Rock 'n' Roll Songs Banned for No Reason

Copy previously published at Herald Weekly, based on provided list of songs

It’s a little known fact that rock ‘n’ roll hits were blacklisted in bulk during the

George W. Bush administration. Media giant Clear Channel Communications

sidelined over 150 songs from radio play following the 9/11 terror attacks. The

ban reverberated through the rock world because the government-friendly

media behemoth (now iHeartRadio) owned practically every radio station

across the nation.

It can only be imagined why the classic rock song "Peace Train" was targeted

and banished, likewise, “Another One Bites the Dust." Rage Against the

Machine was benched. Every single one of their songs—banned. Only Rage

would achieve a total blackout. It was in line with the prevailing propaganda

onslaught. Like a fascist salute to the burgeoning Orwellian vibe accompanying

the build-up to war in Afghanistan and Iraq, Clear Channel effectively banned

songs for containing “questionable” lyrics, whatever that meant.

Back in the day when a ban was a ban, when bad publicity was bad publicity,

being banned meant canceled gigs, lost sponsorships, and being blacklisted

from future contracts. Today, in contrast, the spotlight can bring a band a

bump.

Ever since Elvis popularized the genre, rock ‘n’ roll songs have been censored,

barred or faced radio play restrictions. Let’s look at why some of those songs got

tagged as black sheep of the music industry.

Louie Louie

The Kingsmen

A fine little girl, she waits for me / Me catch the ship across the sea / Me sailed

the ship all alone / Me never think I’ll make it home

This song was truly banned for no reason. It all started with a teenage girl’s father

who penned a concerned letter to Attorney General Robert Kennedy blaming

the “extreme state of moral degradation” of the nation on the “Louie Louie”

ditty. An F.B.I. investigation duly commenced.

Of concern, according to the F.B.I. report, were lyrics that seemed to say, “At

night at ten / I lay her again / F*** you girl, oh / All the way.” To wit, the only

obscenity of the song, it turned out, occurred about 50 seconds in when the

drummer drops a drumstick and yells, “F***.” Ironically, the F.B.I. didn’t catch it.

Song fact: Richard Berry wrote and recorded the calypso-inspired song with his

band in 1957. The Kingsmen covered it based on a cover-version by the Wailers

that they heard playing on local jukeboxes.

If U Seek Amy

Britney Spears

All of the boys and all of the girls are begging to / If you seek Amy

The way Britney Spears sings it, “If U Seek Amy” sought an obscenity ban by

wordplay. With an emphasis on “iF U See K,” a pun makes a double entendre of

the refrain. In case it appears inadvertent, a quick look at her music video

clarifies intentions. A sex party is winding down to a conservative domestic

scene, like a risqué version of “Mrs. Robinson."

If the lyric seems perplexing, don’t worry, even the censors were confused. After

parents and conservatives called for a ban on the controversially lewd tune,

Spears, on a comeback bounce, bowed under pressure and remedied the

perceived obscenity by altering the title to “If U See Amy.” In the U.K., radio

stations truncated the song’s title to “Amy.” 

(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction

The Rolling Stones

When I’m ridin’ round the world / And I’m doin’ this and I’m singing that / And I’m

tryin’ to make some girl / Who tells me baby, better come back maybe next

week / Can’t you see I’m on a losing streak?

When this song was first released in the U.K., only pirate radio stations would play

it. In the U.S., “Satisfaction” topped the charts at No. 1 for four consecutive

weeks. But its “sexually aggressive” lyrics were censored on TV, partly because

Mick Jagger’s gyrations on stage were called lewd. The line, “I’m trying

to make some girl,” got zapped.

Following the 1965 ban in the U.K. for lyrics deemed “too sexually suggestive,”

the song rose to No. 1 on the U.K. charts. However, it was also criticized

for what they claimed were “tasteless themes.” Critics declared anti-

establishment in lyrics such as:

When I’m watchin’ my TV and a man comes on and tells me / How white

my shirts can be / But, he can’t be a man ’cause he doesn’t smoke / The same

cigarettes as me.

Despite the denunciations, it’s the second greatest song of all time, according to

Rolling Stone magazine. Devo, Otis Redding, Aretha Franklin, Britney Spears and

Vanilla Ice have all released cover versions.

