page_title: Football chant
section_title: Club-specific songs
hierarchical_section_title: Football chant / Club-specific songs
caption_attribution_description: YNWA
context_page_description: A football chant or terrace chant is a song or chant usually sung at association football matches by fans. The chants can be simple, consisting of a few loud shouts or spoken words, but more often they are short song verses and sometimes longer songs. They are typically performed repetitively, sometimes accompanied by handclapping, but occasionally they may be more elaborate involving musical instruments, props or choreographed routines. They are often adaptations of popular songs, using their tunes as the basis of the chants, but may also be original. Football chants are an expression of collective identity most often used by fans to express their pride in the team or encourage the home team, and they may be sung to celebrate a particular player or manager. Fans may also use football chants to slight the opposition, and many fans sing songs about their club rivals, even when they are not playing them. Sometimes the chants are spontaneous reactions to events on the pitch.
  Football chants are known to have been used by fans from the late 19th century onwards, but developed into the current popular forms in the 1960s.
context_section_description: Some football teams also have songs which are traditionally sung by their fans. Birmingham City adopted Keep Right on to the End of the Road by Sir Harry Lauder after the team sang it on the coach before the 1956 FA Cup Final Versus Manchester City , it was heard by the fans outside Wembley Stadium . The song was a favourite of Alex Govern and has been the Blues Anthem ever since.
  The song "You'll Never Walk Alone" from Carousel is associated heavily with Liverpool. In 1963, the song was covered by Liverpool group Gerry and the Pacemakers, which prompted the song's adoption by the Kop. At this time, supporters standing on the Spion Kop terrace at Anfield began singing popular chart songs of the day. The mood was captured on camera by a BBC Panorama camera crew in 1964. One year later, when Liverpool faced Leeds in the FA Cup final, the travelling Kop sang the same song and match commentator Kenneth Wolstenholme commended the "Liverpool signature tune".
  Fans of West Ham United are said to have sung the song "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles" at both home and away matches since the 1920s, although no record of West Ham fans singing the song existed until 1940. 
  Supporters of Hibernian are known for singing "Sunshine on Leith" due to the song's composers and performers The Proclaimers being well known Hibernian supporters and the song's reference to Hibernian's home in Leith and as such the song has become an unofficial club anthem. The club has in the past also played other songs by the pair at its home ground Easter Road, such as "I'm on My Way", though none have the same association with the team that "Sunshine on Leith" does.
  Manchester City has been strongly associated with the classic popular song "Blue Moon" since the late 1980s. The song is now an established and official part of the club's brand and culture: 'Blue Moon' is also the name of the club's leading fansite, images of a blue moon (a moon that's blue in colour, not the astronomical phenomenon) appear on licensed and fan-made clothing and merchandise, and the team's mascots are a pair of blue aliens from the moon named 'Moonchester' and 'Moonbeam'.
  Stoke City fans often sing "Delilah" by Tom Jones.
  "Go West" by the Village People has been co-opted by fans of Arsenal F.C., using the words "1-0 to the Arsenal" as a reference to the club's defensive style of football under former manager George Graham. The same "1-0 to the Arsenal" was also often sung, in ironic spirit, by fans of opposition by way of mocking their perceived boring style of play during this time. The tune is also used by supporters of Leyton Orient with the words "Stand Up for The Orient"
  Fans of Tottenham Hotspur sing Barry Manilow's "Can't Smile Without You".
  Brighton & Hove Albion play "Good Old Sussex by the Sea" before each home game at Falmer Stadium, a tradition continued from their time at the "Goldstone Ground."
  "Marching on Together" is played and sung at Elland Road by supporters of Leeds United, and is one of the few club songs specifically written for the football club in question, being an original composition by Les Reed and Barry Mason. It was first released as the B-Side to Leeds United to coincide with the 1972 FA Cup Final.
  Supporters of Sheffield Wednesday regularly sing the words "Honolulu Wednesday" to the tune of "Honolulu Baby"; a song which featured in the 1933 film Sons of the Desert starring Laurel and Hardy. Across the city, Sheffield United F.C. fans celebrate the start of home games with a chorus of The Greasy Chip Butty Song.
  Before every match, Nottingham Forest fans sing "Mull of Kintyre", replacing "Mull of Kintyre" with "City Ground", and "Mist rolling in from the sea" with "Mist rolling in from the Trent". "Mull of Kintyre" has also been adopted by Charlton Athletic, with Valley, Floyd Road and the Thames similarly being referenced.
  "Can't Help Falling in Love" has been adopted originally by Sunderland as well as several other teams including Huddersfield Town, Hull City, Preston North End, Rotherham United, Swindon Town, Swansea and AFC Wimbledon.
  The Dave Clarke
caption: The song "You'll Never Walk Alone" has become closely associated with Liverpool F.C.
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