A song with no content regarding football nor Leeds United, nevertheless ...
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The legendaric Leeds United footballer John Charles is a name that lingers on many supporters lips.
He played for Leeds in the 1950's, made 327 appearances on the pitch and scored 157 goals for the club,
and he is still keeping the club record of 42 goals scored in the same season.
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In 1957 he was tranferred to Juventus in Italy, for the world record transfer fee of GBP 65 000.
With Juve John Charles won 3 Italian leauge championships, and one cupmedal. He was voted footballer of the year
in 1958. John Charles returned to Leeds in 1962, but was sold to Rome (Italy) after only 11 league games -
the transfer fee in October 1962 was GBP 70 000.
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But this was supposed to be a story about music!
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The same year as John Charles was voted footballer of the year in Italy - 1958 - John had another world record.
He was the first ever footballer in the world to release a record! And, as on the pitch, also this was a big
success. He made it to number 1 also on the Italian hit-lists!
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When the CD "Marching on Together" was produced in 1997, John Charles was invited to re-record the song he
had a no. 1 hit with almost 40 years earlier. The offer was happily accepted by John, and the then 65
year old spent an hour or so in the studio. With a great voice for a 65 year old man, it was talked footy,
sung, talked music and even consumed a whiskey or three.
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And the song was an old Tennessee Ernie Ford classic named "Sixteen Tons", written by Merle Travis in the 1940's.
Graham Young played the piano and Kevin Smith was the producer.
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Here is the song:
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Track 9