<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In the past, we have discussed songs that were banned from radio and TV broadcasts for various reasons.\u00a0 I have always maintained that there is no surer way to drive a record up the music charts than to give the artists a bunch of free publicity.\u00a0 These days, anything banned goes viral in the blink of an eye, but back in the 1960s, it took a little longer.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t really matter in which decade a song was released – if it was banned, it more than likely became a hit.\u00a0 In no particular order, here is a run down of 15 of those \u2018verboten\u2019 songs as compiled and distributed by Nostalgic Tunes:<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Let\u2019s start with an oldie but a goody.\u00a0 Ray Peterson is considered the godfather of \u2018teenage tragedy songs\u2019 for his 1960 hit song <\/span>Tell Laura I Love Her <\/span><\/i>(written by Jeff Barry and Ben Raleigh)<\/span>.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0 The story of a stock car driving teen who is involved in a fatal wreck paved the way for a new genre of sad teen songs soon labeled as \u2018teen tragedy pop\u2019.\u00a0 The powers that be feared the young driver\u2019s last words (yes, \u2018<\/span>Tell Laura I love her<\/span><\/i>\u2019) would cause a nation-wide epidemic of tragic teen driving deaths.\u00a0 What followed were songs like <\/span>Leader of the Pack <\/span><\/i>(Shangri-Las – 1964), <\/span>Last Kiss <\/span><\/i>(Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers – 1964), <\/span>Ebony Eyes <\/span><\/i>(The Everly Brothers – 1961), and even the Rolling Stones <\/span>As Tears Go By <\/span><\/i>(1965).\u00a0 The Stones entry was more about growing old and lonely, but no doubt, many teens thought this would be as tragic a fate as death in a car crash.\u00a0 Radio may not have played Peterson\u2019s songs, but records were purchased and other songwriters sat up and took notice.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The Kingsman from the Pacific Northwest took a different path to get their garage rock anthem banned.\u00a0 <\/span>Louie Louie <\/span><\/i>was written in 1955 and released by the songwriter, Richard Barry, in 1956.\u00a0 This makes the Kingsman\u2019s version a cover.\u00a0 They took a simple tale of a Jamaican sailor\u2019s love and, by mumbling the lyrics, Jack Ely set off waves of speculation about exactly what they were singing about.\u00a0 Even the FBI got into the act and they were as mystified as the radio execs who basically said, \u201cIf we can\u2019t understand it, it must be something dirty, so let\u2019s ban it.\u201d\u00a0 I printed out the entire set of lyrics in a past FTV about misheard lyrics and never did find a hint of anything worth banning.\u00a0 So why didn\u2019t the band or songwriter clear up the confusion?\u00a0 What?\u00a0 That surely would have killed their golden goose.\u00a0 In spite of the ban, <\/span>Louie Louie <\/span><\/i>climbed to No 2 on the <\/span>Billboard Hot 100<\/span><\/i> and remains a beloved garage band cover to this day.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The next entry on our list began as a poem written by Cornell college student Leonard Lipton in 1959.\u00a0 When his college friend Peter Yarrow discovered it in a notebook years later, it became a No. 2 hit on the <\/span>Billboard Hot 100.\u00a0 <\/span><\/i>Despite assurances by Peter, Paul and Mary that \u2018Puff\u2019 was actually Lipton\u2019s nickname in college and \u2018Dragon\u2019 had nothing to do with marijuana, imaginative interpretations both in the United States and parts of Asia got it banned.\u00a0 It seems the melancholy nature of the song and the subject matter (a young boy no longer believing in his imaginary childhood dragon friend) doesn\u2019t add up to a drug song.\u00a0 Released in January of 1963, <\/span>Puff the Magic Dragon<\/span><\/i> remains one of PP&M\u2019s most popular classic songs to this day.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Folk singers Lead Belly, Josh White, and Bob Dylan all recorded versions of the early 20th century ballad <\/span>The House of the Rising Son.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0 It was never clear if it was being told by a woman or a man whose association with a New Orleans brothel had upended their life. \u00a0 In 1964, Eric Burdon and the Animals took the song all the way to No. 1 on the charts in both the U.S.A. and in the U.K..\u00a0 The lyrical content was the reason it was banned by most radio stations in the states.