Take the Power Back

Rage Against the Machine

Yeah we need to check the interior / Of the system that cares about only one

culture / And that, is why we gotta take the power back

Rage Against the Machine’s unique punk/rap/metal/hip-hop sound led by Zack

de la Rocha’s anti-establishment lyrics has met all kinds of censorship. Besides

the total ban by Clear Channel after 9/11, in 1996, SNL banned the group,

permanently, for draping upside-down flags on their amps while rocking “Bulls

on Parade,” live. In 2009, BBC Radio 5 Live censored the final refrain of “Killing in

the Name” by fading it out. They asked de la Rocha not to sing, “F*** you, I

won’t do what you tell me!” live, but he did it anyway. The publicly-funded BBC

apologized.

The 1992 song, “Take the Power Back” faced censorship in 2015 by the Tucson

Unified School District in Arizona when teachers at a local high school met a

noncompliance notice for using the tune to teach a Mexican-American history

class. The infraction? Arizona State law forbids advocating “ethnic solidarity.”

Like A Prayer

Madonna

When you call my name it’s like a little prayer / I’m down on my knees, I wanna

take you there

The savviest of provocateurs, a.k.a. The Queen of Pop, struck a high note with

“Like A Prayer.” When the music video premiered on MTV in 1989, controversy

over sexual innuendo in her lyrics took a backseat to the widespread indignation

over the presentation of religious and sexual themes. Madonna offended

Catholics so deeply by the video which showed her seducing a black saint

amongst burning crosses and displaying hand-wound stigmata, that Pope John

Paul II and PepsiCo denounced it. The Vatican called it blasphemous and

ordered a boycott of a new Pepsi TV commercial featuring Madonna singing

with a church choir. Pepsi panicked and pulled the ad, but not before shelling

out $5 million to the publicity-shrewd diva. It was the perfect concoction of

controversy and attention. “Like A Prayer” remains one of the material girl’s most

successful songs.

Rolling in the Deep

Adele

Finally I can see you crystal clear / Go ahead and sell me out and I’ll lay your

ship bare

The controversy here seems to revolve around the reason radio stations

censored Adele’s song. Broadcasters, concerned the lyric might be, “I’ll lay your

sh*t bare,” bleeped it out, just in case. To make things clear, Adele replaced the

word in question with “stuff” during a TV performance.

What is certain, the ballad “Rolling in the Deep” was a massive sensation. The

No. 1 hit song stayed at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 for seven consecutive

weeks.

The Real Slim Shady

Eminem

I’ll be the only person in the nursing home flirting / Pinching nurse’s asses when

I’m [lyric bleeped] or jerkin’ / Said I’m jerking, but this whole bag of Viagra isn’t

working

Radio station KKMG of Colorado Springs was slapped with a $7,000 fine for

playing Eminem’s “The Real Slim Shady” in 2000 due to a listener complaint to

the FCC. Never mind that it was a radio edit and one of the rapper’s tamest

tunes on his newly released LP.

Updated FCC guidelines issued just two months prior, claimed innuendo, without

expletives, can be considered subject to obscenity laws. The agency cited

“unmistakable offensive sexual references for these lyrics and

several other lines. Later, however, the FCC reversed the fine stating the song

was, “not patently offensive under contemporary community standards.” A

Wisconsin radio station was also hit with the fine for playing the unedited version

of “Slim Shady.” They paid the fine without appeal.

Cop Killer

Body Count

I’m a cop killer, f*** police brutality! / Cop killer, I know your family’s grievin’ (f***

‘em) / Cop killer, but tonight we get even

“Cop Killer” is a song of vengeance and retribution by hardcore rock band Body

Count. Accompanying raps by Ice-T relish in vanquishing L.A.P.D. cops for killing

his homies and rally against institutional police brutality. Needless to say, the

explicit song faced a lot of heat from politicians and parent organizations

nationwide. In 1992, President George H. W. Bush and Vice President Dan

Quayle criticized it. In response to the condemnation, Ice-T said, “I’ve become

the hero of the people, and the more they attack me, the stronger I’ll get.”

However, in response to the condemnation, Ice-T removed the song from the

album. Reflecting, he found free speech means we can say what we want, “but

you have to be prepared for the ramifications for what you say.”

Song fact: Ice-T was inspired to write “Cop Killer” while singing the Talking Heads

song “Psycho Killer.”

