'Ding Dong The Witch is Dead' tops British charts

GlobalPost

British former prime minister and deeply divisive historical figure Margaret Thatcher has passed on in Britain — and now, the 1939 Wizard of Oz ditty "Ding Dong The Witch is Dead" has made it to the very top of the BBC's Radio 1 Top 40 countdown.

Insiders announced that the BBC is likely to play the song on its Sunday evening countdown, wrote the Daily Mail, a departure from the BBC's now legendary refusal to broadcast the Sex Pistol's irreverent "God Save the Queen" during the 1977 Silver Jubilee.

Read more from GlobalPost: Margaret Thatcher debate continues in Parliament and in the streets

The Guardian reports that a Newsbeat reporter— the BBC's service geared to youth — may come on the air prior to the track and explain its sudden popularity to Channel 1's youthful 18 to 24-year-old target market.

Some were less amused "A point has been made by those several thousand who chose to spend a download fee on an old song they will probably never listen to, and more power to them," wrote Neil McCormick in the Telegraph.

"But few amongst us would condone heckling at a funeral, whoever was being laid in the ground, and there is no reason for the BBC to risk upsetting many listeners just to satisfy a few troublemakers, whose chosen forum is Facebook, not the chart show."

The music producer behind one of multiple Facebook campaigns in favor of the song told the Daily Mail that he belive that the song was "cathartic," a sentiment that's expressed in full in the video below.

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