October 24, 2008 14:56

'Musical benches' to serenade public with Beatles, Stones and Dusty

Singing seats to be dotted around the UK

Musical benches playing the songs of The Rolling Stones, Dusty Springfield and Queen are being erected across Britain.

The bizarre scheme has been to put in place as part of Nokia's new Comes With Music package, aiming to discover regional differences in musical tastes.

The company conducted a survey where people chose from a long list of popular songs - and a top ten for each city was calculated.

Perhaps surprisingly, the most popular song across the country was found to be Dusty Springfield's 'Son Of A Preacher Man', coming top in Birmingham, Bristol, Glasgow, London and Leeds.

Liverpool and Newcastle's favourite song was 'Paint It, Black' by The Rolling Stones and Manchester chose 'Bohemian Rhapsody' by Queen.

Now, the top ten from each city is being uploaded onto soundsystems built into the benches, which will be erected in each town.

The nationwide top ten was:

1. Dusty Springfield - 'Son Of A Preacher Man'
2. The Rolling Stones - 'Paint It, Black'
3. Queen - 'Bohemian Rhapsody'
4. The Beatles - 'Hey Jude'
5. Robbie Williams - 'Angels'
6. Frank Sinatra - 'My Way'
7. Michael Jackson - 'Thriller'
8. Whitney Houston - 'I Will Always Love You'
9. Aretha Franklin - 'Respect'
10. Elvis Presley - 'Suspicious Minds'

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