"The Saints are Coming" was the third

single Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...

by the Scottish punk rock band Skids, featured on their 1979 debut album, ''

Scared to Dance ''Scared to Dance'' is the debut studio album by Scottish punk rock band Skids. It was released on 23 February 1979 by record label Virgin. Writing Anti-war themes are a recurring motif in the album. There are also a great deal of reference ...

''. The song became an international hit when it was covered in 2006 by U2 and

Green Day Green Day is an American rock band formed in the East Bay of California in 1987 by lead vocalist and guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong, together with bassist and backing vocalist Mike Dirnt. For most of the band's career, they have been a powe ...

. It was covered again in 2008 by Von Thronstahl.

Skids' original version

The single was released as part of a four-track EP, ''Wide Open'', which also featured an A-side and two B-sides. The song was also released on their 1979 debut album ''

''. The song featured Richard Jobson singing of a man facing inclement weather and personal fears, and reached number 48 on the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

in the week ending 11 November 1978.Official Charts Company - Skids - The Saints Are Coming
/ref> The song's lyrics were written by Richard Jobson with music by

Stuart Adamson William Stuart Adamson (11 April 1958 – 16 December 2001) was a Scottish rock guitarist and singer. Adamson began his career in the late 1970s as a founding member and performer with the punk rock band Skids. After leaving Skids in 1981, he ...

, who later went on to form

Big Country Big Country are a Scottish rock band formed in Dunfermline, Fife, in 1981. The height of the band's popularity was in the early to mid 1980s, although it has retained a cult following for many years since. The band's music incorporated Scot ...

. As with the band's following single, "

Into the Valley "Into the Valley" is a song by Scottish punk rock band Skids, released in 1979 as the second single from their debut album ''Scared to Dance''. It is their best known song, appearing on a number of punk rock and Scottish music compilation album ...

", it is sung by fans of

Dunfermline Athletic F.C. Dunfermline Athletic Football Club is a Scottish football club based in the city of Dunfermline, Fife. Founded in 1885, the club currently play in Scottish League One after being relegated from the 2021–22 Scottish Championship. Dunfermlin ...

It is also used as the walk-on music by

Premiership Rugby Premiership Rugby, officially known as Gallagher Premiership Rugby, or the Gallagher Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is an English professional rugby union competition. The Premiership has consisted of thirteen clubs since 2021, and is the ...

Club Northampton Saints and

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

club

Southampton F.C. Southampton Football Club () is an English professional football club based in Southampton, Hampshire, which competes in the . Their home ground since 2001 has been St Mary's Stadium, before which they were based at The Dell. The club play i ...

, who are both known as The Saints.

''Wide Open'' track listing

Track listing for the 1978 EP

, ''Wide Open'', which features "The Saints Are Coming."

Personnel

* Richard Jobson –

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

–

s /

*William Simpson –

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

*Thomas Kellichan –

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

With: *Chris Jenkins –

*David Batchelor –

keyboards Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

U2 and Green Day cover

The song's lyrics about storms and drowning came back to light after the events of

Hurricane Katrina Hurricane Katrina was a destructive Category 5 Atlantic hurricane that caused over 1,800 fatalities and $125 billion in damage in late August 2005, especially in the city of New Orleans and the surrounding areas. It was at the time the cost ...

. In September 2006, it was announced that U2 and

were to record a

cover version In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song release ...

of the song for charitable purposes.BBC News
U2 to join forces with Green Day
/ref>

Release

To coincide with the U2 and Green Day recording of the song, both bands performed it together live during the

Monday Night Football ''ESPN Monday Night Football'' (abbreviated as ''MNF'' and also known as ''ESPN Monday Night Football on ABC'' for simulcasts) is an American live television broadcast of weekly National Football League (NFL) games currently airing on ESPN, AB ...

Pregame show of the

New Orleans Saints The New Orleans Saints are a professional American football team based in New Orleans. The Saints compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. Since 1975, the te ...

versus

Atlanta Falcons The Atlanta Falcons are a professional American football team based in Atlanta. The Falcons compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. The Falcons joined th ...

game on 25 September 2006. This was the first game in the

Louisiana Superdome The Caesars Superdome, commonly known as the Superdome (formerly known as Mercedes-Benz Superdome), is a multi-purpose stadium located in the Central Business District of New Orleans, Louisiana. It is the home stadium of the New Orleans Saints ...

since it was heavily damaged by

in August 2005. The live performance of the song was later sold online to benefit

Music Rising {{unreferenced, date=June 2013 Music Rising is a charity co-founded by producer Bob Ezrin, U2's The Edge and a host of music industry organizations after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The charitable organization helps to restore ...

, a charity created by U2's

The Edge David Howell Evans (born 8 August 1961), better known as the Edge or simply Edge,McCormick (2006), pp. 21, 23–24 is an English-born Irish musician, singer, and songwriter. He is best known as the lead guitarist, keyboardist, and backing voca ...

in order to bring instruments and music programs back to New Orleans. In the four-song set, U2 and Green Day performed " Wake Me Up When September Ends" followed by a medley of the American folk song "

The House of the Rising Sun "The House of the Rising Sun" is a traditional folk music, folk song, sometimes called "Rising Sun Blues". It tells of a person's life gone wrong in the city of New Orleans. Many versions also urge a sibling or parents and children to avoid th ...

