No. Really.

Surely it's simple. These types of songs appeal to the widest possible demographic, and are therefore likely to sell more. The Clash, to pick just one of your examples, were never likely to appeal to most pensioners, whereas they all love Mull of Kintyre, which was also bought by lots of (misguided!) kids.

So you can look back and decry the dubious taste(!) of the British public, but accept that nothing's changed - I give you "X Factor".

You can also look back and thank God that despite this, the Stones/Bowie/Clash etc. emerged and produced such great stuff.

Those Tom and Engelburt songs are classics, and even Tears has its place. I was guilty of buying all those later 70s ones, and I find Amazing Grace to be quite moving. Tie A Yellow Ribbon brings back all sorts of rosy memories of my childhood.

So not depressing, just everyone likes different things. They have their place alongside the Stones, Bowie etc, who it must be remembered were by no means obscure during any of those decades, but just didn't have the best-selling singles of the year. It's all just music.

thanks to their thing of not appearing on Top Of The Pops sold less singles than they might have done.

But they probably wouldn't have gotten a best selling single of the year, simply because the tunes you list appealed across the board to more than one type of listener. My mum back in 1965 - early 20s - would have bought Tom Jones, but so would her mum and maybe even her gran. My mum also bought the Stones (but not the Beatles who were too clean cut for her) but her mum and gran didn't understand that rock n roll stuff - too loud and no tunes!!!!

but many of those either came out at xmas (cliff/bob builder/mull of kintyre) or had another obvious tie-in (robson and jerome from tv prog soldier/wet, wet, wet from four weddings).

And let's face it being cool doesnt necessarily translate to sales, does it?

that Danny Baker made during the latest podcast: all of the Year Zero revisionism about punk was so much hot air. There was lots of music round and most of it wasn't the the achingly cool stuff that many have claimed.

Why d'you think the Pistols wandered around with I hate Pink Floyd/ELO tshirts? Because PF and ELO were the things people actually bought. And liked. And so much of that has been lost by the kind of Pol Pot/Great Leap Forward orthodoxy that says that it was worthless and shameful.

I don't like some of the songs in that list. But I love others. And yes, the public do have aberrations of taste (there was nothing that Robson and Jerome did that hadn't been done better by others, but it was cleverly marketed) but in the end, it's only music. Good to take seriously, but not tooseriously.

[NB: Typos fixed]

as I know it (Bright Eyes) certainly betrays my lack of taste: I have to admit that I quite like it. Why is it so reviled? Cos it was used in a cartoon? Cos Garfunkel sang it? Actually did it not fit into the context (a movie, remember, Watership Down) reasonably well? Sorry, this plunges my standing even lower after the Bachelors appeared on my last Randomiser list. My intentions are honourable however.

"Are we guilty of looking back and trying to re-write history by concentrating on seemingly more obscure acts like The Stones, David Bowie, The Clash and Pulp, or is it just proof that the British public are fools? 1.8 million sales for Robson and Jerome's single suggests that this is so."

And answer it with different data. Album sales.

1965 The Sound of Music Original Soundtrack
1966 The Sound of Music Original Soundtrack
1967 Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band The Beatles

1972 20 Dynamic Hits Various Artists
1973 Don't Shoot Me I'm Only the Piano Player Elton John

1976 Greatest Hits ABBA
1977 Arrival ABBA
1978 Saturday Night Fever Original Soundtrack
1979 Parallel Lines Blondie

1994 Cross Road Bon Jovi
1995 Robson and Jerome Robson and Jerome
1996 Jagged Little Pill Alanis Morissette
1997 Be Here Now Oasis

A bit more credibility, perhaps, but Robson and Jerome are still there. A rousing QED for Paul's theorem. No-one ever made a few bob by overestimating the taste of the Great British Public.

I thought you made an interesting point. But "lennylaw's" reply scares me. Waaaayyy too
much obsession there.....

the Coca Cola theory. It is the most popular drink in the world, but is it the best? Popularity and quality are two completely different measures, you can measure popularity in music by sales but can you measure quality? So we are left with charts, lists and statistics that tell us what sold the most but have nothing to do with the quality of what is sold. I loved it when The Jam had their first number 1 because what I saw as the best was also the most popular. A very rare occurance unless you think Westlife are the peak of muscial capability or that Coca Cola really could teach the world to sing.

once an article reaches the MRS list on a news website, it tends to stay there. I suggest it was the same with records. People bought the popular stuff, just because it was a big seller. Taste didn't come into it.