Which songs are the biggest favourites for baby boomers?
Songs have a remarkable effect on us. The opening chord alone of a piece of music can take us back to a time and a place in our life – not least if it’s a track we have not heard since those days.
Scientists agree. Research indicates that a piece of music can elicit a chemical reaction in your brain. Your body tingles as you feel the way you did when you first enjoyed it.
Boom Radio, the radio station aimed just at us Baby Boomers has conducted its own poll amongst its audience into their favourite tracks of all time. It’s maybe no surprise that some very familiar favourites emerge as the ones responsible for the most passion
Fifty-five years on from the ‘Summer of Love’ – little wonder that Procol Harum’s Whiter Shade of Pale topped the chart, with its haunting Hammond organ triggering thoughts of 1967 and the people you shared it with.
PROCOL HARUM UK group in May 1967
According to the band’s Gary Brooker, who died in February, the track: “came along at just the right moment; and meant so much to so many people at a formative time”.
In second place, came Bohemian Rhapsody, described by Freddie Mercury as a “mock opera”, combining three songs he had written. In 1975, it topped the UK Singles Chart for nine weeks – plus a further five following Freddie’s death in 1991.
At Number Three came In My Life by the Beatles, the song which also topped Boom’s Beatles’ chart a few months ago. The song’s power may owe something to John Lennon suggesting it was the first time he’d penned lyrics about his own life.
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TOP TEN UK BABY BOOMER SONGS
- Whiter Shade of Pale – Procol Harum
- Bohemian Rhapsody – Queen
- In My Life – Beatles
- Bridge Over Troubled Water – Simon & Garfunkel
- God Only Knows – Beach Boys
- Waterloo Sunset – Kinks
- Home Thoughts from Abroad – Clifford T Ward
- I’m Not in Love – 10cc
- Stairway to Heaven- Led Zeppelin
- House of the Rising Sun – Animals
You can read the whole list of the Top 200 songs here
You can hear all the songs – seasoned with many surprise songs that you may not have heard since your teens – on Boom Radio,
The radio station, aimed squarely at us Baby Boomers, plays music from the 50s 60s and 70s sprinkled with a few more recent tracks.
Graham Dene
The legendary David Hamilton, well-known for his Radio 1 and 2 shows in the ‘70s and ‘80s hosts the weekday lunchtime show. You can also hear great DJs from the old pirate days like Roger Day, Kid Jensen from Radio Luxembourg – together with Graham Dene and Nicky Horne from the earliest days of Capital Radio.
You can find Boom Radio on your Alexa or other smart speaker – just say ‘Alexa, talk to Boom Radio’. And you can hear the station on your DAB radio across much of the UK too, if it’s enabled with DAB+.
