Connected as I am via THE SEX FILES here, and staying on top of classic rock as I do for some other writings I manage you can bet I was tickled to receive an email today about a study conducted on behalf of Spotify-the leading digital music streaming service-by a Dr. Daniel Müllensiefen of Goldsmiths, London University (see him interviewed here).

Of two thousand people surveyed in the UK, between the ages of 18-91 and an “equal gender split” it was found that music was quite an important component to sex…to which I have to say slightly sarcastically, really? All good-natured jabbing aside, some of the new facts uncovered are: songs from the movie Dirty Dancing were voted the most arousing music to play during sex, Marvin Gaye’s Sexual Healing and his Let’s Get it On were voted top tracks to ‘get us in the mood’ and (something I have been saying for years) 1-in-3 people surveyed could pick a tune they considered “better than sex.”

Dr Müllensiefen says: “It is no surprise that so many respondents claimed to find music arousing in the bedroom. From neuro-scientific research we know that music can activate the same pleasure centres of the brain that also respond to much less abstract rewards such as food, drugs or indeed sex.”

Not that these days any music digital downloading service ever needs an endorsement from S&S but below see some results from the playlists Spotify recently created from Dr. M’s survey.

The top 20 ‘better than sex’ tunes:

1. Queen- Bohemian Rhapsody
2. Kings of Leon - Sex On Fire
3. Robbie Williams- Angels
4. Meatloaf- Bat Out Of Hell
5. Bon Jovi- Living On A Prayer
6. Celine Dion- My Heart Will Go On
7. Adele- Set Fire To The Rain
8. Black Lace- Agadoo
9. Pink Floyd- Comfortably Numb
10. Queen- Don`t Stop Me Now
11. Queen- I Want To Break Free
12. Faithless- Insomnia
13. Bruno Mars- Just The Way You Are
14. The Killers- Mr Brightside
15. Guns`N`Roses- Paradise City
16. Coldplay- Viva La Vida
17. Queen- Who Wants To Live Forever
18. Elton John – Your Song
19. Luther Vandross – Anything
20. Bruce Springsteen – Born In The USA or Born To Run

Lots of Queen here, not that I’m not a fan, but I tend to think any band you love, any song you adore, will at times be ‘better then sex’….certainly they leave less of a mess.

The top 20 to play when ‘doing the deed’:

1. Dirty Dancing- Anything from the soundtrack
2. Marvin Gaye- Sexual Healing
3. Ravel – Bolero
4. Berlin- Take My Breath Away
5. Barry White- Anything from his collection
6. Marvin Gaye- Let’s Get It On
7. Righteous Brothers- Unchained Melody
8. Celine Dion- Titanic Soundtrack / My Heart Will Go On
9. Serge Gainsbourg- Je T`aime
10. Whitney Houston- I Will Always Love you
11. Aerosmith- Don`t Want To Miss A Thing
12. Kings Of Leon- Sex On Fire
13. Rodgers & Hammerstein- Sound of Music
14. Tchaikovsky – 1812 Overture
15. Grease- Grease soundtrack
16. Donna Summer- I Feel Love
17. Boys To Men- I’ll Make Love To You
18. ABBA- Mama Mia
19. Tom Jones – Sex Bomb
20. Star Wars –Anything form the soundtrack

The Star Wars soundtrack? Sound of Music? No “Kashmir” from Zep, arguably one of the most unrelenting undulant tunes ever, right up there with Ravel’s “Bolero” (which I agree should be on this list too). This is a tough twenty to compile I’ll grant you that, but I could name three other Tom Jones’ tunes right off the top of my head other then “Sex Bomb” that would grab you by the you-know-what and “Mama Mia”? Maybe you spin that afterwards but…

If you get the urge (and are not busy ‘doing the deed’) leave a comment below about your personal picks for the lists above. Really, I’d love to see some of your submissions.