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When the Saints Go Marching In (sports anthem)

The old hymn and jazz tune "When the Saints Go Marching In" is used by several teams in various sports. It may be used as the team's theme song or reserved for when they scored. Liverpool fans used it as a football chant to honour their player Ian St John in the 1960s, a song that was also adopted by other clubs.[1] Southampton Football Club, for example, use it as a football chant due to the fact that their nickname is The Saints, other football clubs use different variations of the song. It may be used with the standard lyrics, specialized lyrics, or no lyrics at all. When sung by a crowd, it is often started at a very slow tempo, around 70 beats per minute. The next verse is then dramatically sped up to somewhere around 140 beats per minute.

The following is a partial list of its notable uses.

  1. ^ Morris, Desmond (1981). "Chapter 43 Tribal Chants". The Soccer Tribe. Cape. pp. 304–305. ISBN 978-0224019354.