A while back – late last year, we had this exclusive and this response raising the idea of an Arsenal anthem to give our new stadium an equivalent to the stirring ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ sung by Liverpool fans.

Then in April, I revived the idea on this thread on the onlinegooner forum. A decent debate has continued for a couple of months and now I am putting forward a provisional shortlist. Assuming no major objections (I’ll allow a week for appeals or something wonderful that no-one’s thought of), these will go to a referendum vote which I hope other Arsenal sites will link to so we can have a pretty comprehensive election of a favoured tune to approach the club with – through redaction.

For all the doom-mongers out there the idea is that we persuade the club to play the song over the PA system before the teams come out, initially putting the words on the videoscreens. It will take a while to catch on, but come the day of a big, big game, the hope is that a majority of the crowd will add their voices and create an atmosphere akin to that at Anfield before, for example, their big European games over the last three seasons against the likes of Chelsea and Barcelona. A lot of people are quite negative about the possibilities of this taking off, but my way of thinking is that if 10,000 people will sing it (realistically, the redsection get into it and it gradually spreads), in time, the majority of the crowd will join in if they are sufficiently moved/inspired. It will take a couple of seasons to really take hold, but if we persevere, we could have something really special. This is the first part of an initiative here at onlinegooner to improve matchday atmosphere at the new stadium.

The criteria that I first mooted was that the song should have the following qualities…
Should be stirring enough to send shivers down the back of your neck
Therefore, not too fast or poppy
Capability for a good sing-along
Therefore, already fairly familiar to many in its own right
Probably unlikely to have been written since 1980 due to the average age of the Arsenal crowd
Embodying the spirit of Arsenal or the relationship between the team and fans in the lyrics in some way
Not have strong associations with another club for any reason.

I should clarify that this is not ‘run out’ music but something to build up the atmosphere before the players walk out, finishing when they are lined up in the tunnel.

At this point, I’ll quote a forum posting on the subject from ‘singup4theArse’, just to echo the above… “If you want to get an anthem going you have to find the kind of song – that’s old enough for everyone to identify with. So out go all the hits of the last decade . Blue moon/You’ll Never Walk Alone/Keep Right On/Dehlila/Bubbles all have one thing in common. They are old songs. They've stood the test of time; they are slightly absurd and naff in their own way and I suspect that’s what's made them 'catchy' and later, popular with fans. Having said that the song also has to have broad appeal. I can't see the average Cypriot/Black/Irish/Asian kid singing 'Knees Up Mother Brown'.”

So here is the proposed shortlist, in alphabetical order
Bridge Over Troubled Water (Simon and Garfunkel)
Can’t Help Falling In Love With You (Elvis Presley)
Danny Boy (Traditional)
He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother (The Hollies)
I Only Have Eyes For You (Various)
Lean On Me (Bill Withers)
Over The Rainbow (Judy Garland)
Streets of London (Ralph McTell)
The Impossible Dream (Andy Williams)

The following fitted the criteria, but there was not quite enough enthusiasm for them…
Hangbags And Gladrags (Rod Stewart)
Let It Be (The Beatles)
My Way (Frank Sinatra)
The Green Green Grass Of Home (Tom Jones)
The Wonder Of You (Elvis Presley)
You've Lost That Lovin’ Feeling (Righteous Brothers)

There have been many other suggestions, which haven’t made the shortlist, for reasons such as being…
Too jaunty/fast/poppy (popular choice ‘Maybe It’s Because I’m A Londoner falls into this trap)
Already an established Arsenal song/chant – (eg Good Old Arsenal) which is not what we are trying to achieve here – those have been around for long enough already and have not been naturally adopted by the crowd
Too recent (eg Angels by Robbie Williams)
Strong connections with another club (eg Wonderwall)
Already used by another club
Too obscure
Too strong a specific association with one particular country/culture (okay, you could argue Danny Boy should be disqualified for this, but the song was not written with Ireland in mind, simply adopted by them and the sheer strength of positive feedback on the forum for this seems to suggest that people see the song as more than representing the Emerald Isle).

For what it’s worth, the feedback so far has ‘The Impossible Dream’ as the most popular choice (although some argue it’s a bit too long and slow to really pick up), however, when we post the referendum (in a week’s time, as the next onlinegooner referendum) the numbers voting will be far greater than those who have so far discussed it on the forum, as I will be contacting other Arsenal websites to ask them to mention the vote on their own sites and link to it. Then we’ll have a truly democratic vote of Arsenal fans determining which ‘anthem’ we will approach the club to try.

As for the referendum – I think we have the capability of more than five choices, but if not, I’ll take subsequent forum postings (under the further discussion section) as the determining factor. I’ll also consider any appeals regarding what is and isn’t on the shortlist, if they are made with strong conviction by enough posters. The shortlist is not set in stone, but an attempt at pulling together the two months of debate on the forum since the original posting discussing this idea. Watch this space and I will post another piece next week once the final vote has gone live.