There is an outcry on the front page of the Sun and elsewhere today about the decision of an exam board to suggest GCSE music students should listen to a Gary Glitter track.

Should kids be learning from Glitter?

asks the paper in disappointingly small type at the end of page 5, having splashed on the front with

Glitter GCSE Outrage.

What Glitter has done is deeply and abidingly unpleasant - and there seems little point in questioning whether the behaviour of the artist should put us off the art, since the description of 'I'm the Leader of the Gang (I am)' as art is likely to enrage people. But he can't be made to go away forever, and nor can his music, so let's settle back and enjoy many more of these stories in the coming months.

Therefore, while the rights and wrongs of the AQA's (the offending exam board) decision to include Glitter are debated elsewhere, let's turn our attention to the other songs on the list of suggested listening, which have received less attention thus far.

Freddie and the Dreamers, Gabardine Mac
Lionel Bart, I'm Reviewing the Situation (Oliver!)
Steeleye Span, All Around My Hat
Andrew Lloyd Webber, Potiphar (Joseph and ... Coat)
Queen, Bohemian Rhapsody
Gloria Gaynor, I Will Survive
Dexy's Midnight Runners, Come on Eileen
Meatloaf, I'd do Anything for Love

First question posed by Lost in Showbiz to AQA: why are these songs on a list of music for GCSE study?

"The assignment is to write a song which relies on changes of tempo and/or style."

Tenuous, but you see where they're coming from.

"They'd have been picked by senior examiners."

The selection suddenly makes more sense. Mr Pickford in the music department always sings I Will Survive in the shower...

Let's pass over the complaints we can surely expect on the grounds of anti-Semitism (Oliver) and anti-Egyptianism (Joseph). Can you think of any reasons to object to the rest of the songs on the list?

And so finally to the big question. As a result of the public outcry, will the Glitter song be removed from the list?

"Yes"

But there's a problem. The papers have already been sent out. The kids have already got them. They're probably all - God help us - listening to Gary Glitter as I type. The AQA says they are reissuing the papers with Giltter taken off. But I know that the first thing I'd have done as a student faced with a teacher suggesting gently that I shouldn't listen to a particular pop song is go immediately and find it.

So: Glitter sales to rise?