Top 10... speeches in songs
From Muhammad Ali to Margaret Thatcher, the rousing oration sampled by artists, as compiled by John Rentoul
Thanks to Harvey Walters for suggesting this list.
1. “Everglow”, Coldplay. Ends (in one version, and live) with part of a speech by Muhammad Ali. Nominated by Harvey Walters.
2. “Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen)”, Baz Luhrmann (and Quindon Tarver). A Chicago Tribune column written by Mary Schmich, the American journalist, in 1997 in the style of a commencement speech giving advice to students, and read by Lee Perry, an Australian voice actor who appeared in Happy Feet. Quindon Tarver sang the chorus. Thanks to Tom Harris, Harriet Marsden, Cat Headley, Tom Joyce, Ashinside, Will Arnold and Adam Greves.
3. “Let Robeson Sing”, Manic Street Preachers. Samples Paul Robeson reading the poem “Freedom Train” by Langston Hughes, a powerful denunciation of Jim Crow America. From Will Arnold, Adam Greves, Owen Thomas, Forever Delayed and Owen Bennett. “Seems hopelessly optimistic in the light of recent
events,” said Mark Ramsbottom.
4. “U”, DJ Seinfeld. Lo-fi House classic that features a clip of an interview with Bob Geldof about the grief, loneliness and pain following the break-up of his marriage to Paula Yates. Nominated by Will Arnold and Adam Greves.
5. “Loaded”, Primal Scream. Begins with a sample of Frank Maxwell and Peter Fonda in the 1966 outlaw biker film The Wild Angels. One of Harvey Walters’s original nominations.
6. “Reverend Black Grape”, Black Grape. Contains a parliamentary question from Sir Thomas Arnold to John Major in 1994, according to Blair McDougall and Mark Worgan.
7. “Little Britain”, Dreadzone. Another one from Blair McDougall, featuring the headmaster’s speech from If.
8. “Can You Feel It (Martin Luther King mix)”, Mr Fingers. “Free at last” set to an acid track. From Billy Shears and S Gordon.
9. “Hard Left”, Tackhead. Margaret Thatcher talking about the “hard left”. Thanks to Thomas Penny.
10. “Iron Sky”, Paolo Nutini. Featuring The Great Dictator speech by Charlie Chaplin, playing the barber mistaken for Adenoid Hynkel, a parody of Adolf Hitler. The last of Harvey Walters’s nominations.
A lot of nominations for this one. An honourable mention for Paul T Horgan, who nominated a Take That pastiche by Horrible Histories called the “RAF Pilot Song”, which ends with a fragment of Churchill’s “The Few” speech.
“There’s always one” award to Tom Peck, who nominated “I Have a Dream” by Abba.
Next week: Rulers who single-handedly changed a nation’s religion.
Coming soon: Things politicians say when they want to sound as if they’re doing something, such as calling for a constitutional convention (yes I’m afraid Keir Starmer did).
Your suggestions please, and ideas for future Top 10s, to me on Twitter, or by email to top10@independent.co.uk