Not '˜arf, pop pickers, they're counting down the Queen's Top 10 (there's nothing by The King!)
Our Queen: 90 Musical Years, which will be broadcast on BBC Radio 2 on Sunday, spoke to the monarch’s friends and relatives, who revealed the sovereign prefers a rousing, traditional sing-song to any of the rock anthems by Elvis Presley, the Beatles, or indeed, Queen.
The sole contemporary musician on her top ten list is singer Gary Barlow, and only then in the company of the Commonwealth Band and the Military Wives Choir.
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Hide AdInstead, Oklahoma from the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical of the same name, Anything You Can Do from Annie Get Your Gun and ukulele-playing Formby’s Leaning On A Lamp-Post are among her favourite tracks, this week’s Radio Times said.
Presenter Eve Pollard described the Queen’s taste as “mainstream, no airs and graces” and said those closest to her said she has a “lovely voice” and enjoys a “rousing sing-song”.
The Queen’s cousin Lady Elizabeth Anson told the programme: “We did a lot of singing at Kensington Palace. Nobody thought it was odd after dinner if we put on a record and all sang Doing The Lambeth Walk, so music has always been part of her life.
“The Queen loves the theatre and musicals like Showboat, Oklahoma! and Annie Get Your Gun. ... The Queen is a fantastic dancer. She’s got great rhythm.”
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Hide AdThe Queen learnt to dance at an early age including the waltz, the slow waltz, the foxtrot, the quickstep and even the samba.
Other tracks among the monarch’s favourites are Cheek To Cheek sung by Fred Astaire in the movie Top Hat and - from more modern times - Sing performed by Gary Barlow and the Commonwealth Band featuring the Military Wives.
Barlow and Andrew Lloyd Webber wrote the song especially for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in 2012 and it was performed for Elizabeth II at her jubilee concert.
Two hymns - Praise, My Soul, The King Of Heaven and The Lord Is My Shepherd - also feature, as does Dame Vera Lynn’s wartime hit White Cliffs Of Dover, as well as an upbeat regimental march, and a medley by bandleader Lester Lanin, who played at the Queen’s 60th birthday party.
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Hide AdThe Queen is also able to sing all of George Formby’s songs, the programme reveals.
When the monarch’s correspondence secretary once doubted whether, as head of the armed forces and head of the Church of England, it was appropriate for her to say yes to becoming president of the George Formby Appreciation Society, the Queen was said to have replied, “Well, I do see that, but you see I love George Formby... I know all his songs and I can sing them.”
Formby’s Leaning An A Lamp-post features the lyrics: “I’m leaning on a lamp-post at the corner of the street, In case a certain little lady comes by. Oh me, oh my.”
Here are the Queen’s top 10 tracks:
1. Oklahoma - Howard Keel
2. Anything You Can Do (Annie Get Your Gun) - Dolores Gray and Bill Johnson
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Hide Ad3. Sing - Gary Barlow and the Commonwealth Band featuring the Military Wives
4. Cheek To Cheek- Fred Astaire
5. The White Cliffs Of Dover - Vera Lynn
6. Leaning On A Lamp-post - George Formby
7. Praise, My Soul, The King Of Heaven
8. The Lord Is My Shepherd
9. Lester Lanin Medley
10. Regimental March “Milanollo”