|
Friday, October 8, 1999 Published at 22:26 GMT 23:26 UK Entertainment Lennon song tops all-time poll The nation's favourite lyricist Pop legend John Lennon's solo hit Imagine has topped a BBC poll to find the Nation's Favourite Song Lyric. The poignant classic, which shot to No1 after the former Beatle's murder in 1980, beat the Robbie Williams chart-topper Angels into the top spot. The announcement was made by presenter Griff Rhys Jones during a special BBC One programme marking the sixth National Poetry Day on the eve of what would have been Lennon's 59th birthday.
"I am thrilled that Imagine is the winning song lyric," said Rhys Jones. "It is the sort of lyric that people instantly recognise and know what it means and for that reason deserves to win. "What is staggering is that with the many hundreds of different songs nominated and every decade of the last 60 years represented, it is clear that the British public has enormously wide tastes in music and a healthy appetite for the poetry of popular song."
The Top 10 was full of surprises - not just for the songs that made it, but also for the classics that didn't. George Gershwin's Someone To Watch Over Me and Jerome Kern's All The Things You Are didn't make the list, but stood up well against Abba and Oasis. Tracks from The Rolling Stones and The Who failed to make the Top 50, while relative newcomers Massive Attack ranked higher than both Madonna and Michael Jackson. Songwriters best known for one or two classic tracks, such as Don McClean with American Pie, fared better than stars like Bob Dylan who received many more votes, but were divided between several classic tracks.
There are also some glimpses into the lives of some very singular souls out there - like the one vote for Victoria Wood's line "Beat me on the bottom with a Woman's Weekly". Fans of Monty Python and the Teletubbies were also in evidence, as were admirers of current chart toppers S Club 7 and Ricky Martin. Votes were collected by telephone and via the BBC Education website between 22 September and 6 October. The Top 10 songs 1. Imagine - John Lennon (J Lennon) 2. Angels - Robbie Williams (Williams and Chambers) 3. Bohemian Rhapsody - Queen (Freddie Mercury) 4. I Am The Walrus - The Beatles (Lennon and McCartney) 5. Millennium - Robbie Williams (Williams, Chambers, Barry) 6. Yesterday - The Beatles (Lennon and McCartney) 7. Beware Of The Flowers - John Otway (John Otway) 8. Sit Down - James (Booth/Glennie/Whelan/Gott) 9. Nights In White Satin - Moody Blues Justin Hayward) 10. Stardust - Hoagy Carmichael (Hoagy Carmichael/Mitchell Parish) |
Entertainment Contents Showbiz Music Film Arts TV and Radio New Media Reviews
|