20 best British songs

ICBM · September 2023

guitars4you said:

No Status Quo so far and nothing by Graham Gouldman be it 10CC or other - Are the BeeGees allowed in a British listing - And what about The Police

Much as I love Quo - I've got every album up to Never Too Late - I don't think they have one that quite qualifies as being in a best song list.

Police - good shout, I'd probably pick Can't Stand Losing You.

I don't think of the BeeGees as British, but maybe they are.

Stuckfast · September 2023

RustySpanner said:

Matty Groves - Fairport Convention.

I'm going to be a total pedant and point out that although this is originally a British folk song, the version Fairport sang comes from America.

Kilgore · September 2023

guitars4you said:

- Are the BeeGees allowed in a British listing -

I've put them in my list. TBH, I think you can make reasonable arguments for and against.

Reverend · September 2023

ICBM said:

guitars4you said:

No Status Quo so far and nothing by Graham Gouldman be it 10CC or other - Are the BeeGees allowed in a British listing - And what about The Police

Much as I love Quo - I've got every album up to Never Too Late - I don't think they have one that quite qualifies as being in a best song list.

Police - good shout, I'd probably pick Can't Stand Losing You.

I don't think of the BeeGees as British, but maybe they are.

Oh Baby and Is There A Better Way trump 99% of the songs already mentioned.

Reverend · September 2023

If we are playing fast and loose with the definition of Brtitish the correct answer is

Rainbow - Stargazer
Rainbow - Stargazer
Rainbow - Stargazer
Rainbow - Stargazer
Rainbow - Stargazer
Rainbow - Stargazer
Rainbow - Stargazer
Rainbow - Stargazer
Rainbow - Stargazer
Rainbow - Stargazer
Rainbow - Stargazer
Rainbow - Stargazer
Rainbow - Stargazer
Rainbow - Stargazer
Rainbow - Stargazer
Rainbow - Stargazer
Rainbow - Stargazer
Rainbow - Stargazer
Rainbow - Stargazer
Rainbow - Stargazer

guitars4you · September 2023

ICBM said:

guitars4you said:

No Status Quo so far and nothing by Graham Gouldman be it 10CC or other - Are the BeeGees allowed in a British listing - And what about The Police

Much as I love Quo - I've got every album up to Never Too Late - I don't think they have one that quite qualifies as being in a best song list.

Police - good shout, I'd probably pick Can't Stand Losing You.

I don't think of the BeeGees as British, but maybe they are.

When I said 'what about The Police' - I meant are they a British Band, or American

Bee Gees - Born in the Isle of Man - Raised in Australia - Spent many years in the USA

ICBM · September 2023

guitars4you said:

When I said 'what about The Police' - I meant are they a British Band, or American

I think they’re a British band with an American drummer… probably.

guitars4you · September 2023

ICBM said:

guitars4you said:

When I said 'what about The Police' - I meant are they a British Band, or American

I think they’re a British band with an American drummer… probably.

with a high ranking CIA asset in the family - Wasn't Stewart the founder of The Police

ICBM · September 2023

guitars4you said:

with a high ranking CIA asset in the family - Wasn't Stewart the founder of The Police

Yes. His dad was Miles Copeland - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miles_Copeland_Jr.

Not sure how I forgot Bowie’s Space Oddity on my list either…

CHRISB50 · September 2023

I've given this a try... I don’t actually like some of my list. I’ve tried to be pragmatic.

Black Sabbath - Ironman
Beatles - Magical Mystery Tour
Rolling Stones - Gimme Shelter
Led Zeppelin - Kashmir
New Order - Blue Monday
A Guy Called Gerald - Voodoo Ray
Roni Size - Brown Paper Bag
Radiohead - Everything In It’s Right Place
Roots Manuva - Witness
Chemical Brothers - Leave Home
The Jam - That’s Entertainment
Fleetwood Mac - Man of the World
The Who - My Generation
Tears for Fears - Everybody Wants to Rule the World
Motörhead - Ace of Spades
Clash - London Calling
Blur - For Tomorrow
Elbow - One Day Like This
Elton John - Daniel
Duran Duran - Girls on Film

Rocker · September 2023

Wow! I never knew that The Beautiful South were a British band. You learn something new every day if you remain open to learning something new.....

EricTheWeary · September 2023

Here's an arbitrary late twentieth century 20 best songs from the West Midlands list with one per artist and a vague effort to make them not all heavy rock, 2tone and reggae. Not asked for, not really helpful but it gave me something to think about on the toilet. West Midlands connection is a bit of a stretch for some but as no one wanted this list anyway I think that's fine.

