This Day in History: 2023-05-23

Nr. 461

WORLD CHAMPIONS BECOME CHART TOPPERS (1970)

«Back home, they’ll be thinking about us when we are far away. Back home, they’ll be really behind us in every game we play…» sang the 1970 England World Cup squad on the popular music programme Top of the Pops prior to their departure for Mexico. The squad, many of them from the side that won the World Cup in 1966, had been invited, some reluctantly, into the recording studios to record ‘Back Home’, a two minutes and two seconds song which turned into a phenomenon by becoming the first football song to make number one in the British pop charts. It stayed in the hit parade for 17 weeks.

Companion album ‘The World Beaters Sing World Beaters’ reached number 4 in the charts. It included contemporary hits like ‘Sugar Sugar’.