We're not against the idea of Ke$ha being banned from the radio, but not like this. Not like this.
Kesha's "Die Young," the number three song on Billboard's Hot 100 weekly singles chart, is drastically losing radio airplay in the wake of Friday's Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in which a gunman killed 20 children and six adults. (Via)
It's not just Ke$ha, but "Pumped Up Kicks" by Foster the People and “Titanium” by David Guetta, too, while songs like “Wind Beneath My Wings” (ugh) and “Tears in Heaven" (double ugh) have received greater airplay this week. This is a typical well-meaning, but ultimately pointless decision made by radio channels for fear of offending, not unlike the infamous Clear Channel 9/11 memorandum, which banned such "shocking" songs as Barenaked Ladies' "Falling for the First Time" and Buddy Holly's "That'll Be the Day" in 2001.
Here are 15 other famous songs that have been denied radio airplay for curious reasons over the years.
Artist: The Bangles
Song: "Walk Like an Egyptian"
Banned for: Having the gall to mention the Middle East during the Gulf War.
Artist: Bob Dylan
Song: "Baby, Let Me Follow You Down
Banned for: The phrase "God-almighty world," by the BBC
Artist: The Beach Boys
Song: "God Only Knows"
Banned for: The 1960s did not like songs with "God" in them.
Artist: Kitty Wells
Song: "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels"
Banned for: Being "suggestive," meaning men didn't like having the "unfaithful" label placed on them.
Artist: The Beatles
Song: "A Day in the Life"
Banned for: BBC assumed the line "I'd love to turn you on" was a drug reference.
Artist: The Police
Song: "Can't Stand Losing You"
Banned for: Suicide. It's a song about suicide. BUT IT SOUNDS SO PEPPY.
Artist: The Rolling Stones
Song: "Street Fighting Man"
Banned for: Out of fear that it would incite violence during the National Democratic Convention in Chicago in 1968.
Artist: Van Morrison
Song: "Brown Eyed Girl"
Banned for: Allegedly promoting premarital sex ("making love in the green grass").
Artist: Jimmy Boyd
Song: "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus"
Banned for: Married women be having affairs (even though Santa is the father of the singer...).
Artist: Sheryl Crow
Song: "Love Is A Good Thing"
Banned for: The line "Watch our children as they kill each other with a gun they bought at the Walmart discount stores." Needless to say, Walmart wasn't stoked about the publicity.
Artist: Billy Joel
Song: "Only the Good Die Young"
Banned for: Being anti-Catholic. (The song's about a guy trying to convince a Catholic girl to let him take her virginity.)
Artist: Bobby Darin
Song: "Mack the Knife"
Banned for: Thought to encourage gang violence.
Artist: The Shirelles
Song: "Will You Love Me Tomorrow?"
Banned for: "I'd like to know that your love is love I can be sure of." SO SEXUALLY CHARGED.
Artist: U2
Song: "Walk On"
Banned for: The song's about Burmese activist Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who was sentenced to house arrest in 1989 because she protested the government, and is therefore banned in Burma.
Artist: "Physical"
Song: Olivia Newton-John
Banned for: *sigh*
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Tears In Heaven may have gotten more airplay this week, but what about Horace Loeb’s Heaven Better Save Some Tears?
Was NIN – Closer banned or just severely edited on radio?
Severely editing. I actually heard it on a local station and they actually went back and cleaned up the edit so there’s not a musical gap in the song.
McDonalds ruined Mack The Knife.
“It’s a good time, for a great taste… dinner at McDonalds
…It’s Mac Tonight!”
Dammit.
Some genius took that ad and redubbed it with a parody of “Artificial Flowers” named “Artificial Burgers”. I cannot find it for the life of me, but it was hilarious.
light my fire by the doors
“Lola” – The Kinks. Not for being a song that implies the joy of sex with a transvestite, but because the song violated the BBC’s ban on product placement for the line “Ya drink champagne and it tastes just like Coca-Cola.” Ray Davies had to re-record the line with “cherry cola” instead.
“Rumble” by Link Wray, for fear that it glorified juvenile delinquency.
This is an instrumental, folks.
“Not like this, not like this.” Please tell me someone has that gif from the Matrix. I r interwebz nub.
Why couldn’t they have banned “Glycerine” for sucking so much shit?
“We’re not against the idea of Ke$ha being banned from the radio, but not like this. Not like this.”
I’ll take it. By any means necessary. 1 down, a bajillion to go.
Or, maybe if Lil Wang and that guy who says “this is american idol” disappear from everything, the rest of them just disappear too…? Like it was a bad dream and it never happened?
One of my favorites was “Imagine” getting banned by Clear Channel right after 9/11. Apparently the peaceful message conflicted with the patriotic war on terror that was being promoted.
RATM’s entire catalog haha
re: The Clear Channel List. It never actually happened
[www.snopes.com]
Also, you should also clarify what you mean by banned. Some of those weren’t banned from air play, but certain stores wouldn’t carry them.
Ahem, that Santa Claus song does not state that is the kid’s dad. Just sayin’.
Also, if dad’s gonna dress up as Santa in the middle of the night for mom only…………..kinky lil’ xmas monkeys!