever’ and of course, when Barnes took to the mic, it became a classic.
The midfielder previously told GQ he ended up landing the gig because of there being Geordie players that no one could understand and him winning a ‘rap-off’ with Des Walker.
“I’ve been rapping since I was 17 years old and I used to be into bands like The Sugarhill Gang, so I thought it was quite straightforward,” he added.
Well, what a banger, the greatest England World Cup song of all time, surely.
Jess Battison