It was based on plays - between 2000 and 2009 - on TV, radio and in public places including pubs, clubs and shops. PPL collects royalties for sound recordings. Last year, another chart compiled for Radio 2 - also by PPL - found that Procol Harum's A Whiter Shade of Pale was the most played song in public places in the previous 75 years. The song, which features a distinctive organ riff, stayed at number one for six weeks in the UK in the summer of 1967.
Health & Safety - Three workers were injured when part of the stage for a concert by Sir Elton John at the Chichen Itza ruins in Mexico collapsed during construction. The singer was not present at the time of the accident which reportedly left two men with slight injuries and a third with a broken leg.
Concert organisers said the upper lighting rails of the metal structure collapsed onto the stage area. Some Mexicans have opposed holding concerts at the historic site, claiming it demeans their cultural significance and endangers the stone structures. More than a half dozen concerts have been held at Chichen Itza since Luciano Pavarotti sang there in 1997. Tenor Placido Domingo drew about 4,000 spectators to a concert without incident in 2008. The Elton John concert went ahead as planned.
Charity News - Reports that Gordon Brown misled the public over a promise to waive tax on the Haiti charity single have been denied by Downing Street. Earlier this year Simon Cowell gathered a group of singers to record the REM track Everybody Hurts to raise funds for disaster-struck Haiti.
At the time the Prime Minister said he would not charge VAT on the single, performed by artists including Leona Lewis, Cheryl Cole, Robbie Williams and Take That. But The Independent newspaper claims the money lost by the Treasury is to be deducted from the budget of the Department for International Development (DfID).
Mr Brown announced at the time the 17.5% VAT from the song would be waived so more money would reach the earthquake's victims. A Downing Street statement said, "The story is wrong. No money raised for Haiti will be deducted from other development projects or the DfID budget. Dfid will reimburse the initial cost of the VAT for the single but has an agreement with HMT that they will provide additional end of year financing to cover that cost. There will therefore be no impact at all on other areas of DFID's work or budget."
The single sold more than 453,000 copies in its first week to go straight to number one in February. The proceeds were split between the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) and The Sun's Helping Haiti campaign.
(Jim Evans)
