He said he had already rejected the triumphalist Another One Bites the Dust but did seek clearance to play Atomic Kitten’s Whole Again - which became a hit among supporters at the last World Cup who changed the chorus to, “Southgate you’re the one, you still turn me on, football’s coming home again”. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” proclaimed Mr Perry, who revealed he had been inundated by requests to add other classics to his set list. The DJ said he was reeling from the response - “What the hell is going on?!” - and that his friends had been putting money on the song to reach No 1 if England went on to win Euro 2020.Īfter they thrashed Ukraine in Rome on Saturday, and beat Demark 2-1 to reach the final against Italy, S weet Caroline will take centre-stage again on Sunday. The Telegraph pulled it out the bag there.” Mr Perry said: “That was absolutely magic for him to do that. “If the atmosphere’s that special, you’ve got some really experienced directors and fan TV crew who are like, ‘You need to let this reach fever pitch’.” “The chorus was only 30 seconds on the version I was using so I kept dropping it back in. “The crowd just went berserk,” Mr Perry told Telegraph Sport, revealing how he and Tom Howie, his match director, whipped Wembley up into even more of a frenzy. Protocol dictated Three Lions had to be played first - that has long been designated the team’s official victory song - but despite having Vindaloo lined up immediately afterwards, the moment simply demanded Sweet Caroline usurp it. And when he gave it a second airing after the game, an England anthem was born. So he sought approval to introduce Sweet Caroline ahead of the team’s historic last-16 win over Germany, something that was duly granted.Īfter playing it pre-match on Tuesday and seeing both sets of fans joining in, Mr Perry knew he had a hit on his hands. Yet, it can be revealed that Sweet Caroline would have gone completely unheard during the Three Lions’ matches at Wembley but for a light-bulb moment from the stadium’s DJ, Tony Perry.Įvery song played at Euro 2020 games requires the approval of tournament organisers and the 1969 Karaoke classic was not on the list originally agreed with Mr Perry when the competition began.īut after experiencing the atmosphere generated by crowds attending England’s group matches, the London DJ, 34, felt something was missing from his set that would get the whole of Wembley singing along. When that song became a breakout Top Five hit, Uni added it to later pressings of the album.It has become the soundtrack to England’s march to the brink of European Championship glory, with even Neil Diamond giving it his seal of approval. Normally, Uni would have been expected to pull another couple of songs as singles, but instead Diamond quickly delivered a new single, "Sweet Caroline," within two months of the LP's appearance. But Diamond may have been aware that the material was mostly second-rate. (The arrangers tried to hide this sketchiness behind strings, horns, and female choruses.) His ballads seemed more considered, making songs like "And the Grass Won't Pay No Mind" (a Top 40 hit for Mark Lindsay in 1970) the album's strongest. Diamond seemed to write on the guitar, and sometimes his up-tempo numbers didn't get much beyond the stage of being basic rhythmic strums, a rudimentary melody, and a few catch phrases. At times, the album betrayed the speed with which it had been put together, with songs like "Dig In" and "River Runs, New Grown Plums" coming off more as unfinished sketches than developed compositions. On it, the singer/songwriter to a certain extent followed the lead of the gospel-tinged hit, a tribute to a rural evangelist, by giving a country feel to the arrangements of such songs as "Long Gone," "Glory Road," and even the novelty "You're So Sweet, Horseflies Keep Hangin' 'Round Your Face," which, with lines like "You're more loyal than my dog Sam/And twice as pretty," was really a country parody. Naturally, Diamond quickly assembled an album to support the single, and it was released the following month. Although he managed to place three singles in the charts after joining Uni Records in 1968, Neil Diamond did not achieve a real hit record on the label until March 1969, when his fourth Uni single, "Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show," got into the Top 40.
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