U2 star Larry Mullen has revealed that Ireland’s Italia ’90 football heroes did not sing a note on the iconic anthem, Put ‘Em Under Pressure.
A new RTE Radio One doc lifts the lid on the legendary tune, voted the 27th-best Irish song of all time.
The song was credited to the Ireland football squad after its release in 1990 and it hit number one in the Irish charts.
But U2 drummer Larry, who co-produced the track with its famous ‘Olé Olé’ call, has revealed that not a single player in the 1990 football squad sang a single note on the song.
Larry said: “I think the footballers still think they sang on it. They did sing, but the problem was it wasn’t in tune. It wasn’t up to scratch.”
Speaking in new RTE Radio doc The Story of Put ‘Em Under Pressure, then boss of Windmill Lane studios Denis Woods revealed: “There was a plan for the team to do it at the time of the video but it was too complicated and we had to have the track done before then.”
However, Larry told how producers decided they couldn’t fall back on the original guide vocals for the song which had been sung by session singers.
Larry said: “It all sounded too professional, that was one of the moments where (we said) this is not working. It needs to sound like a terrace”.
It was decided that the singing on Put Em Under Pressure “didn’t sound rowdy enough”.
So a new vocal session was organised as Denis added: “We got two of the studio security guards and some Spanish tourists who had been looking at the U2 wall outside, and stuck them around a microphone. They are the singers heard on the track.”
The record went on to sell 100,000 copies and was number one for 13 weeks.
In 2024, it was ranked as the 27th-best Irish song of all time, ranked ahead of Linger and Fairytale of New York.
