‘World Cup Willie’: 1966’s unofficial World Cup anthem
A World Cup without its accompanying soundtrack would be like a pub with no pints, a pie without peas, or the Egypt squad without Mo Salah: rubbish. Yet, during the early days of the tournament, there were no ‘official anthems’ or big-budget endorsements. For all that, we seemingly have skiffle hero Lonnie Donegan to thank.
‘The King of Skiffle’ was not a hotly contested title outside of the United Kingdom, but with his homemade instruments and skiffle covers of blues standards like ‘Rock Island Line’, Lonnie Donegan became one of the most important British artists of the 1950s.
Skiffle, for those who have never heard the twang of tea-chest bass, was a natural precursor to rock and roll, typified by a DIY sensibility that appealed to young audiences, including the likes of Paul McCartney and John Lennon, whose skiffle outfit The Quarrymen eventually renamed themselves The Beatles.
Donegan might have been essential in inspiring the early days of British rock and roll, but by the time the 1966 World Cup rolled around, his notoriety had taken a bit of a nosedive, thanks largely to the groups that he directly inspired. When the England squad kicked off the tournament with an uneventful nil-nil draw to Uruguay, The Beatles were the biggest band on the planet, a global signifier of England’s cultural importance. Yet, neither the Fab Four nor any of their 1960s contemporaries thought to mark the occasion with a song.
Therein, Lonnie Donegan deduced, lies an opportunity. Although, admittedly, the World Cup – and football more generally – was not treated with the same degree of global reverence in 1966 as it is today, there was sufficient buzz around the World Cup being held in England that Donegan – setting aside his loyalties as a Scotsman – might be able to earn a few quid if he recorded a novelty song off the back of it. So, to coincide with the tournament, the skiffle star released ‘World Cup Willie’.
Named after the tournament’s mascot, who was incidentally the first-ever World Cup mascot, the upbeat novelty single can hardly be described as one of Donegan’s greatest efforts, and it didn’t do much to reinvigorate the deteriorating fame of the musician. In terms of legacy, though, ‘World Cup Willie’ changed the tournament forevermore, being the first World Cup song, even if it wasn’t in any official capacity.
Everything from Shakira’s ‘Waka Waka’ to John Barnes’ career-highlight rap on ‘World In Motion’ can be traced back to that bizarre 1966 song. Lonnie Donegan might have been past his best when he recorded the track, but in creating a song for the World Cup, he was years ahead of his time. Following their victory at that tournament, the England squad itself clearly took notice of the song, as they chose to record their own track, ‘Back Home’, in support of the next World Cup in 1970.
It would take another few decades before FIFA itself appointed an official World Cup anthem, with Giorgio Moroder’s ‘Un’estate italiana’ becoming the official song of Italia ‘90, a production far grander than ‘World Cup Willie’.
Whether that 1966 song was intended as a cash-grab novelty, an attempt to reaffirm relevancy, or simply a genuine celebration of the biggest event in football, Lonnie Donegan can justifiably claim to have changed the history of the tournament, along with football’s relationship with the music world, forevermore.
