More features

“I dread to think what they’re going to come up with for Simon Cox,” jokes BBC WM presenter Daz Hale as he ponders new football songs and West Bromwich Albion’s latest signing.

Wolves fans in full voice

The Breakfast sports presenter is asking the region’s football fans for the best new chants for players recently transferred to the region's clubs.

He’s roped in West Bromwich Albion’s ‘poet in residence’ Charlie Jordan and together they’ve been singing their best efforts live on radio to promote the BBC's poetry season.

John Carew

“I think it’s a dying art,” says Wolves fan Daz, who believes the end of terracing in stadiums in England in 1990 has affected the atmosphere in the country’s grounds.

“The repertoires at all of our clubs seems to have dropped since the introduction of all-seater stadium.

John Carew salutes the fans

"It's still ok at the big matches but the run-of-the-mill games can be a bit flat at times, and that's when the crowd can come into their own.

"I've had the opportunity since doing this job to speak to a lot of footballers and former pros and they all say how big an influence the crowd can have on a game.

“Admittedly there are still some good chants – witness all of the songs about Aston Villa’s John Carew - but we need more.”

Que Sera Sera

Villa’s Norwegian striker was a hit with Holt Enders who seemed to have a new chant for him every other week.

They changed Rock Master Scott's The Roof is on Fire (‘Carew, Carew is on fire…’ ) and even altered Que Sera Sera (‘Maybe he’ll pay for you….John Carew, Carew’) to recall the striker’s alleged outing the night before a UEFA Cup game.   

Charlie Jordan

And the best atmosphere Daz has experienced at a game?

"I think it's got to be the play-off final in 2003 between Wolves and Sheffield United," he says without hesitation.

"It was a brilliant occasion and  our supporters made loads of noise and winning meant we'd got into the Premiership for the first time."      

“I don’t think chants are dying out,” argues lifelong ‘Baggie’ Charlie.

“If I’m at the stadium with 30 to 40,000 people around me then I think I can sing beautifully with tears streaming down my face.

'Play up'

“No-one really knows where the chants come from but when someone in the crowd starts them off we all just follow.”

Phillips feeds off the crowd's energy

Composer and Wolves fan Sir Edward Elgar is credited by some as having an 'instrumental' role in football singing.

In 1898, he was so taken with a phrase in a newspaper report which said his hero Billy Malpass had ''banged the leather for goal'' that he set it to music - thus creating what may well be the first football chant at a ground.

“There has been very little research into the origin of singing and chanting,” admits Sally Hawley, collections officer of the National Football Museum, “and it is very difficult to pinpoint when songs about players started.

“The earliest examples of singing at games we’ve found dates back to the late 18th century and public school matches with the chant ‘play up’ mentioned in diaries.

“During the 19th century the melodies of songs from Victorian music halls were heard at games and of course popular songs such as ‘I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles’ and ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ are still sung by West Ham and Liverpool fans.

West Brom fans go, 'Boing, boing'!'

First memory

“As professional football took off in the twentieth century and football became more popular the players were seen more as stars and that seems to have been the catalyst for songs about players.”

Got a chant about a new player at your club? Think it could be a hit at your ground? Or can you shed some light on your first memory of a player chant?

Whether it’s Villa, Wolves, Albion, Blues or The Saddlers, send in your chants and we’ll publish the best.