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Back Home (song)

England football team song

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 13, 2024
Entity authorityQ372274 ↗
Source-derived summary

"Back Home" is a popular song written by Bill Martin and Phil Coulter. It was recorded by the 1970 England World Cup squad and released on the single Pye 7N 17920. It was produced by Martin and Coulter. The musical arrangements were made by Coulter. The single, which began the tradition of the England squad recording songs to celebrate its involvement in the World Cup, reached number one on the UK Singles Chart for three weeks in May 1970. England were the reigning world champions at the time, having won the 1966 World Cup, but were knocked out in the quarter finals after a 3-2 defeat by West Germany.

The song was also a hit in Ireland, reaching number two in the charts there.

The England team failed to qualify for the next two World Cups and, although it did release records on qualification in 1982 and 1986, it did not reach number one again until 1990, when it topped the charts with the New Order collaboration "World in Motion". The song is one of four singles supporting the England team to have topped the UK chart, along with the aforementioned "World in Motion", "Three Lions" and "Shout for England".

The tune to the song was also used as the theme tune for popular BBC mid-1990s football/comedy TV programme Fantasy Football League.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Back Home (song)” as england football team song. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Back, Home and song.

Editorial reviewA useful identification and reception guide that helps separate the work itself from editions, performances, ownership and later interpretation. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1970, 1966, 1982, 1986—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1970-04. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Back, Home and song providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Back Home (song)”, the useful work is to connect “england football team song” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 13, 2024. The linked authority identifier is Q372274. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1970, 1966, 1982 and 1986.

Critical limits

Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Back Home (song)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Back Home (song) primary sources, Back Home (song) archive and Back research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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  2. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
  3. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Back Home (song)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.