Light My Fire

The Doors

You know that I would be a liar / If I was to say to you / Girl we couldn’t get

much higher

In 1967, The Doors were eternally banned from The Ed Sullivan Show over one

word. Before the live performance, a producer informed the band that the term

“higher” suggested illegal drug use, and the lyric must be changed to a more

appropriate word, like “better.” As the door closed, Jim Morrison, insulted by the

ridiculous request to self-censor, declared, “We’re not changing a word.”

During the live performance, singing it exactly like the single, guitarist Robby

Krieger grinned at Morrison’s noncompliance, but the CBS execs were incensed.

They confronted Morrison saying he’ll never play on the show again. Morrison

quipped, “Hey, man. We just did the Sullivan show.”

Juicy

The Notorious B.I.G.

Now I’m in the limelight ’cause I rhyme tight / Time to get paid, blow up like the

World Trade

Today, when “Juicy” plays on the radio, there’s an awkward silence in place of

the line, “Blow up like the World Trade.” This, despite the fact the song was

released years before the 9/11 tragedies. Notorious B.I.G. was referring to the

1993 World Trade Center bombing in the underground parking area that killed

six people, but his metaphor “blow up” refers to explosive personal success and

getting paid.

It wasn’t until after 9/11 that the song was censored for radio play. Notorious

B.I.G., though some believe his lyric was prophetic, would never even know

about the censorship of his song nor the catastrophic event. Tragically, Biggie

was murdered in 1997.

Lola

The Kinks

I met her in a club down in North Soho / Where you drink champagne and it

tastes just like Coca-Cola

In 1970, it wasn’t this line: “Well I’m not the world’s most masculine man / But I know

what I am and I’m glad I’m a man / and so is Lola,” that caused the fuss. It was

the BBC’s policy against product placement that forced The Kinks to rewrite part

of their popular 1970 chart-topping song “Lola.” The radio version replaced the

“Coca-Cola” brand name reference with the words “cherry cola.” Lead singer

Ray Davies had to fly from N.Y. to London to sing the radio edit to get the song

on the air.

Song fact: Davies wrote this song in jest after the band’s manager went to a

club and danced with a transvestite. He was so plastered that he didn’t notice

“her” stubble growing back in the wee hours of the night.

Strange Fruit 

Billie Holiday

Southern trees bear strange fruit / Blood on the leaves and blood at the root /

Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze / Strange fruit hanging from the

poplar trees

This song was to be Billie Holiday’s best-selling single, but radio stations refused to

play it, and promoters ordered her not to sing it. “Strange Fruit” was based on a

poem protesting racism, especially lynching, which was a lingering tragedy of

the deep South when the song was released in 1939. It’s hard to imagine

anyone dissing a song that calls out lynching, but it happened, right here in the

"land of the free."

The extended metaphor of black bodies dangling from trees finds them a bitter

fruit served to crows by the song’s end. Considered too graphic and gory, the

haunting ballad was banned in South Africa during apartheid and landed Billie

Holiday on the F.B.I.’s “watch list. Holiday’s label, Columbia Records, refused to

record her act of dissent. Luckily, her contract permitted the admired singer to

hook up with another smaller, left-leaning label, Commodore Records to record

it. Time magazine named “Strange Fruit” the “song of the century,” but not until

1999.

Physical

Olivia Newton-John

I took you to an intimate restaurant / Then to a suggestive movie / There’s

nothing left to talk about / Unless it’s horizontally

In Utah, Salt Lake City and Provo radio stations banned Olivia Newton-John’s

chart-topping peppy tune “Physical.” It was 1981, at the dawning of the

conservative “Reagan Revolution” when the line, “Unless it’s horizontally” was

deemed too sexually suggestive. The music video for “Physical,” released the

same month as the premiere on MTV, was also banned. The ending of the video

revealed a gay theme. MTV censored it by cutting it short, and some

broadcasters in Canada and the U.K. banned it outright. The song won a

Grammy for Video of the Year and was the most popular song of Newton-John’s

career.

Greased Lightning

John Travolta

You know that ain’t no shit / We’ll be gettin’ lots of tit in greased lightnin’

From the Broadway musical to the movie, Grease has been widely adopted as

family entertainment, which is curious considering it’s about sex-crazed teens

and illegal street racing.

On the radio, the word “shit” in John Travolta’s 1978 version of “Greased

Lightning” had to be censored with a bleep. Although the line, “You are

supreme, the chicks’ll cream for grease lightning” remained untouched. Other

than that, it’s a virtual course in auto mechanics about stylin’ up some wheels

with overhead lifters and four-barrel quads, dual-muffler twins and chrome-

plated rods.