\u00a0 The big issue in the United Kingdom was less about the lyrics than the length.\u00a0 Clocking in at four and half minutes, it was considered too long to air in the era when pop singles were supposed to only be two minutes long.\u00a0 Played on electric instruments like the Animals version (with a haunting organ part) or acoustically, <\/span>House<\/span><\/i> is still a powerful song.\u00a0 I distinctly remember the moving version Josh White, Jr. performed during an appearance at Northern Michigan University when the University imported artists representing many genres of music.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0One of the most successful songs banned on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean was penned by P.F.Sloan.\u00a0 Sloan was the architect behind two of The Turtles early hits (<\/span>Let Me Be<\/span><\/i> (1965) and <\/span>You Baby <\/span><\/i>(1966)), Johnny Rivers <\/span>Secret Agent Man <\/span><\/i>, and The Grass Roots <\/span>Where Were You When I Needed You?<\/span><\/i> (both from 1966).\u00a0 When Barry McGuire recorded <\/span>The Eve of Destruction (1965)<\/span><\/i>, he did it in one take as he read the lyrics off a hand printed sheet of paper.\u00a0 The song touched on just about every cultural even of the mid-1960s:\u00a0 The draft, the War in Viet Nam, racial strife, the threat of nuclear war, and the political hypocrisy of sending soldiers too young to vote off to war.\u00a0 The BBC banned it immediately for its potential to spread \u2018despondency\u2019 while some of the radio stations stateside accused the song of \u2018aiding the enemy\u2019 during the decidedly unpopular war.\u00a0 None of the bans mattered as the song went straight to No. 1.\u00a0 In his later years, McQuire turned from pop music to Christian music but still performed his big hit right up until his death at the age of 82 in 2024.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When the BBC banned The Who\u2019s <\/span>My Generation<\/span><\/i>, it was due to their belief that Roger Dahltrey\u2019s stuttering vocals would offend people actually affected by the condition.\u00a0 Public outcry soon dissolved the ban and the song rose to No. 2 on the <\/span>BBC Singles Chart<\/span><\/i> (the band\u2019s highest chart entry in their home country).\u00a0 The song wasn\u2019t banned outright in the USA but some stations were shy to play it, deeming the lyric\u2019s somewhat confrontational tone and as such, it only went to No. 72 on this side of the pond.\u00a0 In many ways, the entire arrangement was quite different from anything else playing on the radio in late 1965.\u00a0 Many listeners in the United States would rediscover the song when later LPs\u00a0 like <\/span>Tommy<\/span><\/i> and <\/span>Who\u2019s Next<\/span><\/i> sent them back to The Who\u2019s earlier works.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The next entry was banned primarily in the southern United States because using the world \u2018God\u2019 in a rock song was considered blasphemy.\u00a0 Paul McCartney claims <\/span>God Only Knows<\/span><\/i> is his favorite song of all time and it has long been recognized as one of the gems off the Beach Boys <\/span>Pet Sounds<\/span><\/i> album of 1966.\u00a0 Writers Tony Asher and Brian Wilson created a lush orchestral sounding arrangement that perfectly fit the lyrics.\u00a0 Wilson kiddingly hinted that they could change the title to <\/span>Fred Only Knows <\/span><\/i>as they watched it go to No. 2 on the <\/span>BBC <\/span><\/i>charts and No. 39 on the <\/span>Billboard Hot 100.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Fourteen year-old Janice Ian wrote <\/span>Society\u2019s Child<\/span><\/i> in 1965 and it was recorded and released in 1967.\u00a0 Radio stations considered the topic of interracial dating to be too controversial to air the song while others claimed Ian was too young to be weighing in on the topic.\u00a0 Before Verve Records signed her, twenty other labels refused to record the song which would eventually win Ian a Grammy.\u00a0 After it appeared in a documentary, it claimed the No. 14 spot on the charts.\u00a0 The chart success didn\u2019t shield Ian from getting death threats and venues she performed in from routinely receiving bomb threats.\u00a0 Today it is seen as a vivid reminder that \u2018the good old days\u2019 of the 1960s were not without the trials and tribulations imposed on musical artists by society\u2019s hang ups.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The title of the Rolling Stones <\/span>Let\u2019s Spend The Night Together<\/span><\/i> was enough to put censors in a spin.