A song written thirty-five years ago about George Best is to be released in the wake of the footballer's death on Friday. Don Fardon's 'Belfast Boy' was originally used as the theme to a BBC documentary about Best, but after the original song got more than 200 airplays over the weekend, the country singer has re-recorded the track, and hopes to release it in the next couple of weeks, with all money raised from the project going towards a permanent memorial for the footballing legend.
Fardon, who recorded the new version of the song at UB40's studios in Birmingham overnight on Monday, told BBC News: "The lyrics are more or less the same but it's a lot heavier - it's a 2005 version rather than a version for the 1970s."
On how he originally became involved with the 1970 documentary, he continued: "The two guys who wrote the song saw me perform in London and asked to put my voice on it. I said no at first, because I was under contract, but they cleared it with the record company. I had no idea it would become such a hit. It was shown on BBC Two television the first time on a Monday or Tuesday night, and fans jammed the switchboard at the BBC for seven hours afterwards asking where they could get a copy of the record."