Revealed: The Most-Streamed Songs of the 70s, 80s, 90s and more

The music industry is obsessed with “new”.
The charts discriminate against aging songs; radio stations stake their reputation on premieres; and Ofcom sets quotas for new music on the BBC.

But, for most people, that’s irrelevant. There’s a reason why the best-selling album in UK chart history is Queen’s Greatest Hits; and why second place goes to Abba’s Gold.

Research shows that the music of your teenage years is hard-wired into your brain.
There’s even something called the “reminiscence bump” – which shows children have superior recognition for songs that date to their parents’ and grandparents’ teenage years.

And while streaming services fight each other for exclusive new releases, Spotify’s own research shows that 40% of songs are streamed more frequently in their second year on the service than their first.

This week, the BPI released data on the “oldies” we played 2017 – showing that songs like TLC’s No Scrubs, Toto’s Africa and The Temptations’ My Girl are still receiving millions of streams.

“Older songs are quietly accounting for a very significant proportion of listening,” says BPI analyst Rob Crutchley, who calculates that 30% of the music played on streaming services was released before 2010.

Here are the most popular tracks from each decade.

1940s – Bing Crosby: White Christmas
1950s – Brenda Lee: Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree

Pop stars really do wish it was Christmas every day.
The Pogues are estimated to make £400,000 from the whisky-soaked Fairytale of New York every year. In 2009, Noddy Holder told the BBC that Slade’s Merry Xmas Everybody was “definitely a pension plan”.

“It was never designed to be that way but it has taken on a life of its own,” he said.
According to the BPI, there were more than 160 Christmas songs among the top 15,000 most-streamed tracks of 2017.

Bing Crosby’s White Christmas was streamed 8.6m times; while Brenda Lee’s Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree notched up 13.9m plays.
But the most popular of all was Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas Is You, which jingled and jangled your earholes 26m times.

When it was recorded in 1969, I Want You Back was the most expensive single Motown had ever produced – but the gamble paid off.
The five dancing Jackson brothers became stars overnight, scoring four consecutive number ones on the US chart.

Originally called I Wanna Be Free, the song was written for Gladys Knight, but Motown founder Berry Gordy demanded it be re-cast for his new band; and gave their youngest member the lead vocal.
“Michael was 10 years old, but he sang it like a bird,” Tito told the Guardian last year.

A funky, vibrant pop classic, it’s been sampled by Jay-Z and covered by everyone from Taylor Swift to The Civil Wars… although my personal favourite is this playful, acoustic version by Dutch singer Trijntje Oosterhuis.

Courtesy : BBC
Photo :Essex DJ

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