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Hotel California by The Eagles tops a new all-time easy listening chart which includes some of the most famous songs of the last…

Hotel California by The Eagles tops a new all-time easy listening chart which includes some of the most famous songs of the last 40 years.

Yesterday by The Beatles, Chris de Burgh's Lady in Red and Whiter Shade of Pale by Procul Harum are all unsurprisingly on the Top 50 compiled by BBC Radio 2 listeners.

Elton John's 1974 version of Candle in the Wind, Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody and Marvin Gaye's Heard It Through the Grapevine are other obvious inclusions.

But Cliff Richard and Frank Sinatra fail to get a mention - and the number two favourite is the obscure Old Dogs and Children and Watermelon Wine recorded in 1972 by country singer Tom T Hall, which was never in the British charts.

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The oldest record is at number 27 - Jerry Lee Lewis's Great Balls of Fire from 1957.

Recent releases include Dance The Night Away by the Mavericks, which is number three, Boyzone's No Matter What and Dreams by The Corrs.

The Beatles have scored a hattrick with Yesterday at number 11, Hey Jude at number 25 and Help! sneaking in at number 50.

Evergreen pop veterans the Wombles yesterday shelved their Christmas comeback single, their first big push for seasonal success since 1975. The eco-friendly group was poised to re-release Wombling Merry Christmas next Monday and felt sure of a top 20 Christmas hit.

But in a disappointment which rocked their fans, the release date has now been put back - all the way to December 1999.

Prof Stephen Hawking is the latest - and by far the brightest - addition to the cast of The Simpsons. The author of A Brief History of Time will appear complete with supercharged wheelchair alongside cartoon heroes Homer and Bart in an episode to be screened in the spring.