In the Air Tonight

Phil Collins

I can feel it coming in the air tonight, oh Lord / And I’ve been waiting for this

moment for all my life, oh Lord

Who knows why “In the Air Tonight” was banned during the Gulf War and again

after 9/11. But, nevertheless, the song about suffering through jilted love was

deemed too sensitive for airplay during wartime. Perhaps the line, “It’s all been a

pack of lies” was posthumously interpreted to refer to the reasons for the wars?

It would make sense if Bob Dylan’s “Masters of War” was blacklisted, but it

wasn’t. Instead, “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” made the list. The censorship was

brought to us by the BBC and Clear Channel Communications.

Baby, It’s Cold Outside

Frank Loesser

I really can’t stay (oh baby don’t hold out) / But baby, it’s cold outside

During its day, “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” was a perfectly acceptable song. Frank

Loesser wrote and recorded it with his wife as a duet in 1944. It won an Oscar for

Best Original Song in Neptune’s Daughter after Loesser sold it to MGM for the

1949 film. Today, in 2018, the tune has been washed up in the MeToo#

movement and faced radio play censorship for being a rape song. 

Love Game

Lady Gaga

Let’s have some fun, this beat is sick / I wanna take a ride on your disco stick /

Don’t think too much just thrust that dick / I wanna take a ride on your disco

stick

With a refrain like that, “Love Game” takes gamers to a whole new level. Lady

Gaga’s third release from The Fame was banned in many countries. Australia

took offense at the suggestive music video footage “involving bondage and

sexual acts,” but the U.S. played “Love Game” straight. However, in the U.S., MTV

removed scenes where Lady Gaga appeared naked. The video also faced

banishment from MTV Arabia.

Song fact: The term “disco stick” is hardly suggestive, it's literal. Especially after she

explained that it’s a direct reference to a penis. She also said the song was

inspired by being attracted to a stranger at a nightclub.

Ding-Dong! The Witch is Dead

The Wizard of Oz

This high-energy 1939 Munchkin song welcoming Dorothy to the colorful Land of

Oz never faced any sort of censorship, that is, until British prime minister Margaret

Thatcher passed away in 2013.

Detractors of the former PM led a campaign that aimed to thrust “Ding-Dong!

The Witch is Dead” to the top of the charts during the week of the unpopular

leader’s death. The effort nearly succeeded as the festive tune pushed its way

up to the No. 2 position, but BBC’s Radio 1 doused the flames by refusing to air it

on their charts. The BBC called it a distasteful campaign and banned it for

representing “a celebration of death."

Brown Eyed Girl

Van Morrison

Sometimes I’m overcome thinking ’bout / Makin glove in the green grass /

Behind the stadium with you / My brown-eyed girl

This song was released in the 1960s during the iconic Summer of Love. “Brown

Eyed Girl” seemed like the perfect accompanying ballad, however, Van

Morrison wasn’t having it with the hippie association.

Radio stations had a problem with the line, “making love in the green grass,”

and so “Brown Eyed Girl” was either banned or censored for being too

provocative. Originally, Morrison titled the ditty, “Brown Skinned Girl,” an

interracial suggestion that definitely would have received even more

censorship. Interracial marriage was still illegal in 17 states at the time, so he

altered the song into the more radio-friendly version that we recognize today as

one of the great rock ‘n’ roll classics.

I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus

Jimmy Boyd

Oh, what a laugh it would have been / If daddy had only seen / Mommy kissing

Santa Claus last night

In 1952, the song “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus” shot to No. 1 on the

Billboard charts. The adorable jingly-jolly holiday carol was recorded with lyrics

sung by 13-year-old Jimmy Boyd. It sold two million copies during that holiday

season. Not everyone was impressed. The Catholic Church condemned the

song for linking sex with Christmas. Several radio stations banned it. The line, “She

didn’t see me creep/Down the stairs to have a peep” was also considered

indecent. 

Splish Splash

Bobby Darin

Well, I stepped out the tub / I put my feet on the floor / I wrapped the towel

around me and I / Opened the door

Back in 1958 when “Splish Splash” was a lively pop singles sensation, some radio

stations found the tune too suggestive. Being in the bath suggests the singer is

naked. Not only that, but explicit language about walking into a house party in

just a towel was way too evocative. (Oh, if only the expurgators knew Lady

Gaga was coming!) When he finally joins the party, he only mentions putting his

dancing shoes on! (Now there’s a visual.)

