Choosing the right song to bring in the Millennium in the presence of the Queen gave the Dome people a headache to match anything you may have on New Year's Day.

All they wanted was a rock anthem that would get the royal foot tapping and give a 400-strong choir something to belt out just before the Queen officially opens the Dome at 11.40 on New Year's Eve, to bring a thousand years to a rousing climax.

But short of including God Save the Queen by the Sex Pistols or Ian Dury's Sex and Drugs and Rock & Roll, organisers could hardly have come up with a less appropriate shortlist.

All You Need Is Love by The Beatles was fine, apart from the French National Anthem at the beginning. I mean, after the way that France has spurned our beef, do we really want to enter the new Millennium with La Marseillaise ringing in our ears? It's Only Rock and Roll by the Rolling Stones finds Mick Jagger contemplating "suicide right on the stage". Not nice. We Are The Champions would for many produce appalling images of Manchester United parading yet another trophy, while 1999 was definitely last year's song by the Artist Formerly Known As Talented.

Don't Look Back In Anger would only give Liam Gallagher the opportunity to be embarrassing. As for Robbie Williams, he is already looking far too pleased with himself after finishing ahead of Mozart in Channel 4's Most Influential Musician of the Millennium Poll. Too bad Wolfgang Amadeus.

The BBC showed a little more imagination by coming up with a new version of the Bob Marley song One Love as the Beeb's official Millennium Song. But why not let the people press the button on the Millennium Juke Box?

For if we could argue all night about the merits of Imagine and Disco 2000 by Pulp, there is no disputing the century's greatest hits on the basis of worldwide sales _ and it would be the ultimate pop Vox Pop.

Bit of a problem, though. Sitting at the top of the pile with sales of 33 million is Elton John's Candle In The Wind, as played at the funeral of the Queen's late daughter-in-law.

You could hardly go for number two, White Christmas by Bing Crosby, while Rock Around The Clock is a bit fast for an anthem. Suddenly you're getting down to Hound Dog and the Monkees. So where can the party organisers turn at this late stage to get everyone singing-along? Well, how about Lady Midnight by old Misery-Guts himself, the doom-laden Canadian singer-song writer Leonard Cohen.

Come on, altogether now: "I came by myself to a very crowded place; I was looking for someone who had lines in her face...." Party music fit for a Queen. *The Shortlist of the songs to see in the Millennium at the Dome.

1. All You Need Is Love: The Beatles.

2. Disco 2000: Pulp.

3. It's Only Rock and Roll: The Rolling Stones.

4. Millennium: Robbie Williams.

5. Imagine: John Lennon.

6. We Are the Champions: Queen.

7. 1999: Prince.

8. Don't Look Back in Anger: Oasis.

Story date: Tuesday 28 December

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.