11 songs that should be on The Boat That Rocked

Alternative soundtrack to the pirate radio flick

David Porter, Tue 14 Apr 2009, 3:48 pm BST

Among all the feel-good, fun-crammed taste of mid-sixties youth culture that is the latest British hit movie The Boat That Rocked, is a growing feeling that it could have been better in the musical stakes.

True, the historical inaccuracies and anachronisms are heavy ballast but only matter if it was a documentary.

Equally true, the mix of genres and images is more dazzling than a Technicolor dream – from the plot absurdities of Mamma Mia to the Dunkirk flotilla of rescue boats at the Titanic ending.

The music from spinning turntables or through tinny transistor radios – and why no car radios? – was great. But with a classic catalogue of 66-67 to choose from, here are the 11 tracks that could have (and should have) soundtracked The Boat That rocked...

1. Caroline - The Fortunes (1964)

An anthem for the original pirate radio ship, this Greenaway and Cook classic launched a harmony group from Birmingham and would have livened up the nostalgia.

2. Days Of Pearly Spencer - David McWilliams (1967)

This was one of the earliest examples of an artist being shamelessly built up by continuous playing of a single song on the airwaves and promoted in a blitz of publicity by manager Phil Soloman, who was also a Caroline director.

3. When A Man Loves A Woman - Percy Sledge (1966)

Great romantic signature song played by Johnnie Walker in his Kiss-in-the-Car spot on late night radio. He got thousands to cuddle up as he talked the smoochy mood. Cars with couples parked along the Essex coast facing out to sea and flashing headlights at a given signal while kissing someone in the car!

4. Reach Out I'll Be There - The Four Tops (1966)

Arguably one of the top three greatest Tamla Motown hits out of Berry Gordy's Hitsville studio in Detroit, this footstomper was a turntable regular and also part of the influence into Northern Soul development that Radio Caroline had.

5. My Boy Lollipop - Millie (1964)

An old song from the 1950s updated by teenager Millie Small, this was one of many hits promoted by Caroline that DJ Johnnie Walker reckons would not have been such without pirate radio exposure. It also launched Chris Blackwell's Island Records, was DJ Simon Dee's favourite song and became the first international ska/reggae biggie.

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