Bobby Darrin hardly suffered from the censorship. The 22-year-old Bronx-born

singer-songwriter became a teen idol overnight with "Splish Splash" reaching No.

3 on the pop singles chart.

Happiness Is A Warm Gun

The Beatles

When I hold you in my arms / And I feel my finger on your trigger / I know

nobody can do me no harm / Because / Happiness is a warm gun, yes, it is

“Happiness Is a Warm Gun,” according to all four of the Beatles, is the favorite song off

the White Album, but it wasn’t the censors’ favorite. The track, written by John Lennon

and Paul McCartney, appeared on the epic The Beatles 1968 double-album. It

was promptly banned by the BBC. The media gatekeeper barred it for sexual

symbolism they found in the gun metaphor. Fair enough. In the U.S., radio

stations also refused to play the controversial tune.

Song fact: Lennon borrowed the title from an article he read entitled,

“Happiness Is A Warm Gun” in The American Rifleman. He said, “I thought it was

so crazy that I made a song out of it.”

Wake Up Little Susie 

The Everly Brothers

We both fell sound asleep / Wake up, little Susie, and weep / The movie’s over,

it’s four o-clock / And we’re in trouble deep

“Wake Up Little Susie” was a No. 1 chart-topper in 1957, but that didn’t stop a

Boston radio station from banning it. The censors claimed the song implies the

teenage couple slept together. The content, in general, staying out late with a

boyfriend, was too sensitive for the Fifties. It’s almost impossible to fathom that

reaction from our era of wide-open sexuality.

The song was a huge hit. While campaigning for the presidency, George W.

Bush told Oprah that Buddy Holly’s version of “Wake Up Little Susie” was his

favorite song. The songwriters who wrote most of The Everly Brothers’ songs were

Felice and Boudleaux Bryant, a husband and wife team who also wrote ditties

for Elvis, Bob Dylan and Buddy Holly.

Puff the Magic Dragon

Peter, Paul and Mary

Puff, the magic dragon lived by the sea / And frolicked in the autumn mist in a

land called Honah Lee/ Little Jackie paper loved that rascal puff

In 1970, the Nixon Whitehouse kicked into high gear with a virulent anti-drug

crusade. Vice President Spiro Agnew, leading the pack, addressed Republicans

in a speech that was broadcast on radio and TV. He singled out 1960s artists

who he claimed advocated drug use by (wait for it) quoting their lyrics. By

December, the Illinois Crime Commission issued a list of “drug-oriented” rock

songs. “Puff the Magic Dragon” made the list.

The words “puff” and “papers,” allegedly, referred to rolling joints, and “dragon”

to taking a drag. Meanwhile, Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul and Mary, insists the

1963 song was never about drugs. He goes so far as to say he didn’t even know

marijuana existed at the time of the song’s composition. It’s about the loss of

innocence and the conclusion of childhood, according to the artist.

My Generation

The Who

Why don’t you all f-f-fade away (Talkin’ ’bout my generation) / And don’t try to

dig what we all s-s-say

Songs were banned by the busload during the radical Sixties. Change was bad,

from the elders’ perspective. The Who’s debut album, My Generation included

the song that defined it with its titular track. It was offensive! Roger Daltrey sings

that he’d rather die before he gets old (as his censors).

It was the stutter in “Why don’t you all f-f-fade away” which seemed to imply an

impending “f-word” that raised the ire of BBC officials. But since the word

doesn’t develop, the broadcasting company claimed it offends people who

stutter or stammer. Pirate radio stations continued to play “My Generation,”

and, eventually, it hit No. 2 on the U.K. charts.

The real reason for the stammering in the song originated when Daltrey was

attempting to read Pete Townshend’s handwritten lyrics for the first time. 

It had a groovy sound, so the band kept it.

Love to Love You Baby

Donna Summer

Do it to me again and again / You put me in such an awful spin, in a spin

Before disco music hit the pop charts, it gained popularity in gay dance clubs

featuring D.J.s instead of bands. Donna Summer’s 1975 “Love to Love You Baby”

was one of the first songs to make that transition. It hit No. 2 on the Billboard Hot

100 in 1976. A more contentious transition occurred from clubs to radio. The issue

was not so much her lyrical content as the purported “orgasmic” audio material

that critics bemoaned.