Black Sabbath - Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
Led Zeppelin - Whole Lotta Love
Steel Pulse - Klu Klux Klan
The Selecter - Three Minute Hero
Slade - Cum on Feel the Noize
ELO - Mr Blue Sky
The Moody Blues - Question
The Specials - Gangsters
The Goodies - Black Pudding Bertha
The Beat - Mirror in the Bathroom
Judas Priest - Breaking the Law
Ocean Colour Scene - The Riverboat Song
Diamond Head - Am I Evil
UB40 - King
Duran Duran - Rio
The Spencer Davis Group - Keep on Running
Hazel O'Connor - Will You
Dexys Midnight Runners - Geno
Joan Armatrading - Drop the Pilot
Wonderstuff - Size of a Cow

EricTheWeary · September 2023

Rocker said:

Wow! I never knew that The Beautiful South were a British band. You learn something new every day if you remain open to learning something new.....

@Rocker out of curiosity where did you think they were from?
Or is this a joke I'm not getting?

guitars4you · September 2023

EricTheWeary said:

Rocker said:

Wow! I never knew that The Beautiful South were a British band. You learn something new every day if you remain open to learning something new.....

@Rocker out of curiosity where did you think they were from?
Or is this a joke I'm not getting?

Alabama is down South

Rocker · September 2023

EricTheWeary said:

Rocker said:

Wow! I never knew that The Beautiful South were a British band. You learn something new every day if you remain open to learning something new.....

@Rocker out of curiosity where did you think they were from?
Or is this a joke I'm not getting?

They were a band that I never heard of until I found a couple of their CDs in a charity shop. From their name I assumed that they were from the USA. The CDs I have are good, lovely harmonies and good use of male and female voices.

And No, there was no joke hidden in my post.

EricTheWeary · September 2023

Rocker said:

EricTheWeary said:

Rocker said:

Wow! I never knew that The Beautiful South were a British band. You learn something new every day if you remain open to learning something new.....

@Rocker out of curiosity where did you think they were from?
Or is this a joke I'm not getting?

They were a band that I never heard of until I found a couple of their CDs in a charity shop. From their name I assumed that they were from the USA. The CDs I have are good, lovely harmonies and good use of male and female voices.
And No, there was no joke hidden in my post.

Ahh, I see where you are coming from, they were a post House Martins band to me and therefore tied to some quite Northern British roots (I've always presumed the name The Beautiful South was ironic).

Deadman · September 2023

1. XTC - Senses working overtime
2. Queen - Bohemian rhapsody (it bloody is!)
3. Level 42 - Running in the family
4. The Jam - Eton rifles
5. Duran Duran - Save a prayer
6. Madness - One step beyond
7. The Specials - Gangsters
8. The Clash - White riot
9. Kate Bush - Army dreamers
10. Elastica - Connection
11. The Smiths - How soon is now
12. Blur - Song 2
13. Oasis - Rock n roll star

14. David Bowie - Space oddity
15. The Damned - Smash it up (parts 1 and 2)
16. The Who - Bell boy
17. Elton John - Goodbye Yellow brick road
18. Buzzcocks - Ever fallen in love
19. Sex Pistols - Anarchy in the UK
20. Dire Straits - Sultans of swing

Cols · September 2023

Tannin said:

^ Mistaken pedantry rejected. 60% (3 out of 5) members makes Fleetwood Mac British.

Can I kick in with some Jimi Hendrix Experience? The rhythm section of Mitch Mitchell and Noel Redding makes it a predominantly British group.

stickyfiddle · September 2023

EricTheWeary said:

Rocker said:

Wow! I never knew that The Beautiful South were a British band. You learn something new every day if you remain open to learning something new.....

@Rocker out of curiosity where did you think they were from?
Or is this a joke I'm not getting?

Rotterdam, presumably?!

stickyfiddle · September 2023

Cols said:

Tannin said:

^ Mistaken pedantry rejected. 60% (3 out of 5) members makes Fleetwood Mac British.

Can I kick in with some Jimi Hendrix Experience? The rhythm section of Mitch Mitchell and Noel Redding makes it a predominantly British group.

Also U2 because Edge was born in Essex to Welsh parents and Adam Clayton was born in Oxfordshire and has a posh English accent

Kilgore · September 2023

stickyfiddle said:

Cols said:

Tannin said:

^ Mistaken pedantry rejected. 60% (3 out of 5) members makes Fleetwood Mac British.

Can I kick in with some Jimi Hendrix Experience? The rhythm section of Mitch Mitchell and Noel Redding makes it a predominantly British group.

Also U2 because Edge was born in Essex to Welsh parents and Adam Clayton was born in Oxfordshire and has a posh English accent

Guns n Roses coz Slash.

Axl's a knobhead and most people couldn't name any of the others.

thecolourbox · September 2023

stickyfiddle said:

EricTheWeary said:

Rocker said:

Wow! I never knew that The Beautiful South were a British band. You learn something new every day if you remain open to learning something new.....

@Rocker out of curiosity where did you think they were from?
Or is this a joke I'm not getting?

Rotterdam, presumably?!

Or anywhere

thecolourbox · September 2023

I've found this quite hard to do and I suspect on another day I'd probably come up with several others which could go in the list, depending on what catches my eye scrolling through Spotify or if something triggers a memory of something.

I've decided to restrict myself to one song per artist, otherwise it would be a short list with all the various options from certain bands or singers.

