John G. Deacon ([log in to unmask]) wrote:

>If evidence be required that the UK is, today, one of the world's most
>musically backward of the advanced nations ...

And here am I torn between Der Abschied and the finale from Mahler's
9th....

>The latest list is: 1 My Heart Will Go On by Celine Dion;

French Canadian "pop music" diva singing about people drowning

>2 Candle in the Wind Elton John;

Prominent balding bisexual sings about suicidal, depressive albeit
talented actress, whose act was much classier than Monica's...

>5 My Way Frank Sinatra;

A Desert Island Discs standby.  Some years ago a journalist (Observer IIRC)
pointed out that the guests who claimed to know nothing about music, tended
to pick things like Beethoven's Pastoral - I even recall comedian and actor
John Bird choosing Stockhausen's Kontrapunkte, because he *didn't*
understand it, so it would keep him intellectually occupied - whereas for
those to whom "music is really, really important" tended to the "there's
no question, it has to bre Frank Sinatra's My Way" school of "thought".

(BTW, can I just point out here that my wife's cousin was at school with
Paul Anka, who wrote the "lyrics" to the century's most ludicrous song)

>6 You'll Never Walk Alone Gerry and The Pacemakers;

The accompaniment to many a Liverpool FC goal and probably a few punchups
on the terraces too, at least until the 1987 Herald of Free Enterprise
disaster - hmm, the shipwreck motif resurfaces (sorry!)

>7 Release Me Engelbert Humperdinck;

Oh god!

>8 Memory Elaine Page;

Ravel's Bolero speeded up, according to one source.

>9 Strangers In the Night Frank Sinatra;

Descartes: To do is to be.
Sartre:    To be is to do.
Sinatra: Dooby-dooby-do.

>10   Bright Eyes Art Garfunkel.

A song about rabbits.  I clearly recall a cartoon from the time, showing
a butcher's counter with a poster above it proclaiming "Watership Down.
You've seen the film, now eat the pie".

Who *are* these people?

Deryk Barker
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