Pulp and the Arctic Monkeys are perhaps the most famous of the city’s musical exports to reference their native Sheffield, especially in their earlier songs.
From a bus journey to High Green to a seductively seedy tour of Sheffield’s suburbs, via references to The Leadmill nightclub and famous city streets such as The Moor and the Wicker, songwriting maestros Jarvis Cocker and Alex Turner have both mined their Sheffield upbringing extensively when composing lyrics.
But famous London singers and groups, including The Clash, Elton John and Stormzy, have all notably name-checked Sheffield in their music, as have Billy Bragg and Paul Heaton.
We’ve put together a list of some of the best songs paying musical homage to the Steel City, which naturally includes more of Sheffield’s finest in The Human League, Richard Hawley, and Reverend and the Makers.
If you’re wondering why there’s no place for Def Leppard, that’s because we’ve not been able to find any Sheffield references in the band’s extensive back catalogue, despite their fondness for the city in which they were born and raised.
Def Leppard’s lead singer Joe Elliott reportedly once described the city as a ‘great place with great people’ but said 'there’s nothing in Sheffield to write songs about’.
What’s your favourite song about Sheffield, and which band or singer has best captured the city’s unique character on record?
- RELATED: Throwback to nights out partying in Sheffield in early 2000s
- RELATED: What you can expect as Black Owned Markets returns to Cutlery Works
- RELATED: Sheffield artist launches fundraiser to replace stolen equipment
- RELATED: Popular band Keo announce headline 2027 show in Sheffield – how to get tickets (aff)
5. Coles Corner - Richard Hawley
If there's one artist who best embodies Sheffield, it's surely Richard Hawley. He has taken inspiration from his home city when penning countless classic songs over the years and his music can currently be heard in the acclaimed play Standing at the Sky's Edge, about life at Park Hill. One of his best known songs is Coles Corner, which takes its name from the junction of Fargate and Church Street in Sheffield city centre, where the old Cole Brothers department store once stood. The lyrics don't mention Sheffield by name but it brilliantly evokes the city in lines like: "Cold city lights glowing/The traffic of life is flowing/Out over the rivers and on into dark." Photo: Chris Etchells
6. Northern Industrial Town - Billy Bragg
Billy Bragg, pictured here performing at Record Collector, in Broomhill, sang about Sheffield in his song Northern Industrial Town. It's not about Sheffield, per se, but life up north and people's perceptions of it. He sings 'it's not Leeds or Manchester, Liverpool, Sheffield nor Glasgow, it's not Newcastle-on-Tyne, it's Belfast, it's just a northern industrial town'. | Sheffield Newspapers Ltd Photo: Sheffield Newspapers
7. Can I Put You On - Elton John
The famous Watford fan's fondness for glitz and glamour makes him the last person you'd associate with the grit required of a Sheffield steelworker. But he did sing of life in the foundry in Can I Put You On, from the 1971 album Friends. In what is one of his lesser known efforts, Elton sings: "I work for the foundry for a penny and a half a day/Like a blind street musician I never see those who pay/It's dirty work in Birmingham/Better deal for a Sheffield man/If he can rivet then his kids can buy/Candy from the candy man." Photo: Kevin Winter
8. The Snake - The Human League
This song doesn't reference Sheffield as such but the picturesque Snake Pass road which winds its way between the Steel City and Manchester. The lyrics, inviting listeners to 'come and join us', mention how 'the moors stretch out along the way' and even describe alternative routes should Snake Pass inevitably be closed due to snow or high winds. The lines 'the sixty-two or six-two-eight will do if you cannot be late' relate to the more northerly M62 and the A628 Woodhead Pass routes which also lead to Manchester. | OLI SCARFF/AFP via Getty Images Photo: OLI SCARFF/AFP via Getty Images