The tune and origins of the chant lie in the 1958 film The Vikings, starring Kirk Douglas and Tony Curtis, where the tune featured extensively.
It’s been part of City life for decades and a few years back I tried to track down when it all began. I spoke with a variety of fans and gradually, piece by piece, the story of its birth emerged but, as with the origins of most songs, there was some confusion initially.
Several fans talked about it starting at an Ipswich game in the 1970s. This seemed to be the strongest angle, and it was mentioned by a couple that they had seen The Vikings on television a few days before the game.
That was the inspiration and, knowing how people at school talked about that film at the time, it was certainly something that was in the public consciousness after it had appeared on TV.
So I searched through the newspapers around the time of City’s games to see if I could find the film being broadcast a few days before an Ipswich game.
So many had said that they’d seen it on the telly that it seemed logical and in October 1976 the film appeared on television, but the film was shown in the North West on Granada TV on 27 October 1976, four days after City had played at Ipswich.
This seemed odd. Then, when I discussed it with another fan, he said his earliest memory of it being sung was at Norwich. When I looked at the fixture list Norwich away was the next game after the film had been shown in Granadaland. That seemed to fit and I wondered if there was confusion between Ipswich and Norwich as these would have been lengthy away trips to East Anglia. Except Norwich wasn’t the full answer.
I discussed it with one of the fans who had said it was at Ipswich and he remained adamant that it was shown on TV a few days before the Ipswich game. I did further searching.
In those days the regional ITV companies tended to broadcast the same films but occasionally they’d show them at different times or on different days.
My second set of searches found that Thames TV did show the film on Thursday 21 October 1976, two days before the Ipswich game.
But that was London, not Manchester. ‘Ah, well, that makes sense because I saw it when I was living in London!’ said the fan who had been certain he’d seen it on TV. Ah! Now it all began to fit.
Piecing everything together, including further research over the years, the conclusion reached and discussed with a variety of Blues is that some London based fans watched the film on the Thursday and started humming the tune at Ipswich the following Saturday. Which means that 23 October 2026 is the 50th anniversary of fans adopting it.
The following week, after the film had been shown in the north west, the chant was sung again as City defeated Norwich 2-0. The fact that the film had been shown in consecutive weeks in different parts of the country helped it grow. Reinforcing the tune in fans’ minds. Had TV listings been different back then it may have been a one game wonder.
For some time renditions were basically City fans doing a C-iii-ttt-yy chant to the first part of the song and humming the rest. Over time it developed with the ‘Best team in the land’ words added later.
In the early 1980s I remember being at away games when it brightened up dull days on the terraces. Often the C-iiii part of the City name would be held for a long time, building up with fans joining in before it finally continued with the rest of City’s name.
This was usually how it was started on open terracing at away games, or on the Kippax. Nowadays, the second part of the chant seems to be the focus, but going back it was the C-iii-ttt-yy opening.
Over the fifty years that have followed the chant’s first appearance at Ipswich it has developed to become a part and parcel of City games, even if the original inspiration, The Vikings film, has slipped from memory for most.
A few years back I did a talk on ‘Match Day at Maine Road’ which includes more on this chant and other fan matchday experiences which can be found here.