I've also not listed them in order of best-ness, that was too hard. I've just grouped them by decade. Interestingly the 00s were where I got most into music but only one song from that decade makes it. I can only assume that's because I didn't really like British indie bands at the time was more into American music. Also that was the start of the digital music era and also the start of me discovering more and more stuff so i was able to go back in time a lot more via the library, itunes, MusicMatch (if anybody remembers that) and of course my dad's cd collection

Nothing from the 2020s yet as I think they need to face the test of time just yet. But can imagine As It Was, Seventeen Going Under, Bad Habits, or Someone You Loved making it in a few years time for me if they are still holding up

Anyway Here we go

60s

A Day In the Life - Beatles (Obviously lots of choices here as well)

Waterloo Sunset - the Kinks

70s

Northern Sky - Nick Drake

Bohemian Rhapsody - Queen

Stairway to Heaven - Led Zeppelin

Won't Get Fooled Again - The Who

Imagine - Lennon

Heroes - Bowie

80s

This Woman's Work - Kate Bush

Every Breath You Take - Police

Should I Stay Or Should I Go - Clash

90s

Don't Look Back in Anger - Oasis

Circle of Life (from The Lion King) - Elton John

Bitter Sweet Symphony - The Verve (Though I prefer Drugs Don't Work)

The Universal - Blur

High & Dry - Radiohead (several other possibles here too)

00s

Rehab - Amy Winehouse

10s

Thinking Out Loud - Ed Sheeran

What He Wrote - Laura Marling

Someone Like You - Adele

Tannin · September 2023

I like your list @thecolourbox. Well, the first half of it. I stopped listening to new music around 1990 or 2000 'coz almost all of it was crap and I couldn't be bothered sifting through all that dross to find the gold but your first four decades worth of songs are well-chosen.

I particularly like your choice of Heroes as your one and only Bowie song. I'm damned if I know what it is about that particular number which makes it such a classic, it really doesn't seem like much the first time you hear it, but it just grows and grows on you.

thecolourbox · September 2023

Yeah Heroes has always been my favourite even before I really got into Bowie's stuff. Simplicity, repetition, but enough intrigue and of course that big crescendo. I kind of always felt the chord sequence and rhythm was quite velvet underground ish, but with the Bowie histrionics over the top. Beautifully written and the recording/production is also very satisfying to listen to somehow.

There aren't many on my list after the 90s to be fair so if you liked the 60s through 90s I'm sure you could stomach the remaining 4 songs

MagicPigDetective · September 2023

Slightly controversial to state this in a thread started by a Australian!

AC/DC - Back in Black.

Well, the Young brothers were from Glasgow originally, Bon Scott also from Scotland, Cliff Williams and Brian Johnson are English, Dave Evans the original singer was born in Wales.

ewal · September 2023

Sporky said:

As everyone else seems to be doing "songs of your youth", I'll have another go.

Too Much Kissing - Senseless Things
Happy - Ned's Atomic Dustbin
Clear Blue Skies - Mega City Four
You And I - Kingmaker
Tomorrow's Tears - Cranes
Teardrop - Massive Attack
Frozen - Curve
You Made Me Realise - My Bloody Valentine
Ten Storey Love Song - Stone Roses
Big Ship - Cardiacs
I Am The Sun - Dark Star
I Kicked A Boy - The Sundays
Black Metallic - Catherine Wheel
Dipping - Bleach
Breathe - Prodigy
Walking In My Shoes - Depeche Mode
Suzanne - Moose
All Of Us - Slowdive
The Killing Jar - Siouxsie And The Banshees
For Her Light - Fields Of The Nephilim

I loved Moose!

Might try and do a list later, but likely to be another "songs of your youth" because that's mainly when I predominantly listened to UK music.

thecolourbox · September 2023

Having reread my list and just seen Sporky's list where i only really recognised one song, it has made me think how I should have included Prodigy's Firestarter in my 90s list! Though appreciate it's a little bit at odds with the otherwise quite square and MOR nature of my list.

Incredible song though and so instantly recognisable from the first note.

Tannin · September 2023

MagicPigDetective said:

Slightly controversial to state this in a thread started by a Australian!

AC/DC - Back in Black.

Well, the Young brothers were from Glasgow originally, Bon Scott also from Scotland, Cliff Williams and Brian Johnson are English, Dave Evans the original singer was born in Wales.

I would have counted them as British, but they didn't have any songs good enough.

Sporky · September 2023

ewal said:

I loved Moose!

Might try and do a list later, but likely to be another "songs of your youth" because that's mainly when I predominantly listened to UK music.

I know a lot of bands get described as "different live", but Moose were almost unrecognisable on record. Suzanne and Untitled Love Song were my favourites.

thecolourbox said:

Having reread my list and just seen Sporky's list where i only really recognised one song, it has made me think how I should have included Prodigy's Firestarter in my 90s list!

Breathe?

I wasn't deliberately going obscure, I was dredging my musical youth for the stuff that most grabbed me - and things that are good songs in themselves.

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20 best British songs

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