," Skids' "The Saints Are Coming", and U2's "

Beautiful Day "Beautiful Day" is a song by Irish rock band U2. It is the first track on their tenth studio album, ''All That You Can't Leave Behind'' (2000), and was released as the album's lead single on 9 October 2000. The song was a commercial success, h ...

" as a seven-piece band, augmented by the

Rebirth Brass Band The Rebirth Brass Band is a New Orleans brass band. The group was founded in 1983 by Phillip "Tuba Phil" Frazier, his brother Keith Frazier, Kermit Ruffins,Skelly, RichardAllMusic Profile Retrieved 2013-02-9 and classmates from Joseph S. Clark ...

, the New Birth Brass Band, Troy Andrews, and Big Sam Williams. The lyrics of all four songs were customized by singers

Billie Joe Armstrong Billie Joe Armstrong (born February 17, 1972) is an American musician who is the lead vocalist, guitarist, and primary songwriter of the rock band Green Day, which he co-founded with Mike Dirnt in 1987. He is also a guitarist and vocalist for t ...

and

Bono Paul David Hewson (born 10 May 1960), known by his stage name Bono (), is an Irish singer-songwriter, activist, and philanthropist. He is the lead vocalist and primary lyricist of the rock band U2. Born and raised in Dublin, he attended M ...

to commemorate the trials, tribulations, and successes that faced the city over the past year. Punctuating the 68,000 fans' first season-ticket sellout of the Louisiana Superdome in its 31-year history, the New Orleans Saints beat the Atlanta Falcons 23–3. Since then, the song has been played at Saints home games before they take the field. The live version of "The Saints Are Coming" was immediately made available for download purchase at

Real Rhapsody Napster is a Streaming media, music streaming service based in Seattle, Washington (state), Washington. Napster started as an audio search engine named Aladdin that was purchased by Listen.com in May 2001 and became the basis for its new streami ...

. The studio version of the song was released for digital download on 30 October 2006 and released as a CD single on 6 November 2006. The song also appears on the U2 compilation album ''

U218 Singles U or u, is the twenty-first and sixth-to-last letter and fifth vowel letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''u'' (pr ...

'', which was released on 20 November 2006. The song was played for the first time by U2 alone on the Pacific Leg of the

Vertigo Tour The Vertigo Tour was a worldwide concert tour by the Irish rock band U2. Staged in support of the group's 2004 album ''How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb'', the tour visited arenas and stadiums between March 2005 and December 2006. The Vertigo Tour ...

Brisbane, Australia Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Queensland, and the third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of approximately 2.6 million. Brisbane lies at the centre of the South ...

, on 7 November 2006. The only performance of this song by Green Day alone was on 7 August 2009 when the band performed the song in New Orleans. Billie Joe Armstrong also ad-libbed lines from the song over the bass solo to Green Day hit single "

Holiday A holiday is a day set aside by custom or by law on which normal activities, especially business or work including school, are suspended or reduced. Generally, holidays are intended to allow individuals to celebrate or commemorate an event or tra ...

" during some performances on their 21st Century Breakdown World Tour in the summer of 2010.

Music video

A music video for "The Saints Are Coming," directed by

Chris Milk Chris Milk is an American entrepreneur, innovator, director, photographer, and immersive artist. He is co-founder and CEO of Within (Virtual Reality) (formerly Vrse), a virtual reality technology company, and co-founder of Here Be Dragons (for ...

, was released on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

on 27 October 2006. The music video shows the two bands playing at the Abbey Road Studio and at the Louisiana Superdome (though the footage from the live performance at the Superdome has been overdubbed with the studio version of the song), intermixed with news footage of the displacement of residents after

in New Orleans. The second half of the video shows an

alternate history Alternate history (also alternative history, althist, AH) is a genre of speculative fiction of stories in which one or more historical events occur and are resolved differently than in real life. As conjecture based upon historical fact, altern ...

in which

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...

redeployed troops and vehicles from Iraq to New Orleans to help victims of the hurricane, with the military personnel fulfilling the titular role of the "saints." According to Chris Milk, this was done to "make a commentary on the Katrina disaster ... from the standpoint of how things can and should be done in the future." The video ends with military support vehicles fading out as the camera pans to a sign that reads "Not as seen on TV," alluding to the criticized response to Katrina while also parodying restrictions on the media of rescue coverage. The video had more than two million views on

five days after its initial upload.

Reception

The single earned a

Grammy The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pre ...

nomination for

Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal The Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal was awarded between 1980 and 2011. The award was discontinued after the 2011 award season in a major overhaul of Grammy categories. Beginning in 2012, all solo or duo/group ...

Track listing

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saints Are Coming, The 1978 songs 1978 singles 2006 singles Canadian Singles Chart number-one singles Charity singles Dutch Top 40 number-one singles European Hot 100 Singles number-one singles Green Day songs Hurricane Katrina disaster relief charity singles Irish Singles Chart number-one singles Mercury Records singles Music videos directed by Chris Milk Number-one singles in Australia Number-one singles in Denmark Number-one singles in Hungary Number-one singles in Italy Number-one singles in Norway Number-one singles in Spain Number-one singles in Switzerland Skids (band) songs Song recordings produced by Jacknife Lee Song recordings produced by Rick Rubin Songs about New Orleans Songs written by Richard Jobson (television presenter) Songs written by Stuart Adamson U2 songs Virgin Records singles Musical collaborations