Some songs struggle to get airplay because of explicit content, some songs offend exactly the wrong people and some songs are just a victim of their era. Here are five songs you might be surprised were once banned from TV or radio.
B52’s - Love Shack
Now you might be wondering how former Friday Song and one of the best party songs of all time managed to find itself on the wrong side of broadcasters but back around the time of the first Gulf War many radio and TV stations were keen to distance themselves from any association with warfare. Named after the very bombers dropping bombs in Iraq, the 52’s were pulled from the airwaves. Massive Attack also suffered from the same fate and briefly changed their name to Massive to keep their songs on the air.
Smashing Pumpkins - Disarm
With lyrics that some listeners believed were in reference to abortion, “Cut that little child/ Inside of me and such a part of you” and “The killer in me is the killer in you”, the BBC took the decision to pull Billy Corgan & Co from their planned performance on Top Of The Pops and the band saw their airplay on radio limited. Corgan said the lyrics were actually about the caustic relationship he had with his parents but the “controversy” didn’t hurt songs popularity which charted pretty well and became one the Pumpkins best loved tunes.
Donna Summer - Love To Love You
Ok so we actually kind of agree with this one. Not because the song is bad, it’s great, not because we’re offended by the content, because we’re not. But let’s be honest, imagine this song came on the radio while on a drive with your Granny. This is the musical equivalent of sitting down to watch a nice movie with your parents only to be hit with an extended surprise sex scene. At least with a movie you can go to the loo or offer to make a cup of tea to escape the awkwardness, but imagine being stuck in the car! Imagine it!, “And now a disco classic from Donna Summer” says the DJ, “Oh good” says Granny, “I like disco”, and then Donna starts. The song’s 17 minutes long. “Eh, nice day isn’t it?”, you offer, desperate to cut through the groans, “Um, that’s a new shop is it? “Oh god she’s still going!”.
The Kinks - Lola
Coke, the downfall of many a band, and so it almost proved for the Kinks. No not the drug, the beverage. The BBC’s policy against product placement meant that the song’s reference to Coca Cola was enough to have it pulled from the playlists. When news of the ban reached the band who were touring in the States at the time, they were dismayed. Singer and songwriter Ray Davies flew back and forth, twice, to London in order to change the “offending” lyric to the more generic “Cherry Cola”. It worked and the song proved to be the hit they hoped it would be, serving as much-needed proof of their commercial viability, giving them leverage to renegotiate their contract with their label, RCA. Guitarist Dave Davies later said that had “Lola” flopped, the group would probably have disbanded.
David Bowie - Space Oddity
Hard to believe that this classic from the Thin White Duke would ever be banned but somewhat similarly to the B52’s and Massive Attack who we mentioned earlier, Bowie was a victim of events of the era. The Space Race was on and Space Oddity should have been able to piggy back on the back of that interest in all things astronomical but the Beeb baulked at the idea of a song depicting an astronaut floating off in space when the possibility of that actually happening to Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins, who were on their way to the moon when the song was released, was very real. It was only after their successful return to earth that Bowie’s classic tune got back on the airwaves.
That’s 5, but are there any other famous songs you know that were banned?