The BBC calculated 23 “orgasms” marked by “erotic moans,” while Time

magazine called the 17-minute song “a marathon of 22 orgasms.” The sensuous

sounds of breaths and moans on the recording gained further controversy as

she had recorded the track laying on the floor in a dark studio. The BBC banned

it immediately. When the Guardian interviewed her about the controversy, they

said “everyone’s asking” if she touched herself. She replied, “Yes, well, actually, I

had my hand on my knee.”

Atomic

Blondie

Oh, uh huh make it magnificent / Tonight right / Oh, your hair is beautiful / Oh,

tonight, atomic

During the first Gulf War in the early 1990s, the BBC freaked and banned 67

songs they considered too (potentially) sensitive during wartime. “Killing an

Arab” by The Cure (I get it). But, why did Blondie’s 1979 hit “Atomic” register a

10.0 on their censorship Richter scale? Because of the word “atomic.”

Never mind that it’s a love song. Not even Clear Channel Communications

thought to remove “Atomic” from radio play during their capricious war-ban.

God Only Knows

The Beach Boys

God only knows what I’d be without you / If you should ever leave me / Though

life would still go on, believe me / The world would show nothing to me

Banned for blasphemy.

If there were doubts concerning the roots of conservatism in these United

States of America, please lay them down. Paul McCartney legendarily gushed

over the Beach Boys’ 1966 love ballad, while radio stations in America’s southern

states boycotted it. The love song didn’t use the Lord’s name in vain, but a pop

song with “God” in its title seemed blasphemous enough. Partly because some

stations refused to play it, “God Only Knows” only made it to No. 39 on U.S.

charts. However, in the U.K., it shot to No.2. Another factor is that It was

overlooked having been issued as a B-side to the band’s wildly popular,

“Wouldn’t It Be Nice.”

Royals

Lorde

And we’ll never be royals / It don’t run in our blood

This song was banned for, quite possibly, the dumbest reason. “Royals” was

released in 2013. When the 2014 World Series rolled around, the 16-year-old Lorde’s

No. 1 chart-topping song had become an anthem, of sorts, to Kansas City

Royals fans. When the Royals matched up with the San Francisco Giants,

overzealous Giants fans had a problem with the song playing during the Series.

In response, Bay Area KFOG banned it saying, “No offense, Lorde, but for the

duration of the World Series, KFOG Radio will be a Royals-free zone.” Other S.F.

stations removed the song from playlists as well.

Anarchy in the U.K.

Sex Pistols

I am an anti-Christ / I am an anarchist / Don’t know what I want / But I know how

to get it / I want to destroy the passerby / ’Cause I want to be anarchy

By the time of the English punk band’s demise in 1978, the Sex Pistols had been

banned on radio, banned on television, banned from live performance, and

nixed by two separate record labels. EMI dropped them for using profanity on a

live TV broadcast, and A&M proceeded to dump them after just six days. Too

hot to handle, with nowhere else to go, iconic punks Sid Vicious and Johnny

Rotten of the Pistols took their act to the U.S. It unraveled in S.F.

They produced just one studio album, Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex

Pistols, released in 1977. “Anarchy in the U.K.” was its first release. The violent, anti-

government nature of the song forced the band to defer releasing the rest of

the album for a year. “God Save the Queen” was likewise banned from radio,

but it still made it to No. 1 in the British charts.

Johnny Remember Me

John Leyton

When the mist’s a-rising / And the rain is falling / And the wind is blowing cold

across the moor / I hear the voice of my darlin’ / The girl I loved and lost a year

ago

John Leyton’s song “Johnny Remember Me” was released in 1961. The tune fell

into the popular genre of the time called “death ditties.” These death-pop

songs, fashionable like the “bell-bottoms” fad of the Sixties, featured morbid

love-and-loss stories in pop music which teens loved. The phenomenon alarmed

the expurgators. (Would those critics have banned Shakespeare’s “Romeo and

Juliet” as well?)

The BBC banned “Johnny Remember Me.” It topped the U.K. singles chart at No.

1 and sold over half a million copies. Artist 1, censors 0.

I Want Your Sex

George Michael

Sex is natural / Sex is good / Not everybody does it / But everybody should!

