XFM Lists 100 Best British Songs, At Least In Their Opinion

The good people at London radio station XFM have taken it upon themselves to list the top hundred songs ever to come from the British isles. Prepare to have some opinions!

For one thing, four of the top ten tracks, including the top three, are all by Oasis, who beat out The Beatles by a solid seventeen positions. ("Hey Jude" clocked in at #18.) You'll find the Arctic Monkeys and Cruel Intentions soundtrack fixture "Bitter Sweet Symphony" ahead of "London Calling" and "Gimme Shelter." Someone finally remembered Radiohead and The Sex Pistols at slots 25 and 47, respectively. It all just feels wrong wrong wrong.

To be fair to XFM, it wasn't any one person's opinion—the intro explains that they compiled the list by "taking in votes from you, the listeners and Xfm DJs," which means it's likely we actually have British radioheads (ha!) to blame. And a couple of the songs do seem to be in the right places: "There Is a Light that Never Goes Out" would probably be around #11 on our list, too; ditto "Life on Mars" at #22; we're not going to argue that "Love Will Tear Us Apart" is top five material. But nothing will excuse putting Muse's "Knights of Cydonia" (you may remember it as the song that took you three tries on Guitar Hero) above Pulp, the Rolling Stones, the Kinks, and the Beatles. Come on, blokes.

The top 25, for your consideration:

1. Oasis - Live Forever
2. Oasis - Don't Look Back In Anger
3. Oasis - Wonderwall
4. The Stone Roses - I Am The Resurrection
5. Joy Division - Love Will Tear Us Apart
6. The Verve - Bitter Sweet Symphony
7. The Who - My Generation
8. Arctic Monkeys - I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor
9. The Clash - London Calling
10. Oasis - Champagne Supernova
11. The Smiths - There Is A Light That Never Goes Out
12. Muse - Knights Of Cydonia
13. Pulp - Common People
14. The Rolling Stones - Gimme Shelter
15. Blur - Song 2
16. The Kinks - Waterloo Sunset
17. The Jam - A Town Called Malice
18. The Beatles - Hey Jude
19. The Rolling Stones - Sympathy For The Devil
20. The Stone Roses - Fool's Gold
21. Blur - Parklife
22. David Bowie - Life On Mars
23. The Smiths - This Charming Man
24. The Stone Roses - I Wanna Be Adored
25. Radiohead - Paranoid Android

[XFM via LHB]

4 Responses

June 2, 2009 at 4:55 p.m.

zandar

wow, four oasis songs before the Beatles finally make an appearance at #18.. that is seriously messed up.

June 3, 2009 at 9:36 p.m.

someone

I think its a tad strange how Oasis seem to be at the top while the band they copied, to make them sound good in the first place is back at 18 (Beatles). Also, Im confused at how Blur and the Who, who copied the Kinks seem to be above them. Alot of those songs in top 10 are no way near as good as Waterloo Sunset - Artic Monkeys I mean come on!
Im still trying to work out how Oasis managed to get the top 3 spots and no.1 though. It does seem abit odd to me if this was a 'fair' poll.

June 10, 2009 at 10:37 a.m.

Randy

This whole thing is retarded.

June 15, 2009 at 10:20 a.m.

muselove94

are you kidding me? wheres the rest of the muse songs. and knights of cydonia is only 12??
wow any muse song is so much better than live forever.