1st January 2013
Last month, Radio 2 nominated ‘Sit Down’ in their poll to find the nation’s favourite No. 2 single of all time.
The shortlist of about 100 great near-misses was compiled by a panel including Steve Lamacq of 6 Music, Radio 2′s Janice Long and Ken Bruce, Annie Nightingale from Radio 1, and Martin Talbot from the Official Charts Company. Listeners were asked to vote for their favourite, with the winner to be announced live on air by Tony Blackburn on New Year’s Day – and granted an honorary Number One award by the Official Charts Company.
The competition was daunting, with ‘Sit Down’ up against such classics as ‘Suspicious Minds’ by Elvis Presley, The Who’s ‘My Generation’, Nat King Cole’s ‘When I Fall In Love’, ‘Downtown’ by Petula Clark, ‘What Have I Done To Deserve This’ by The Pet Shop Boys and Dusty Springfield, ‘Rocket Man’ by Elton John, Pulp’s ‘Common People’, Oasis’s ‘Wonderwall’ as well as tracks by Queen, Bowie, The Kinks, The Beach Boys, T. Rex, The Stranglers, and The Beatles.
So we were delighted to discover Sit Down made it to No. 4 in the vote and got a spin on the program – if you missed the live broadcast you can Listen Again here for the next week.
The Top 10 were as follows:
- Ultravox – Vienna (1981)
- The Pogues feat. Kirsty MacColl – Fairytale Of New York (1987)
- Don McLean – American Pie (1972)
- James – Sit Down (1991)
- The Stranglers – Golden Brown (1982)
- The Kinks – Waterloo Sunset (1967)
- The Beatles – Penny Lane / Strawberry Fields Forever (1967)
- Queen – We Are The Champions (1977)
- The Beach Boys – God Only Knows (1966)
- A-ha – Take On Me (1985)
Source:
http://www.wearejames.com/news/2013/01/sit-down-comes-fourth-in-radio-2s-nations-favourite-no-2-single-vote/