The title, alone, of George Michael’s 1987 song, was enough to trigger a ban,

and not because it was too suggestive. It is pretty clear. In fact, “I Want Your

Sex” was the first pop song sporting the word “sex” in its title. The song by the

former Wham! superstar is from Faith, his first solo album. It was banned during

daytime hours on radio stations in the U.K. and the U.S. The single went platinum.

Despite Michael’s emphasis on monogamy in the music video in an effort to be

sensitive toward the AIDS crisis, MTV also banned it during daytime hours for

promoting promiscuity. It took the No. 3 spot on the 2002 countdown of MTV’s

Most Controversial Videos Ever to Air on MTV.

Glad to Be Gay

Tom Robinson Band

Don’t try to kid us that if you’re discreet / You’re perfectly safe as you walk down

the street / You don’t have to mince or make bitchy remarks / To get beaten

unconscious and left in the dark

Tom Robinson wrote “Glad to Be Gay” for a 1976 gay pride parade in London. In

1967 homosexuality had been decriminalized in the U.K., but society didn’t

much notice. The song, performed by the punk/new wave Tom Robinson Band,

criticizes attitudes in Margaret Thatcher’s England, and especially of the British

police, who would raid gay pubs for no reason but bigotry. It was released in

1978 on the band’s live Rising Free EP. Radio stations considered it too sensitive

to play. BBC Radio 1 refused to broadcast it on its Top 40 Chart, but John Peel,

the evening D.J., defied the ban and aired it. Today, the protest song inspired

by the Sex Pistols has become an LGBT anthem in the U.K.

I Love a Man in a Uniform

Gang of Four

The girls they love to see you shoot / (bang-bang you’re dead) / I love a man in

a uniform

The 1982 single “I Love a Man in a Uniform” by the post-punk band Gang of Four

was banned for an ill-timed reason. The song, which was a chart-

topper and popular in the gay community at clubs, admittedly contained

militaristic and sexual double entendre according to the band, but it was

banned for another reason.

From the post-ironically titled studio album, Songs of the Free, “I Love a Man in a

Uniform” was stripped from radio playlists in the U.K. According to the band’s

guitarist Andy Gill, a memo from the BBC that stated, “Do not play this song.

We’re expecting to have to report casualties tonight. This song will not be

played from now on, period,” began circulating. British troops were entering the

Falklands War the following day.

Burn My Candle

Shirley Bassey

There’s ‘S’ for Scotch, that’s so direct / And for straight and simple sex / ‘I’ for

invitation to, a close relationship with you / ‘N’ for nothing bad nor less / “S-I-N,”

that’s sin, I guess

In the 1950s when songs with incomprehensible lyrics were banned, just in case,

for what they might be saying, Shirley Bassey’s song “Burn My Candle” was a no-

brainer for the censors. It was the Welsh singer’s first single, recorded in 1956

when she was just 19 years old. The BBC censored it for its risqué suggestion.

Bassey was so young and naïve at the time, she claims that after the ban she

was totally shocked, having had no idea what the song, written by Ross Parker,

was about. It proved to be a minor blip in an otherwise illustrious career.

Jackie

Scott Walker

My record would be number one / And I’d sell records by the ton / All sung by

many other fellows / My name would then be handsome Jack / And I’d sell

boats of opium / Whiskey that came from Twickenham / Authentic queers and

phony virgins

“Jackie” was released in 1967, the same year homosexuality between two men

over the age of 21 (in private) was ruled legal in England. It wasn’t only the line

about “authentic queers” top bosses at “Auntie” BBC found too-obscene-to-

spin. Drug references to an “opium den” and sexual language like “phony

virgins” also caused the ban.

“Jackie” became the first song banned on the then-new Radio 1. The song by

Jacques Brel was translated from French and recorded by Scott Walker’s as his

first solo single.

You Don’t Know How It Feels

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

So let’s get to the point / Let’s roll another joint

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers received an industry-wide ban on his use of

the word “joint” in “You Don’t Know How It Feels.” Radio stations, MTV, and VH1

all altered the recording to remove the words “joint” or “roll.” MTV censored it by

playing “joint” backward. It sounded strange, like “noojh.” In the end, “You

Don’t Know How It Feels” won Best Male Video at MTV’s VMAs.

Petty said he was “elated” when the song was banned. The one exception was

David Letterman’s show where it was played in its entirety. The No. 1 hit song

was released in 1994 on the studio album Wildflowers. However, as late as 2007,

the song was censored during the Heartbreakers’ performance at Lollapalooza.

R.I.P. Tom Petty.