\u00a0 When it was released in January of 1967, the BBC banned it immediately on the grounds that the song\u2019s intent was unmistakable and not fit for public broadcast.\u00a0 Ironically, they would later change their mind which no doubt helped the song reach No. 3 on the U.K. charts.\u00a0 The Stones debuted the song on the Ed Sullivan Show on January 15 but the producers made them change the offending title lyric to \u201cLet\u2019s spend some time together.\u201d\u00a0 Mick Jagger made it a point to roll his eyes every time he sang the altered lyric which nobody watching at home could miss.\u00a0 The overall radio ban kept it from only reaching No. 55 on the <\/span>Billboard Hot 100<\/span><\/i> chart in the U.S..\u00a0 When played on classic rock radio these days, nobody even blinks.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Even The Beatles would find themselves getting banned for the song <\/span>A Day In the Life<\/span><\/i> from their 1967 masterpiece <\/span>Sgt. Pepper\u2019s Lonely Hearts Club Band.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0 The song was the last track on the album and the BBC issued its ban in May of 1967 just ahead of the album\u2019s release.\u00a0 The offending lyric \u201cI\u2019d love to turn you on\u201d was the trigger point and was cited as an overt drug reference.\u00a0 John Lennon said it wasn\u2019t about drugs at all, but Paul McCartney, who wrote the bridge of the song containing the offending lyric, later said there was a drug element to the song.\u00a0 Paul said <\/span>A Day In the Life<\/span><\/i> wasn\u2019t exclusively about drugs, but the BBC would not budge from their stance.\u00a0 The song is often called The Beatles most artistic creation.\u00a0 It included an orchestral flourish at the end where all of the musicians were recorded together and instructed to take their instruments from their lowest note to their highest.\u00a0 The 40 second long sustained chord at the end was played by three pianos.\u00a0 The ban was never relaxed but the song is still highly regarded today for producer George Martin\u2019s innovative recording techniques.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When The Doors <\/span>Light My Fire<\/span><\/i> came out in April of 1967, the album version was much too long to be released for radio play.\u00a0 The band had played the song live for quite some time before it was committed to vinyl.\u00a0 The song featured a long instrumental jam that the band did not want to cut but the record company overruled them.\u00a0 The shortened single shot up the charts and earned them an invitation to appear on The Ed Sullivan Show.\u00a0 As they had done with the Rolling Stones, the producers wanted them to change \u201cGirl we couldn\u2019t get much higher\u201d to something less provocative.\u00a0 The song had been No. 1 on the <\/span>Billboard Hot 100<\/span><\/i> charts during the summer and by the time they were on the Sullivan show in September, there had been no objections to playing the song on the radio.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When Val Kilmer portrayed singer Jim Morrison in the movie <\/span>The Doors <\/span><\/i>(1991), he recreated their appearance on the Sullivan show by visibly exaggerating his facial expressions when he sang the offending line.\u00a0 Clips of The Doors actual performance show Morrison simply singing the song without any additional emphasis on the phrase they chose not to alter.\u00a0 Morrison later told the show\u2019s producers they were so used to singing the song that way, he simply forgot to alter the lyric.\u00a0 In truth, the band reported there was no mechanism in place to bleep the lyrics live so they went with it even though it led to Sullivan banning them from further appearances.\u00a0 The Sullivan ban did not keep other TV shows from inviting The Doors to perform live.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The Beatles were back in the cross hairs in June of 1967 when the BBC banned another Sgt. Pepper\u2019s track, <\/span>Lucy In the Sky with Diamonds<\/span><\/i>.\u00a0 The corporation maintained that the initials \u2018LSD\u2019 found in the title referred to the psychedelic drug.\u00a0 Certainly the imagery in the lyrics sounded suitably \u2018druggy\u2019 but Lennon always said the title came from a drawing his son Julian had made of an elementary classmate named Lucy O\u2019Donnell.\u00a0 The picture he drew showed her surrounded by stars and Julian Lennon confirmed this version of the story.\u00a0 He had lost track of Lucy but when he learned of her illness and eventual passing in 2009, Juliean\u00a0 attended her funeral.