The nation's (not exactly subtle) songs of seduction: Marvin Gaye is most likely to get your partner in the mood

IF a new love interest played Marvin Gaye’s Sexual Healing as you walked in the door, you could be forgiven for walking straight out again – or at least bursting out laughing.
But in fact, researchers claim, it’s the song most likely to get your partner in the mood for love.
The 1980s hit was voted top in a poll examining the nation’s attitudes to music and romance. Experts claimed the song’s magic derived from its ‘high chest voice’ and ‘less use of vocal vibrato’.

Number one for love: Sexual Healing by Marvin Gaye is the song most likely to get your partner in the mood

The survey, of 2,000 people, found the country’s second favourite track for seduction was Let’s Get It On – also by Gaye. Third on the list was any song by Barry White, while fourth was Serge Gainsbourg’s Je T’Aime.

 

Perhaps a more unlikely choice was Bolero by Maurice Ravel, the 1928 orchestral piece used by Torvill and Dean during their performance at the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo.
Whatever the song they choose, however, would-be lotharios should beware – 40 per cent of respondents said that the effect of music was more arousing than the touch of their partner.

Getting in the mood: Music can be more arousing than touch during intimate moments

Romantic: Jayne Torvill and Chrisptopher Dean perform Ravel's Balero

Music psychologist Dr Daniel Müllensiefen from Goldsmiths, University of London, was commissioned by internet music service Spotify to carry out the study.

He said: ‘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.
‘The study unveiled that the best tracks for seduction in the bedroom – essentially what gets us in the mood – all possess the same qualities including a greater dynamic range, more use of the high chest voice, more raspiness in the voice and less use of vocal vibrato.’
The study, of men and women aged between 18 and 91, also revealed that one in three can name a track that they consider to be better than sex, with Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody voted number one on the list.
Sex On Fire by the Kings of Leon took second place and Robbie Williams was voted third with Angels.

Lets get it on: Marvin Gaye was the artist who topped the list of songs to get people 'in the mood'