Britain’s taste in 20th century pop songs is nothing to be proud of

Well, we’re a cheesy lot who like a good singalong delivered with a bit of colour and panache. Or so it would seem judging by the BPI’s sales statistic for the best-selling albums in Britain from 1956 to 2009:

1.       Greatest Hits – Queen (first released in 1981, 5.7 million)

2.       Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band – The Beatles (1967, 4.9 million)

3.       Gold: Greatest Hits – Abba (1992, 4.6 million

4.       What’s The Story Morning Glory? – Oasis (1996, 4.4 million)

5.       Brothers in Arms – Dire Straits (1985, 4.1 million)

Queen, The Beatles, Abba and even Oasis are poptastic groups, who marry a fantastic sense of melody and song structure to a swaggering presentation, whether it is ABBA’s jumpsuit glamour or Oasis’s gang aggression.

And then there’s Dire Straits Brothers In Arms. It is, to be fair, Mark Knopfler’s strongest collection of songs, that rode in on the first CD wave and a massive MTV-orientated hit with Money For Nothing. And we clearly do like a bit of silvery, twiddly guitar too, with Pink Floyd’s Dark Side Of The Moon hovering just outside the top five.

Queen’s achievement is amazing, to even see off The Beatles classic, Sergeant Pepper, an album that shook the world. But we should remember that fewer records were sold in the Sixties because less people had record players. Still, I can remember a time in the Eighties when Queen’s Greatest Hits seemed omnipresent. I once went to a party where it was the only record the host owned and it somehow kept the revellers happy.

Queen also make an appearance in the top five singles of all time, with the inescapable and, let’s face it, actually quite magnificent Bohemian Rhapsody. This list, however, is nothing to be proud of. Indeed, if Britain wants to keep its reputation as the creative pop engine of the world, I think we should bury this now:

1.       Candle in the Wind ‘97 – Sir Elton John (1997, 4.9 million)

2.       Do they know it’s Christmas? – Band Aid (1984, 3.6 million)

3.       Bohemian Rhapsody – Queen (1975, 2.1 million),

4.       Mull of Kintyre – Wings (1977, 2.1 million)

5.       Rivers of Babylon/Brown Girl in the Ring – Boney M (1978, 2.0 million).

OK, the top two records show we have a charitable disposition, since all their royalties went to good causes, the first carried aloft by a wave of mourning for Diana, the latter by Bob Geldof convincing us that buying a record could save lives. And Bohemian Rhapsody needs no excuses made on its behalf. It is extravagantly ambitious and utterly ludicrous, and there has never been a record like it before or since. But did Paul McCartney really outsell all his Beatles singles with a dreary faux folk singalong? And as for Boney M at number 5 (and presumably 6) with their German-manufactured nursery rhyme disco romps …

We’re obviously not as cool as we would like to think. But we do like a bit of a knees-up.

Perhaps it is better if we don’t speak of this again.

By Neil McCormick
From http://blogs.telegraph.co.