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Like The Beatles, The Rolling Stones were not going to be left behind by having only one song banned.\u00a0 Their 1968 release of the song <\/span>Street Fighting Man<\/span><\/i> came during a period of time when parts of the 1960s cultural revolution spawned episodes of rioting and political violence.<\/span><\/p>\n The Democratic National Convention in Chicago and the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and The Rev. Martin Luther King made major city radio stations wary of playing the song for fear of fomenting more violence.\u00a0 Mick Jagger said he was inspired to write the song after attending an anti-war rally in London and it wasn\u2019t about violence for the sake of violence.\u00a0 Rather Mich felt he was writing about being full of political energy with no clear outlet for it.\u00a0 Obviously, the stations that banned the song heard something else.\u00a0 Keith Richards noted the <\/span>Billboard<\/span><\/i> rank of No. 48 was an obvious result of the radio ban.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0We can\u2019t quite give The Beatles credit for a third entry on this list because <\/span>The Ball and of John and Yoko <\/span><\/i>was done without input from Ringo Starr and George Harrison.\u00a0 John Lennon wanted to get the song done and out as fast as possible so he and Paul McCartney put it together at the Abbey Road Studio and it was released in April of 1969.\u00a0 Though it would prove to be the last No. 1 song for \u2018The Beatles\u2019 in the United Kingdom, it caused quite a stir in the United States.\u00a0 Many people didn\u2019t take kindly to Lennon comparing the trials he and Yoko Ono were undergoing (trying to get married) to the suffering of Jesus Christ on the cross.\u00a0 The radio ban didn\u2019t hurt record sales one bit in the UK but the song peaked at No. 8 on this side of the Atlantic.\u00a0 The one and only time Ray the Human Juke Box (the guitar player \/ vocalist) and our band Knockdown had us play it live at the NCO club at KI Sawyer Airforce Base, it became a big sing-a-long.\u00a0 Apparently the Air Force NCOs did not find it offensive.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I will part with the Reddit list at this point because the last song they talked about was a song I never heard of performed by an artist totally unknown to me.\u00a0 The first version of the song was done with actress Bridget Bardot but it was sensational enough that she refused to let the label release it for fear that its scandalous theme would hurt her film career.\u00a0 Add the French title and I am out of my league trying to discuss it.\u00a0 Instead, I will nominate Bob Dylan\u2019s <\/span>Lay Lady Lay<\/span><\/i> for my last entry.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A couple of us used to drop by the AM radio studio above the <\/span>Marquette Mining Journal <\/span><\/i>to chat with a college student turned DJ named Mike Burr.\u00a0 The station, WDMJ (the \u2018D\u2019 standing for \u2018Daily\u2019) was a typical Top 40 station and Mike was an excellent DJ who liked to show off for us by uttering obscenities when his mic was muted.\u00a0 After swearing a blue streak, he would key the mic and become Mr. Suave DJ.\u00a0 We asked what would happen if he tagged the mic by accident during one of his inappropriate dialogues:\u00a0 \u201cI would be fired on the spot,\u201d he said.\u00a0 \u201cThe only thing that would get me fired faster would be if I played <\/span>Lay Lady Lay.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0We must have looked puzzled because he had to explain that the station\u2019s owner put it on the \u2018no play list\u2019 which, up to that point, I never knew existed.\u00a0 From then on, we began taking note of other songs we liked that never got on the air.\u00a0 Looking back, there are things that were banned back in the day that wouldn\u2019t even make most radio listeners blink today.\u00a0 Times do change and it seems that the bar for banning songs has, in many cases, gotten very low!<\/span><\/p>\n Top Piece Video:\u00a0 Oh those bad boys – this would not make Eddie happy!\u00a0 Please note the smirk on Robbie Krieger’s face after Morrison sang the forbidden lyric – which Krieger wrote, by the way!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In the past, we have discussed songs that were banned from radio and TV broadcasts for various reasons.\u00a0 I have always maintained that there is no surer way to drive a record up the music charts than to give the artists a bunch of free publicity.\u00a0 These days, anything banned goes viral in the 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