The World Cup is in full swing and, aside from the matches, fans are enjoying an extravaganza of sights, sounds, colours and songs. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing BBC News.

With catchy hooks and punchy lyrics, the World Cup song has been a popular pre-match aperitif for decades. Official anthems at recent tournaments have been sung by megastars including Pitbull and Shakira. But it is the ones from decades ago, when Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland qualified, that are remembered fondly and belted out by fans today, many not born when those cult classics were first released.

What is it that makes a World Cup song timeless? Fans remember those with nostalgic and blindly optimistic lyrics including "World In Motion" (England) and "Put 'Em Under Pressure" (Republic of Ireland), with its famous "Olé, olé, olé, olé" chorus, both released ahead of Italia '90. The guitar hook of Horslips' song "Dearg Doom" was a crucial element in the Republic of Ireland's anthem, which featured the production skills of U2 drummer Larry Mullen Junior. For Horslips' bass player Barry Devlin it was a pleasant surprise to learn that the guitar riff had been adapted for the song. He described it "as one of the greatest soccer anthems there has ever been". "Certainly here, it ends the night at weddings, it has got a legendary status," he added.

Devlin also believes 1990 was a transformational year in the history of the World Cup song, citing the technical innovation of "World In Motion" and "Put 'Em Under Pressure". "I think there was an attempt to be smarter and involve the actual game, I think that was a tipping point, neither of those songs have been bettered since," he added.

Gerry Armstrong had already mingled with musical royalty before he featured on Northern Ireland's World Cup songs in both Spain '82 and Mexico '86. He told BBC News NI that before recording "Yer Man" with Eurovision winner Dana in 1982 "there was nervousness". "A lot of our players aren't what you would call singers and I remember after the first recording, I suggested that I go and get a few beers and let them chill out and they recorded it straight after that, there was no problem."

Northern Ireland's links to World Cup songs stretch back to 1970, when Phil Coulter was a co-writer of England's "Back Home". Earlier this month, Coulter recalled in the Daily Telegraph, how successful record sales of "Back Home" were, until England's collapse in the 1970 World Cup quarter-finals against West Germany.