If we take traditional to mean music that marks significant events or the turning year and lives beyond the era that spawned it, a number of pieces spring to mind. Jeff Beck's version of Hi Ho Silver Lining has outlasted its original market to become a courtship standard for non-metropolitan youngsters and shows no sign of giving up its totemic status in the face of cosmopolitan scorn.

Wedding celebrations have elevated any number of songs into apparently permanent significance, the B-52s Love Shack, Abba's Dancing Queen and Village People's YMCA among them. I expect many such songs to endure beyond the life span of those who can remember their original release.