We're all humming Three Lions, but do we really know the lyrics?
Twenty-two years after it was first released ahead of the 1996 European Championship, Three Lions (Football’s Coming Home) is again being belted out with gusto in pubs and living rooms across the land.
The song, by comedians David Baddiel and Frank Skinner, and Brit Pop icons The Lightning Seeds, was the official England squad anthem of the 1996 European Championships.
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Hide AdBut it seems there is many a younger England fan (ie, under 40) who has completely misheard and subsequently mis-sung a crucial part of the song’s lyric.
As scenes of jubilation erupted across the country, cries of ‘Football’s coming home, it’s coming home’ were sung with fervour.
But many later confessed to thinking the line ‘Jules Rimet still gleaming’ was ‘jewels remain still gleaming’.
The real lyric is a reference to Jules Rimet, the Fifa president the original trophy was named after, which England won in 1966.
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Hide AdRimet was a co-founder of Fifa and one of the godfathers of the World Cup.
But how many of Lancashire football fans know of Jules Rimet’s name and why Baddiel and Skinner name-checked him in their inspired football anthem.
We asked shoppers in Preston’s Fishergate where they stood on the lyrical confusion.
Graham Peters, 61, reckons ‘jewels remain’ remains a plausible explanation.
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Hide Ad“I can see how people get confused,” he said. “I suppose it’s open to interpretation.”
Charlies Groves, 22, admitted that he, like many others, was unaware of Jules Rimet’s contribution to world football.
He said: “I don’t think I would have ever known unless you said this to me just now!
“Hopefully we can get a second trophy to go alongside it.”
Trevor Roberts, 58, however, hit the back of the net when it comes to football and music knowledge.
“Oh yeah I knew, after the Jules Rimet Trophy,” he said.
“This always seems to come out again when we look like we’re doing well. This is our best chance yet to win another let’s bring it home.”