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Radiohead challenge Fab Four as Bends leaves Sgt Pepper in the cold

This article is more than 25 years old

Radiohead were always the most grown-up of the Britpop bands that kicked and screamed their way into the nation's affections in the late 1990s.

Now, thanks to a combination of inventive songwriting and a preference for examining the human condition rather than the bottom of a pint glass, the five public schoolboys from Oxford are challenging four working class Liverpudlians for the title of greatest band of the rock'n'roll era.

Two Radiohead albums have muscled their way into the top five of the Virgin All Time Top 1,000 Albums millennium edition, territory traditionally dominated by the Beatles. The Fab Four's 1966 Revolver tops the poll, with Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band at number three and The White Album at number five.

Sandwiched in between, however, are Radiohead's The Bends (2) and OK Computer (4), works which have demonstrated abiding popularity at a time when Oasis, torch carriers of the Britpop scene, are rumoured to be on the verge of collapse.

The Virgin poll of over 200,000 musicians, writers and fans was first conducted seven years ago and is now updated every three years, to reveal underlying trends in popular taste as well as separating the significant from the fleeting.

In the last poll the Radiohead albums were at 10 and 21 respectively, while Oasis was at number nine with (What's The Story) Morning Glory. This time that album has fallen to number 21 while Be Here Now sank from 36 to 459.

The only other band apart from the Beatles to have secured a spot in the poll's top five is Nirvana, whose first album, Nevermind, reached number four in the last poll. Radiohead's achievement will serve to heighten interest in the group's fourth album, Kid A, released next month.

"The rise of Radiohead is phenomenal," said Colin Larkin, who started the survey in 1993.

"No other band, not even Pink Floyd, has ever come close to giving the Fab Four a run for their money. I think we have been searching for many years for a legitimate replacement to the dinosaur bands."

Radiohead aside, very few bands that rose in the 1990s make an impression in a list dominated by the music of the 1960s and 1970s. Blur's Parklife has drifted out of the top 50 in the last three years, but the Stone Roses' eponymous album (12), Portishead's Dummy (41), Definitely Maybe by Oasis (44), and Blue Lines by Massive Attack (28) preserve some dignity for the bright young(ish) things of the last decade.

"Radiohead have followed giants like The Beatles and Pink Floyd, moving into that status of bands who will last the course. They haven't really put a foot wrong. They are bright and have got stuck into their work and we've seen a massive influx of votes for them this time.

"They did well last year along with many of the other Britpop bands, but most of those have fallen by the wayside this time," said Mr Larkin.

The list remains very male and very white. The top 100 contains just 13 albums by black artists, with Kind of Blue by Miles Davis the highest placed, at 12.

The first of the eight albums by female artists on the list is Joni Mitchell's Blue, at 24. Davis matches the Beatles' 14 albums in the full list, while Bob Dylan has 13 entries, three of them in the top 100, led by Blood on the Tracks.

Led Zeppelin, David Bowie, Pink Floyd, U2 and the Rolling Stones all have three albums in the top 100, while American bands represent almost half of the top 100, with REM the highest placed at number six with Automatic for the People.

The earliest album in the top 100 is in final place, Frank Sinatra's 1956 album Songs For Swingin' Lovers. Sinatra may have been bypassed by the rock,n,roll revolution, but he helped to make it possible.

Pop writer Caroline Sullivan said the list revealed more about the people who voted than about the bands themselves.

"The fact that there isn't a single dance album in the top 25 shows who take part in these polls: white middle-aged fans, as opposed to the kids.

"Radiohead are a good choice if you want to seem more intelligent than you really are."

She added: "They are difficult, introspective, contemplative, and an antidote to the dance music that dominates tastes today but which a lot of people don't actually understand."

Will we still love 'em, when they're 64?

1. Revolver The Beatles

2. The Bends Radiohead

3. Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band The Beatles

4. OK Computer Radiohead

5. The White Album The Beatles

6. Automatic For The People REM

7. Blood On The Tracks Bob Dylan

8. Abbey Road The Beatles.

9. Dark Side Of The Moon Pink Floyd

10. The Queen Is Dead The Smiths

11. The Stone Roses The Stone Roses

12. Forever Changes Love

13. Velvet Underground and Nico Velvet Underground

14. Kind Of Blue Miles Davis

15. The Unforgettable Fire U2

16. Astral Weeks Van Morrison

17. Nevermind Nirvana.

18. Pet Sounds Beach Boys

19. Sign O'the Times Prince

20. Born To Run Bruce Springsteen

21. (What's The Story) Morning Glory? Oasis

22. A Hard Day's Night The Beatles

23. Hunky Dory David Bowie

24. Blue Joni Mitchell

25. The Joshua Tree U2

26. Highway 61 Revisited Bob Dylan

27. The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust David Bowie

28. Blue Lines Massive Attack

29. Never Mind the Bollocks Here's the Sex Pistols Sex Pistols

31. Rumours Fleetwood Mac

32. Electric Ladyland Jimi Hendrix

33. Blonde on Blonde Bob Dylan

34. Rubber Soul Beatles

35. Exile on Main Street Rolling Stones

36. Achtung Baby U2

37. London Calling Clash

38. Wish You Were Here Pink Floyd

39. What's Going On Marvin Gaye

40. Let It Bleed Rolling Stones

41. Dummy Portishead

42. Led Zeppelin IV Led Zeppelin

43. Graceland Paul Simon

44. Definitely Maybe Oasis

45. The Band The Band

46. The Doors The Doors

47. Low David Bowie

48. Who's Next The Who

49. Out Of Time REM

50. Trout Mask Replica Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band

51. Jagged Little Pill Alanis Morissette

52. Tommy The Who

53. Marquee Moon Television

54. Odelay Beck

55. Five Leaves Left Nick Drake

56. The Smiths The Smiths

57. Parallel Lines Blondie

59. Leftism Leftfield

60. Legend: The Best Of Bob Marley & The Wailers Bob Marley

61. Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin

62. After the Goldrush Neil Young

63. Are You Experienced Jimi Hendrix

64. Thriller Michael Jackson

65. Loveless My Bloody Valentine

66. Bridge Over Troubled Water Simon and Garfunkel

67. Hotel California Eagles

68. Moon Safari Air

69. Performance and Cocktails Stereophonics

70. Ten Pearl Jam

71. Saint Dominic's Preview Van Morrison

72. Purple Rain Prince

73. Little Earthquakes Tori Amos

74. Tapestry Carole King

75. The Man Who Travis

76. Melon Collie and the Infinite Sadness Smashing Pumpkins

77. Debut Bjork

78. Talk on Corners Corrs

79. Moondance Van Morrison

80. Woodface Crowded House

81. Led Zeppelin II Led Zeppelin

82. So Peter Gabriel

83. Crosby, Stills and Nash Crosby, Stills and Nash

84. Sticky Fingers Rolling Stones

85. A Love Supreme John Coltrane

86. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road Elton John

87. Hounds of Love Kate Bush

88. Metallica Metallica

89. Songs in the Key of Life Stevie Wonder

90. Otis Blue Otis Redding

91. Synchronicity The Police

92. It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back Public Enemy

93. Harvest Neil Young

94. Disintegration Cure

95. Parklife Blur

96. A Night at the Opera Queen

97. Licensed to Ill Beastie Boys.

98. Moby Grape Moby Grape

99. Grace Jeff Buckley

100. Songs For Swingin' Lovers! Frank Sinatra

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