"Glory Glory" is a

terrace chant A football chant or terrace chant is form of vocalisation performed by supporters of association football, typically during football matches. Football chanting is an expression of collective identity, most often used by fans to express their p ...

sung in association football in the United Kingdom and in other sport. It uses the tune of the American Civil War song " The Battle Hymn of the Republic", with the chorus "Glory, Glory, Hallelujah" – the chant replaces "Hallelujah" with the name (or a four-syllable adaptation) of the favoured team. The chant's popularity has caused several clubs to release their version as an official team song.

History

The Scottish club Hibernian may be the first club to release the song as a single; "Glory, Glory to the Hibees" by

Hector Nicol Hector Nicol (9 November 1920 – 2 July 1985) was a Scottish comedian, singer and actor. Acting career Nicol starred in few shows during his career. His most notable role was that of a dying gangster in the BBC Television play ''Just a Boys' ...

is believed to have been recorded in the late 1950s. In English football, Tottenham Hotspur is thought to be the first English club to sing the song as a football chant in 1960 when they prevented Wolves from achieving the double in April 1960, but became a popular chant for the club in 1961. Other notable clubs to adopt the song as a football anthem include Leeds United and

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

Tottenham Hotspur

"Glory, Glory, Hallelujah" became a popular song among Tottenham Hotspur fans in the early 1960s and is still an anthem for the club today. It is believed that Tottenham fans first sung the song in April 1960, when they prevented Wolverhampton Wanderers from achieving the double. Fans took the song to their European campaign in the

1961–62 European Cup The 1961–62 European Cup was the seventh season of the European Cup. The competition was won by Benfica for the second time in a row, beating Real Madrid 5–3 in the final at the Olympisch Stadion in Amsterdam. Malta entered its champion fo ...

, and it then acquired the status of an anthem for the club after an incident in September 1961. In the away match against Polish side Górnik Zabrze, the Polish press described the Spurs team as "no angels" due to their rough tackling during the match. In the return leg at White Hart Lane, some fans went to the match in angel costumes, holding placards with slogans such as "Glory be to shining White Hart Lane" and "Rejoice! This is the night of vengeance". The crowded started singing the refrain "Glory, Glory, Hallelujah" when Spurs beat the Poles 8–1, and from then on, singing the song became a tradition at Tottenham. The song was subsequently recorded by the members of the 1967 FA Cup-winning team and included in the EP, ''The Spurs Go Marching On''. For the

1981 FA Cup Final The 1981 FA Cup Final was the 100th final of the FA Cup, and was contested by Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City. The original match took place on Saturday 9 May 1981 at Wembley, and finished 1–1 after extra-time. Tommy Hutchison opened th ...

, the Tottenham Hotspur squad together with Chas & Dave recorded the song "Glory, Glory, Tottenham Hotspur" and released it as the B side to the single "

Ossie's Dream (Spurs Are on Their Way to Wembley) "Ossie's Dream (Spurs Are On Their Way To Wembley)" is a single by the English association football, football team Tottenham Hotspur F.C., Tottenham Hotspur, released as a souvenir to commemorate the team reaching the 1981 FA Cup Final. It was writ ...

Leeds United

"Glory Glory Leeds United" was released as a single (Columbia DB8506) by Ronnie Hilton in 1968 to celebrate Leeds United's League Cup and

Inter-Cities Fairs Cup The Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, sometimes referred to as the European Fairs Cup, Fairs Cities' Cup, or simply as the Fairs Cup, was a European Association football, football competition played between 1955 and 1971. It is often considered the predecess ...

successes, which are referenced in the lyrics. The song's lyrics also reference former player,

Billy Bremner William John Bremner (9 December 1942 – 7 December 1997) was a Scottish professional footballer and manager. Regarded as one of the game's great midfielders, he combined precision passing skills with tenacious tackling and physical stam ...

and Don Revie. The lyrics also mention

Mike Summerbee Michael George Summerbee (born 15 December 1942) is an English former footballer, who played in the successful Manchester City side of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Club career Summerbee was born in Preston, Lancashire, and raised in Ch ...

and George Best in the opening. In the absence of any official release by the team, the song became Leeds' unofficial

1970 FA Cup Final The 1970 FA Cup Final was contested by Chelsea and Leeds United. The match took place on 11 April 1970 at Wembley Stadium and ended 2–2, making it the first FA Cup final to require a replay since 1912. The replay was staged at Old Trafford an ...

song.

Manchester United

"Glory Glory Man United" was a single released by the

squad prior to the

1983 FA Cup Final The 1983 FA Cup Final was contested by Manchester United and Brighton & Hove Albion at Wembley Stadium. Manchester United were the favourites, as Brighton had been relegated from the First Division that season, and had never reached a cup fin ...

. It was written by Frank Renshaw, who was a member of

Herman's Hermits Herman's Hermits are an English beat, rock and pop group formed in 1964 in Manchester, originally called Herman and His Hermits and featuring lead singer Peter Noone. Produced by Mickie Most, the Hermits charted with number ones in the UK a ...

in the 1970s and 1980s. It was recorded at Strawberry Studios in Stockport with the football team and some of Renshaw's friends – Renshaw's son Lee also sang on the recording. Manchester United fans have been singing this song since the early 1980s. In the 1990s, it became popular among opposition supporters to manipulate the words of the song when playing Manchester United to "Who the fuck are Man United?", which Man United supporters sarcastically sung themselves after scoring, or while winning, against a rival team. ''Glory Glory Man United'' was also the name of the official club poster magazine, launched in 1994 and published every four weeks, totalling 13 issues a year. In 2007 its average reader age was 13 years 2 months. In 2007, a full length version of "Glory Glory Man United" was written and recorded by "The World Red Army", and produced by Will Robinson and Michael Graves. It became the official song at

Old Trafford Old Trafford () is a football stadium in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, and the home of Manchester United. With a capacity of 74,310 it is the largest club football stadium (and second-largest football stadium overall after Wemb ...

. A follow-up version titled "Glory Glory Man United 2" was released a decade later with some lyrical changes to reflect the current United team.

Glory Glory to South Sydney

In Australia, "Glory Glory to South Sydney" is used by the South Sydney Rabbitohs an Australian rugby league club. The song mentions all the teams in the competition when the song was written, and says what Souths did to them when they played. Each verse ends with, "They wear the Red and Green".

References