Heavyweight Champion Of The World

Album: The State Of Things (2007)
Charted: 8
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Songfacts®:

  • In this song, lead singer John McClure rails against 9-to-5 conformity. "Heavyweight Champion Of The World" tells a story of under-achievers, with the use of the ironic hook "Just be like everybody else." The song title is taken from a line of Barry Hines book A Kestrel For A Knave. Like the song, the book's main character is an under-achieving young boy growing up in Yorkshire.
  • The Reverend is in fact John McClure, who in 2001 formed the band Judan Suki, which included Alex Turner, whom he met on a bus. Not long after, Turner formed The Arctic Monkeys. The two later became roommates.

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