First single of birdsong to chart in the UK

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB, UK) released the single “Let Nature Sing”, consisting entirely of birdsong, to raise awareness of the plight of our feathered friends across the UK. On 9 May 2019, the track entered the Official Singles Chart at No.18 on the strength of 23,500 digital/CD sales to become the first single of birdsong in UK chart history.

The RSPB’s campaign around the release of “Let Nature Sing” revealed that 40 million birds had vanished from the skies over the UK in the last 50 years, and 56% of species were in decline. They hoped the single, released to coincide with International Dawn Chorus Day (5 May), would be a wake-up call as the UK faced the “immediate danger of sleepwalking into a disaster”.

The single featured the calls of common garden birds like the cuckoo, blackbird and robin alongside some less well known or endangered species like the crane, bittern, snipe, grasshopper warbler and tawny owl.

To celebrate the success of “Let Nature Sing”, the RSPB put out a press release with quotes from the ‘birds’ reacting to the news, complete with a mock-up of The Beatles’ famous Abbey Road zebra crossing scene, with the heads of John, Paul, George and Ringo replaced with the heads of birds.

“Let Nature Sing” fell to No.63 on 16 May 2019. On its chart debut, it managed to out-sell new hits by the likes of P!nk, Bastille and Lizzo.