Iron Maiden's Eddie heads the all-time classic T-shirt chart

They have never been the coolest of bands. But Iron Maiden's iconic mascot Eddie - the ghoulish figure which has appeared on their album sleeves for a quarter of a century - has helped them to the top of the charts in the rock 'n' roll fashion stakes.

They have never been the coolest of bands. But Iron Maiden's iconic mascot Eddie - the ghoulish figure which has appeared on their album sleeves for a quarter of a century - has helped them to the top of the charts in the rock 'n' roll fashion stakes.

The denim-and-leather-clad heavy metal act has seen its merchandise named all-time favourite music T-shirt in a poll of thousands of people who were asked to choose from a shortlist of more than 30 all-time classic shirts.

However, voters also chose the worst T-shirt, an unwanted accolade that went to any item bearing the FCUK logo. This comes at the end of a bad week for the firm, with falling profits and suggestions that shoppers are being turned off by its risqué logo. Although the poll was initially restricted to music shirts, organisers found there were so many nominations for FCUK that they added it to the shortlist.

Three-chord wonders the Ramones, post-punks Joy Division and grunge act Nirvana were among the other bands that scored highly with voters in the poll.

Iron Maiden formed in 1976, and Eddie - a zombie with blond hair - made his first appearance on a single sleeve, but was obscured by shadows. He was pictured fully on the sleeve of the band's debut album in 1980. Since then Eddie has graced the sleeve of almost every release.

Russel Coultart, chief executive of teeshirtstore.com, which organised the poll, said he was initially surprised by the winning shirt. "You would think it would be someone more current. But Iron Maiden have got such a huge fan-base and they have built that up over 20-plus years."

One of the site's biggest sellers is one for Thin Lizzy - a band that has not existed for two decades. Mr Coultart credits its new-found cool to the fact that the Darkness singer Justin Hawkins wore the band's shirts on stage.

THE TOP 10

1 Iron Maiden - Eddie logo

2 Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures

3 Nirvana - Nevermind smiley face

4 The Ramones - eagle logo

5 Rolling Stones - lips logo

6 Kraftwerk - Autobahn

7 Primal Scream - Screamadelica

8 Metallica - Master of Puppets

9 Public Enemy - target logo

10 Inspiral Carpets - Cool as fuck