Three Lions creates chart history

COMIC duo David Baddiel and Frank Skinner’s football song Three Lions has shot to number one on the UK singles chart despite England’s semi-final defeat to Croatia in the World Cup.

The comedians’ collaboration with band The Lightning Seeds has set a new record in the process.

It is now the first song in the charts’ 66-year history to have four spells at number one with the same line-up of artists.

The track previously topped the charts twice in 1996, the year it was originally released to coincide with the European Championships in England.

It later spent three weeks at the top when it was re-re- leased for the 1998 World Cup. This week Three Lions netted impressive 80,000 combined sales to exceed its hat-trick.

According to the Official Charts Company this tally was David Baddiel and Frank Skinner’s football anthem, Three Lions, has returned to the top of the UK singles chart for a fourth time in 22 years made up of 43,000 sales, 6.8 million audio streams and 5.2 million video streams.

Other songs such as Do They Know It’s Christmas? and Unchained Melody have reached number one four times before, but they were performed by different artists or groups on different occasions.

Three Lions, with its chorus of “Football’s coming home”, has been a terrace anthem among England fans at every major tournament the team has competed in since its release.

Its revival has been sparked by England’s World Cup run, which ended when they lost 2-1 to Croatia on Wednesday.

Joking about the unfortunate timing of their number one, Baddiel (54) said: “Well, this is awkward.”