THE sentimental warblings of comic Ken Dodd last night beat the biggest-selling record ever made in a controversial new league table of the top 100 pop songs of all time. The authoritative Guinness Book of Hit Singles is arguably on safe ground when it places Bill Haley's 45-year-old classic Rock Around the Clock at No1, just ahead of Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody.

But music insiders last night poured scorn on other entries, not least the appearance at No34 of Ken's 1965 ballad Tears - no fewer than 30 places higher than Elton John's Candle In the Wind tribute to Princess Diana, which has outsold every other popular song in history. Even stranger is the absence from the Top 10 of any Beatles song, despite the fact that the group are regularly named as the world's all-time favourite pop artists.

Dave McAleer, who compiled the new list, last night attempted to explain the complicated range of factors that has thrown up such anomalies as Eighties group Frankie Goes To Hollywood achieving more entries than any other British artist. "The list is worked out on a points system," said Dave. Records were judged not on sales but on chart positions, length of time in the British charts and repeat appearances. Rock Around The Clock was a hit for Bill Haley no fewer than five times, selling 25million copies worldwide, while Elton's 33million-selling Candle In The Wind 1997 was released once and stayed top for a short time. In contrast, Bryan Adams' (Everything I Do) I Do It For You stayed at No1 for a record-breaking 16 weeks and shows up as the only record from the Nineties in the Top 10.

Perhaps the biggest surprise in the list is the poor showing of The Beatles, whose top record, She Loves You, appears at No19, one place behind Gloria Gaynor's disco hit I Will Survive. Cliff Richard does not feature in the list at all.
 
 

Pop pundit Jonathan King said last night he was surprised at some of the entries. "The stunning thing is that a lot of the greatest songs of all time seem to be by people who just had the one hit, and not much of a career," he said.

© Express Newspapers Ltd 1999

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