Manchester United Influencers Pick Their Favourite Fan Chants

Manchester United have a lot of great chants. Theirs is a fanbase that prides itself on both the breadth of songs regularly sung and their originality.

Not every chant sung by United's support is to an original tune, though. They, like all fanbases, sometimes lift chants from elsewhere and adapt them for their own use, but it would be fascinating to see a proper sociological study of just how many of the Premier League's most commonly sung songs had their origins in the Stretford End.

Rui Vieira/Associated Press

It is not just United fans who have noticed, either. Standing in the Stretford End with a Liverpool-supporting friend who had brought his United-supporting son to a game (it's a long story), he observed that the number of different songs sung by United far outstripped those he was used to hearing at Anfield. He did also note a disproportionate number of those songs referenced Liverpool in some fashion, something that apparently happens less the other way around, but he was nonetheless impressed.

We asked a selection of prominent United fans—bloggers, journalists and YouTubers—their feelings on which of this smorgasbord of options was their favourite.

Ryan Grant, a journalist for the club's official website, echoed the notion that there are many fine options to pick from: "What a choice, though! Call me biased, but I think United are like no other club for great chants. One that immediately comes to mind is the 'Manchester United Calypso'; for me, it encapsulates a lot of what I love about the club."

The "Calypso" is a wonderful chant, though it tends to get sung at breakneck speed, which eats away at its impact. In his detailed history of the song on fan site United Rant, Thariq Amir writes: 

"The 'Calypso' was...sung by Edric Connor, who moved to England from Trinidad in 1944—and if anyone was born to record the song, it was the actor and musician. Throughout his career, Connor was a trailblazer, helping to popularise calypso music, becoming the first black actor to perform with the Royal Shakespeare Company, setting up the Afro-Asian Caribbean Agency to represent Black and minority artists, as well as establishing a theatre workshop."

The sheer vibrancy of the original recording makes it easy to understand how it caught on in the stands. It is a celebration of the spirit of United, that version of the club that exists in popular imagination, committed to playing joyful, attacking football, even when the players on the pitch might not be.

"Whenever they're playing in your town, get yourself to that football ground," the lyrics exhort. "Take a lesson, come to see, the football taught by Matt Busby!"

Greg Johnson of Squawka said of the "Calypso": "I think it's a hilarious juxtaposition of a club from a rainy, industrial town singing along to a tropical, old-timey song, especially when you've got thousands of blokes with thick Manc accents going really flat on the 'Manchester' bits. I love it. It almost sums up the absurdity and fun of football."

Sam Homewood of Full Time Devils agrees. He recalls a specific occasion when it resonated. "When we sang it for 20 minutes at St Mary's [against Southampton] when [Ryan] Giggs was manager, that was absolutely magic. We chanted it endlessly."

It is easy to see how it might have felt particularly special during that brief window when it felt the club had been wrested back from David Moyes to a regime more obviously connected with the lineage of Sir Matt Busby.

Grant cited another option, too. "More recently, I've enjoyed getting involved with Ander Herrera's new chant. It's simple, catchy and seems to get louder the longer it goes on."

To the tune of Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Bad Moon Rising": "Ole ole, Ander Herrera! Ole ole ole, ola. Drinks Estrella by the cask. He's not Spanish; he is Basque. Ole ole ole, ola!"

It got a particularly spectacular airing during United's final home game of last season, against Crystal Palace.

Herrera was spotted at the back of the lower tier of the East Stand, causing the entire Singing Section to turn away from the pitch and direct his chant at him for minutes on end. It was a beautiful sight to see.

Rapper Awate, a United fan since childhood, picked a simple affair as his favourite chant. "Ooh Aah Cantona puts into words the exact feelings that King Eric bestowed upon us. You could write a thousand books on the man, and the best you'd get is 'Ooh Aah.'"

The "Ooh Aah" chant evolved during Eric Cantona's time at United from the rhythmic, simple chant favoured at Leeds United to a hearty tune sung to the melody of France's national anthem, "La Marseillaise." "Ooh Aah," is the perfect verbalisation of watching the firework display that was Cantona in action, and "La Marseillaise" provides the perfect accompaniment.

Like Cantona and United, it is a match made in heaven.

Nooruddean Choudry, of Joe.co.uk and Twitter's BeardedGenius fame, stuck to a Cantona theme: 

"Although I do love singing 'Viva Ronaldo' and 'Lo Lo Lo Lo Lo Lo Radamel Falcao,' [about which more later], it's gotta be 'Eric the King.' You can just proper bop to it. 'Lily the Pink' is such a funny little song. I love that it was used for a football chant. It's well fun to sing, and there's that anticipation with the massive 'Weeeeeeeee'll...' at the beginning that goes on forever—love that! Also, it's about Eric, so there's that, too."

"We'll drink a drink a drink to Eric the King, the King, the King; he's the leader of our football team," goes the joyful refrain. As Choudry says, the elongated "we'll" builds anticipation, although many attempted versions fail to get off the ground because people do not know when to come in with the rest of the chant. It is a song that needs a leader in charge of counting everyone in. When it works, though, it is brilliant.

WARNING: The video below contains NSFW language

Journalist and author Darren Richman picked an old classic. Sung, like the Herrera chant and so many others, to the tune of "Bad Moon Rising," United fans have long sung: "I see the Stretford End arising. I see trouble on the way. Don’t go out tonight, unless you're red and white. I see there's trouble on the way."

Richman's love for it is personal. "It's based on a Creedence song, the favourite band of the Dude (from The Big Lebowski) and my dad. What's not to love?"

Nick Poole, who covers United's first and youth teams via the Twitter account @ManUnitedYouth, said:

"We've had some fantastic topical and individual chants that would probably have been favourite in a particular season, but the one that always endures for me is 'Pride of All Europe.' Right from my formative trips to Old Trafford, childishly relishing the 'and Leeds!' and feeling smug at knowing the 'lalala la la la la la...ooooh' where others tailed off right through to the present day. We might need to rewrite the 'we often score six...' part for the post-Fergie era, mind."

"One of Those Teams" is an iconic United chant. There is not a game played at Old Trafford wherein it is not sung.

Adam McKola of Full Time Devils picked two favourites. The first was "Viva Ronaldo." He said of the refrain: "It reminds me of greatness. The 1-0 victory over Barcelona [in the semi-final second leg of the UEFA Champions League in 2008] was when it was at its best, with scarves twirling everywhere. And talking of scarves twirling, I loved 'Lo Lo Lo Lo Lo Lo Radamel Falcao' too. If only he'd been as good as Ronaldo."

Old Trafford might have a reputation for being quiet a lot of the time, but if you ever sit—or, more accurately, stand—in the Singing Section or the top tier of the Stretford End, you will leave with a wide variety of songs stuck in your head and probably a sore throat from joining in.

All quotations obtained firsthand except where otherwise stated.