King Charles’ playlist is fun, spirited and slightly eccentric

The big takeaway from King Charles’s playlist (part of a project called The King’s Music Room to mark Commonwealth Day) is that it would probably be wise not to let the monarch behind the decks at your next house party.

One minute everyone’s stomping away to contemporary American superstars Beyoncé and Jay Z’s hip hop RnB banger Crazy in Love, the next they are awkwardly trying to work out how to move their limbs to the sweetly sentimental crooning of South African-British jazz band singer Al Bowlly.

Both are exceptional records, to be fair, but they don’t belong on the same playlist. And neither deserves to be forced to rub elbows with British wonder woman Raye’s Do You Love Me, a deservedly obscure sad disco track from 2021, made before this extraordinary talent had broken up with her record company and unleashed the full force of her talents.

I don’t doubt that the King was deeply taken with Raye when he saw her perform for the Prince’s Trust, but it is a choice that makes me feel like someone just stuck a pin in Raye’s eclectic output and said ‘will this do?’.

There is a lot of fun and spirited music on here, but, with the greatest respect, it can be quite hard to detect the Artist Formerly Known as the Prince of Wales’s imprint on his own playlist. He speaks eloquently about music bringing up memories, but it is a matter of public record that he was dealing with considerable domestic turbulence in 1988, so was quite unlikely to have been cutting a dashing figure on the dancefloor at London nightclub Annabel’s doing all the wacky moves for Kylie Minogue’s europop romp through Goffin and King’s 1960s craze The Loco-Motion.

Kylie Minogue receives her OBE from the then Prince of Wales for services to music, in 2008.Credit: PA

Is this actually anybody’s favourite Kylie record? Australia’s divine Ms Minogue has made some gorgeously inventive electro dance classics in her long career, but this early effort is best left to the end of the night at a 1980s karaoke sessions upstairs at the local pub, along with Millie Small’s squeaky 1960s ska novelty My Boy Lollipop (also on the list).

Second-guessing all your choices is not ideal when it comes to putting a crowd-pleasing setlist together, and this eccentric collection has all too obviously been vetted to be as politically inclusive to the sounds of the Commonwealth as possible. Afropop is having a bit of moment, but I find it hard to picture the King tuning in to the downtempo digital groove of contemporary Nigerian star Davido’s seduction song KANTE, whose lyrics include such naughty observations as “Make your body come gum my body, make I cool my tension/Big waist, fine face, I no go lie for you.”

The list will presumably have been vetted to the hilt, but could still backfire if someone drags out an inappropriate quote from one of the featured artists calling for republican rebellion. You would have to be a musical misanthrope to resist the uplifting delight of Bob Marley’s Jamaican anthem Could You Be Loved, but the reggae powerhouse was also a radically socialist Rastafarian whose songs include the rather more fiery Revolution, I Shot the Sheriff and Burnin’ and Lootin’.

As a collection, it is a random but cheerful Commonwealth jamboree, a cross-section of light disco foot tappers (who doesn’t love Montserratian musician Arrow’s 1983 Caribbean classic Hot Hot Hot?) with a baffling dose of reheated Canadian swing (Michael Bublé’s sentimental Haven’t Met You Yet), British pub rock (Jools Holland and Ruby Turner boogie-woogiefied My Country Man) and assorted world music selections to make the distant relatives feel at home (Ghanaian star Daddy Lumba’s Mpempem Do Me).

One thing we already know about the King’s music taste is that he was a big fan of bountiful 1970s US soul trio The Three Degrees, and once named 1978 hit Givin’ Up, Givin’ In as his favourite song. They were even guests at his first wedding but sadly the older, perhaps wiser King has turned his back on his former disco sweethearts, preferring his late mother’s alleged favourite Diana Ross to represent the former colonies with frothy dance classic Upside Down.

There is genuinely a lot of joy in his selections. It is lightweight, sunny, relentlessly upbeat and culturally inclusive. I might not recommend putting it on at a party lest you confuse the revellers but anything that includes the imperious Grace Jones demolishing La Vie en rose is all right by me.

The King’s Music Room Playlist

• Bob Marley & The Wailers – Could You Be Loved
• Millie Small – My Boy Lollipop
• Kylie Minogue – The Loco-Motion
• Al Bowlly – The Very Thought of You
• Grace Jones – La Vie en rose
• Raye – Love Me Again
• Daddy Lumba – Mpempem Do Me
• Davido – KANTE (feat. Fave)Miriam Makeba – The Click Song
• Jools Holland & Ruby Turner – My Country Man
• Anoushka Shankar – Indian Summer
• Siti Nurhaliza – Anta Permana
• Dame Kiri Te Kanawa – E Te Iwi E (Call to the People)
• Michael Bublé – Haven’t Met You Yet
• Arrow – Hot Hot Hot
• Bonus non-Commonwealth track: Beyoncé – Crazy in Love (feat. Jay-Z)
• Bonus non-Commonwealth track: Diana Ross – Upside Down

The Telegraph, London

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