Song Lyric Sunday. Sport.

Jim Adams

Our theme for Song Lyric Sunday from Jim Adams, this week is songs that mention, reference, or talk about sports.

Well I am going for two videos two songs that reference football.

The Tempus Quartet are based in Mexico… absolutely brilliant.

This next one has been adopted by English fans especially in the recent Euros. Sweet Caroline by Neil Diamond.

Neil Diamond’s ‘Sweet Caroline’ rang out across Wembley as England fans celebrated their team’s victory in the Euro 2020 semi-final.

It has become an anthem for many sports in England, from darts to rugby league, with fans revelling in the thought that “good times never seemed so good”.

Yet its origin as a sporting anthem appears to be across the Atlantic where Major League Baseball team the Boston Red Sox lays claim to sparking its popularity.

It is claimed that during a game at the Red Sox’s Fenway Park stadium in 1997, Amy Tobey, an employee in charge of ball-park music, played ‘Sweet Caroline’ because someone she knew had just had a baby named Caroline.

For the next few years, the song would be played on select occasions but that all changed when Dr Charles Steinberg joined the Red Sox as executive vice president of public affairs in 2002 and came to the conclusion that the song had transformative powers, so ordered it to be played during every game.

On April 20, 2013, in the emotional first game back at Fenway Park following the Boston Marathon bombings, Diamond came out to the diamond to play his song live. More information here.

But for now football fan here in England love it as do I. Here is the England team and Fans celebrating after beating Denmark.