The endless sequence of musical list programmes that solicit opinions on the best single/haircut/drummer of all time - they tend to crop up at teatime on bank-holiday weekends - are reliable in two key respects: almost always paragons of cheap production values, they are also frustratingly misrepresentative.
If you're asking people to vote for their favourite pop anything, it seems obvious that you'll need to build in a large margin of error to allow for the fact that they will lie shamelessly to make themselves sound smarter and thinner than they really are. Rock critics do it all the time - why do you think Radiohead's OK Computer always tops every Best Album poll, when your average hack's LiePod is much more likely to have Bon Jovi's Slippery When Wet on repeat?
So when whatever wins the show entitled The Nation's Favourite Lyric - which will be broadcast on VH1 over Easter - you shouldn't necessarily regard it as being the nation's actual favourite lyric. A prototype version of this poll took place several years ago, in a special strand of National Poetry Day. The winning "best lyric" was John Lennon's Imagine, which is the kind of singalong sermon that people admire because they feel they should, not because they're mad for its prim finger-wagging.
You can vote for your favourite here, and if you're wondering why you're obliged to pick from a list, rather than voting for anything you like, it seems that the 100 were chosen by a panel of songwriters from thousands originally suggested by people in the music business. Lennon's preachy anthem is - somewhat imaginatively - notable by its absence, but then so is Jovi's Living on a Prayer, which comes much closer than Imagine to encapsulating a universal sentiment. Also missing is the finest example of mid-90s narrative songwriting, Pulp's Common People, and Bacharach and David's Alfie, an exquisite example of how to uplift without preaching.
To give it some credit, the list isn't without its quirks. Alongside inevitables such as Eleanor Rigby and Candle in the Wind are Missy Elliott's Get Ur Freak On and Jay-Z's 99 Problems. There's little chance that either will win (and every chance that Robbie Williams's Angels will), but it might be an idea to place a bet on the Arctic Monkey's I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor. We've spent the last few months being told what a lyrical genius the Monkeys' Alex Turner is. Here's his chance to be validated by the people.
The Nation's Favourite Lyric will be on VH1 on April 16 and 17.
