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Queen Mother 'enjoyed listening to Caribbean steel bands and Paul Simon'

As the nation’s favourite grandmother, it might be expected that Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother’s musical tastes would have been rather old-fashioned.

But her private music library - details of which were made public for the first time - show that the royal's preferences were remarkably eclectic.

Her collection included Caribbean steel bands, Canadian yodelling, Rodgers and Hammerstein show tunes, folk music, ska and even a top-selling pop album by Paul Simon.

Among her 100 records were the wartime speeches of Winston Churchill, performances by Noel Coward, comedy LPs by The Goons and Tony Hancock and, appropriately enough, the soundtrack to The King and I.

Despite her aversion to pop music, former aides also confirmed she was an avid listener of Terry’s Wogan’s Radio 2 breakfast show, making her the most famous ‘Terry’s Old Gal’, or TOG, as its female listeners were called.

The Queen Mother, who died aged 101 in 2002, kept the collection at the Castle of Mey in Caithness, where she spent the majority of her summers for almost half a century....
Read entire article at Telegraph (UK)