Politician's Music: George Bush was a Thrills fan

The British Phonographic Industry may have had a big hand in deciding what music Cameron eventually presented to Obama, Putin and co but the titbit of information reminds us that politicians and music are not total strangers.

Margaret Thatcher was deeply associated with pop music in the '80s, though not because she was a major afficianado of the stuff.

She was, rather, a major "character" in the pop music of the day, the great adversary. You were nobody if you hadn't recorded at least one song asking her to resign or slagged her off at an award ceremony.

However, naturally enough, Thatcher had her own musical preferences. The song most remember her adoring is 'Two Little Boys' by Rolf Harris. However, her funeral song, and her professed favourite was (thinking in monetary terms to the last) 'How Much Is That Doggy In The Window.'

George Bush (the latter) had a similar relationship with the music industry but the White House's decision to release his ipod playlist to the media in 2004, allowed us to glimpse the widely despised President's musical favourites.

Turns out he had a pleasingly individual and respectable taste in music. He liked country singers like George Jones but also a fondness for left-leaning figures like Joni Mitchell, John Fogerty, and James McMurtry. All bar two of the acts on his playlist were American (unsurprisingly, Serge Gainsbourg, Phoenix, and Edith Piaf didn't make it onto his playlist). But both of those non-American acts turned out to be Irish. Van Morrison, who's song 'Brown Eyed-Girl' Bush played more than any other, and 'The Thrills', admittedly the most US-inspired Irish band of all-time.

In Ireland, Enda Kenny, like Tony Blair, professes to be a fan of Springsteen. One critic felt that this choice was a bit too perfectly pitched (suspiciously so) but the Taoiseach does appear to be a big fan of the Boss. He was pictured enjoying Springsteen's gig in the RDS in July 2012.

There was little suspicion that Bertie Ahern was getting advice on his musical choices, as he told Myles Dungan in 2006, that his enduring favourites were Thatcher favourite 'How Much Is That Doggy in the Window' (clearly a song that seduces the politically minded) and 'You Raise Me Up' by Westlife.

Choosing a song your son-in-law sings may not indicate a great high-seriousness about music, but then it's maybe just familial loyalty.

Watch below: Margaret Thatcher's brief stint as a music critic on The Saturday Superstore in 1987 (1.12 - 1.49)