Beyond hymns and hymns, the collective memory willingly turns to its heritage of songs and, for the British, Her Majesty pretty little song written, composed and recorded by Paul McCartney is both very cute – he says that the queen does not have much to say but that she is very changeable – and necessarily twilight: it is the last song of the last disc recorded by the Beatles, Abbey Road, in 1969.
Symbol: the farewell of the largest British group in history on a portrait of its queen. And, to tell the truth, it is perhaps one of the most beautiful songs on Elizabeth II, because it has not been particularly spoiled by the authors and composers of popular music – firstly because for a good part during her reign, we didn’t dare to make songs about the sovereign, then because when the custom imposed itself, it wasn’t always brilliant.
In the first episode of These songs that make the news this weekend, you hear excerpts from:
The Beatles, Her Majesty1969
The 1945, Thank You (Your Majesty), 2022
The Sex Pistols, God Save the Queen1977
The Stone Roses, Elizabeth My Dear1989
slowthai, Nothing Great About Britain2019
Billy Bragg, Rule No Reason1999
U Roy, Chalice in the Palace1976
Eek A Mouse, queen elizabeth1984
Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton, Joe Cocker, Rod Stewart, etc., All You Need Is Love2002
You can also follow the news of this column on Twitter.
Our series of summer 2022 chronicles, behind our voicescan still be listened to by scrolling down this page.
And you can also find on this link Behind our voices, with the writing and composition secrets of eight major artists of the French scene, Laurent Voulzy, Julien Clerc, Bénabar, Dominique A, Carla Bruni, Emily Loizeau, Juliette and Gaëtan Roussel.