Confirming what most Pink Floyd fans
have said for some time, Comfortably Numb has topped a poll to find the
"best guitar solo of all time".
The poll was run by the UK's
Planet Rock radio station, and saw David Gilmour's soaring guitar
seeing off the likes of Guns N' Roses 'Sweet Child o' Mine' (in second
place), Lynyrd Skynyrd's 'Freebird' (third), and Van Halen's 'Eruption'
(fourth). Other entries in the top twenty include two entries from Led
Zeppelin, two from Jimi Hendrix, and two more from Guns N' Roses.
The full list can be seen over at PlanetRock.com.
Yesterday afternoon, BBC Radio 2
aired their latest poll, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the
official UK album chart. The poll was a two-part affair: the first list
had more than 220,000 members of the public voting on their "Favourite
Number One album", which was won by The Beatles' Sgt Peppers Lonely
Hearts Club Band, followed by Michael Jackson's Thriller and U2's
Joshua Tree. In fifth place was the Floyd's Wish You Were Here.
As a number of iconic albums
never made it to number one in the album charts, a "best of the rest"
list was also compiled - easily topped by Dark Side Of The Moon. The
Wall made it to fifth place in this section.
The BBC reported that
misspellings by voters keen to take part in the poll also saw votes go
to The Dark Side of the Room (instead of the moon) and Achtung Bono
(instead of Baby) by U2. Other blunders included fans voting for
Codplay (Coldplay) and Oink Floyd (Pink Floyd).
Since the inception of the
official albums chart in 1956, there have been 787 number one albums.
Darren Haynes, marketing manager of the UK chart, said: "The list of No
1 albums is instantly interesting because it highlights the fact that
such classics as Dark Side Of The Moon, Bat Out Of Hell, Ziggy Stardust
and Hotel California failed to reach the Number One slot.
"With over 220,000 votes received
from the British public, this is the most definitive record of the
nation's favourite albums to date." There were only 201 votes between
Sgt Pepper at number one and Thriller at number two on the list.
Finally, to be filed into the
"oddities" section, is a new release from Baby Rock Records. Hitting
the stores on September 19th was "Rockabye Baby - Lullaby Renditions Of
Pink Floyd". Baby Rock describe this as follows: "We couldn’t think of
a band more deserving of the lullaby treatment than Pink Floyd. The
sounds of this legendary group speak to the parts of the brain that are
wide awake during that lovely dream state called REM. They are musical
journeys to the bright side of the moon and beyond. While your child is
comfortably sleeping, these lullabies will work to open their mind’s
eye as only Pink Floyd can. Your crazy little diamond is going to shine
on in a dreamland courtesy of Baby Rock. You’re gonna wish you were
there..."
With strange, tinkly versions of
tracks such as Time, Mother, Us and Them and Brain Damage, this really
is the strangest release we've seen for a while. To hear excerpts of
each track, visit BabyRockRecords.com, where you can also see the cover - pig head balloons!
Our thanks to Matt Steenwyk, Robert Perry and James Macdonald for the info...
|