It's one of the greatest football anthems ever - but Three Lions and its chorus “Football’s coming home” almost never happened.
The Lightning Seeds frontman Ian Broudie admitted his initial response when the FA asked him if he would like to record England’s Euro ’96 song was “Not really, no”. He then suggested they gave it to Frank Skinner and David Baddiel, who were hosting the popular Fantasy Football League at the time.
The comedy duo said they would get involved if Ian wrote the music. But even once they and the band were all on board, football got in the way of plans to get together and write the song. Ian, 65, reveals: “David didn’t come because Chelsea were playing at home and Frank couldn’t get there until late.
England fans celebrate at Euro '96 (Offside via Getty Images)“I remember bashing away at the piano and the two of us singing, ‘It’s coming back, it’s coming home’ or words vaguely around that theme. It didn’t seem like a big deal or anything. We were still working out if we should do it.” Frank then took a cassette away and worked on lyrics with David. But when they faxed them to Ian, he was confused as it said “3 Lines” and he wondered “Is it an Adidas thing, or is it some cocaine gag”.
However, it was just a misunderstanding from the person the pair had dictated the song to. The song thousands of fans belt out on the terraces was then vetoed by the FA. Ian said: “I thought it was a good tune and I thought their lyrics were great, but then we sent it to the FA and they really didn’t like it.
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“They thought it was too negative and they weren’t happy about it not having members of the team on it. They asked me to take Frank and David off the record. They wanted me to call the song ‘The Beautiful Game’ and write a new lyric... ‘F**k that,’ I thought. “We told them we’d release it ourselves as an unofficial thing. That worried the FA because then it would have become competition and they would have to come up with something better.”
Lionesses celebrate after winning the 2022 Euros (Getty Images)With a few small lyric changes they eventually managed to make a compromise and Three Lions was born. The track was then played to the players on Paul Gascoigne’s ghetto blaster but they were unsure about it sounding too downbeat. That was when Frank gave them an impromptu “brilliant speech” about how fans were behind them to win the tournament and the players then agreed to be in video and the song took off.
Three Lions holds the record for being the only song to claim four spells at Number 1 with the same artist line-up; the original 1996 version had two one-week stints in 1996, while the 1998 re-work had one three-week spell at the top. It has also been re-recorded in 1998, 2010, 2022 and Ian concludes the song had “negative effect on his career” as being so mainstream was an “unforgivable crime” for an indie band like his.
He also didn’t initially like playing it on tour but had hundreds of fans at gigs in England shirts expecting to hear it after Euro ’96. However, he took great joy in seeing the Lionesses singing it after winning the Euros last year. In his new biography, Tomorrow’s Here Today, Ian explains: “For me it felt like the song had taken on a new level of meaning.
Three Lions, performed by Baddiel, Skinner and Broudie, has become a football anthem (PA)Our hopes and dreams had finally come true. That it was the women and not the men who got to bring the trophy home seemed weirdly fitting. “It seemed to emphasise a change in British culture from the 20th Century to the 21st. Absolutely it was their song now.”
Given the millions of record sales and the fact the song is still sung now when England play in a tournament, it is not surprising Ian ends his book writing about it. He admits: “Three Lions is what I’ll be remembered for. It’s the headline.”
* Tomorrow’s Here Today by Ian Broudie is published by Nine Eight Books and is out now.
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