In what's been a big day for boffins, science has deduced that Boo Radleys' 'Wake Up Boo!' is the most feel-good song ever written.
The summer anthem from the 90s UK indie stars, released in 1995, beat out some decidedly sunny competition from The Beach Boys, Jackson 5 and The Beatles for the honour.Psychology scholar Dr Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic of Goldsmiths College devised a formula which takes into account pitch, imagery and positive lyrics to provide an apparent scientific basis for calculating the feel-good nature of a particular song.
The formula is thus: P + Pos + T + BPM + IS (where P = Pitch, Pos = percentage of positive lyrics, T = Tonality, BPM = Beats per Minute, I = Images/Memories associated with the music, S = Serotonin level.)
Despite the entirely subjective nature of the 'I' variable, and the incomprehensible omission of James Brown's 'I Feel Good', the good doctor compiled the following list as the top ten most feel-good songs:
1 Boo Radleys - 'Wake Up Boo!'
2 Beach Boys - 'Good Vibrations'
3 Jackson 5 - 'I Want You Back'
4 Beatles - 'Here Comes The Sun'
5 Madonna - 'Holiday'
6 Van Morrison - 'Brown Eyed Girl'
7 The Foundations - 'Build Me Up Buttercup'
8 Michael Jackson - 'Wanna Be Starting Something'
9 John Paul Young - 'Love Is In The Air'
10 The Darkness - 'I Believe In A Thing Called Love'
