What is the most common pop song selected on Desert Island Discs?
The true success of a national broadcasting programme is how it weaves its way into cultural discourse. Take Desert Island Discs, for example. A flagship show for the BBC, yet a reliable staple for any pub chat among music fans, looking to make their musical allegiances clear.
Don’t believe me? Well, why not try it this weekend? Gather your mates, and press them all on the eight songs that would join them for the infinite isolation of their hypothetical deserting. The undeniable fun and intrigue that this provides extends far beyond the realms of the actual show to a point where you don’t even need to have listened to understand the objective.
For any music fan worth their salt, it’s the ultimate test. Whittling down their favourite music to finally pick a select eight, that defines you as a person. But, as you rattle through your playlist of most treasured songs, do you ever wonder how original your taste actually is?
Of course, the paradox of adoring a band like Oasis, The Beatles or Led Zeppelin is that while you’ve developed an intimate relationship with individual songs, you’re not alone in doing so. The sheer liberation you get from standing in a room with thousands of people and sharing a chorus line comes from the widespread popularity of their music.
So while you may be marooned in the white sands of a tropical beach, blurting out the lyrics of ‘Don’t Look Back In Anger’ in blissful isolation, there’s a likelihood your vocals may be reverberated by a fellow islander across the ocean.
But rather surprisingly, Oasis’ crowd-rouser hit doesn’t come in at the top of the list when it comes to determining the most chosen popular song on Desert Island Discs. But with well over 3,000 episodes, over 25,000 songs, even the mighty Noel Gallagher would have a hard time writing a song that unifies that many people.
Particularly when you look at the sort of music he would be up against on the show’s format. Over its eight-decade existence, classical music has often reigned supreme amongst its alumni of highly intelligent guests. Data collected by Andrew Gustar back in 2020 showed that classical music has, in fact, been the most picked genre, with Handel’s ‘Messiah’, sitting at the top, having been chosen by a total of 119 castaways.
But what about popular music?
Well, popular music is somewhat hard to determine. To most people, that word triggers thoughts of Harry Styles, Sabrina Carpenter or Taylor Swift, but for the purpose of this article, given how dominant classical music has been over the years, I am going to identify it as anything that presents as somewhat of a traditional song with verse, chorus and crucially, vocals.
Now three songs step forward as the winners in this regard, with one as the outright winner, depending on how strict your pop rules are. So the most popular of all would be Edith Piaf’s ‘Je ne regrette rien’, which has been chosen by nearly 50 different guests. The iconic French track does have obvious nods towards classical music, however, so let’s dig a bit deeper.
So behind Piaf is Frank Sinatra, whose anthem ‘My Way’ proves to be the most popular, having been chosen by 28 castaways, as had Louis Armstrong’s ‘A Wonderful World’. Both songs seem like apt picks, given how the former acts as somewhat of a character-defining anthem for some castaways, while the latter is more of an observational track, perfect for someone marvelling at the tropical state of their new home.