Red Nation

The Game

I can’t tell ya what’s good, but I can tell ya what’s what / And that’s B’s up, hoes

down / Lookin’ in the mirror, I know where to be found / Blood, I’m a dog, call

me a blood hound / Throwin’ blood in the air, leave blood on the ground

“Red Nation” was banned for references to gang culture. Especially due to

Game’s supposed affiliation with the infamous Los Angeles Bloods gang. Custom

officials in Canada denied the American hip-hop artist and rapper entrance to

the country citing his organized crime involvement.

The rap song was banned on radio, MTV and BET. As a result, the video racked

up over 3 million views on YouTube that week. The rapper hopes more of his

songs get banned. “Red Nation,” featuring Lil’ Wayne, received tons of free

publicity. Since it wasn’t available on public broadcasts, fans went to stores or

YouTube to check it out.

Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow

The Shirelles

Tonight with words unspoken / You say that I’m the only one / But will my heart

be broken / When the night meets the morning sun

This song written by Gerry Goffin and Carole King was originally recorded by The

Shirelles, an all-girl foursome. Rumor had it that it is about a girl ready to lose her

virginity due to the lyrics, “So tell me now, and I won’t ask again, will you still love

me tomorrow?” (How, exactly, is beyond this imagination). But several U.S. radio

stations spotted the line and banned the song. In 1960, the mere hint of

suggestion was enough to trigger the alarms. The bans were not enough,

however, to stop the song from the first African-American all-girl band from

topping U.S. charts and hitting No. 4 in the U.K.

Rumble

Link Wray & His Ray Men

“Rumble” holds the unique distinction of being the only instrumental song ever

banned from radio. Just the title was enough for the 1958 song to raise fears of

an escalation of street fights and juvenile delinquency. Plus, it characterized a

menacing new trend called rock ‘n’ roll.

When Dick Clark introduced the song on American Bandstand, he avoided naming the

tune and carefully welcomed Link Wray and his band on the popular TV dance show.

The song by Link Wray & His Ray Men sounds a bit like Lou Reed sans lyrics. And it

was revolutionary in its day for its use of distortion. Remarkably, Link Wray

invented the fuzzbox by altering his amp to create the effect. This song became

a huge hit.

Song fact: “Rumble” is featured on Pulp Fiction.

Honey Love

The Drifters

I need it, I need it when the moon is bright / I need it, I need it when you hold me

tight / I need it, I need it in the middle of the night/ I need your honey love

“Honey Love” was Clyde McPhatter and The Drifters second No. 1 hit single, but

it wouldn’t be found in Memphis jukeboxes! Memphis, Tennessee police officers

targeted the tune and seized all copies of the aberrant disk. The violation?

Suggestive lyrics.

The word “it” in the lyrics of the peppy Calypso-style 1954 song were far too

open for interpretation. Radio stations pulled it from playlists. According to Bill

Pinkney, the last surviving member of the Drifters quintet, “The songs were clean,

people’s minds were just in the gutter, they took it where they wanted to carry

it.”

Wham! Bam! Thank you, Ma’am!

Dean Martin

I never knew what love would do ‘til I saw your smile / And when I did I flipped

my lid and almost went plum wild / But now I know I’ll never show my love to

anyone / ‘Cause wham bam you broke my heart and hope that you had fun

Dean Martin is known for hanging out with Frank Sinatra, Humphrey Bogart and

Lauren Bacall in the hep-cat social group known as the Rat Pack. It’s not terribly

surprising a song titled “Wham! Bam! Thank you, Ma’am!” would be banned

from the radio in 1951, and that’s exactly what happened. Technically, the

offensive song is about a jilted lover who got dumped, but the radio gods

deemed the lyrics too suggestive. Case closed. No trial.

Four or Five Times

Dottie O’Brien

What I like most Is to have someone who is true / Who will love me, too / Four or

five times / Four or five times / There is delight / To doing things right / Four or five

times!

This 1951 oldie was faced the same fate, only more severely. It was banned by

the FCC for being immoral. Most radio stations pulled it. The lyrics above were

cited as evidence.

“Four or Five Times” was recorded four or five times since its first recording in 1928

by male artists. Radio stations played it without issue. But this version by female

vocalist Dottie O’Brien caused an uproarious sensation. Suddenly, lyrics about

“four or five times” were immoral, suggestive and illicit. Today? It’s too tame to

play.