Songs that caused CONTROVERSY

[Ireneparalegal]

Billie Holiday - LOVE FOR SALE: Song abt prostitution

Link Ray - RUMBLE: An instrumental song banned by many radio stations for fear that the song would cause violence among youths in 1959.

Coasters - CHARLIE BROWN: Banned from BBC radio in England because of the lyric "throwing spitballs".

The Kingsman - LOUIE LOUIE: was banned from sales and airplay in Indiana because of its indecipherable lyrics, which were rumored to contain some naughty words. The Kingsmen have always maintained they sang nothing lewd, despite an off-mic shout after a mistake at the end of the instrumental, where Jack Ely started to sing the last verse one bar too soon.

The Rolling Stones - SATISFACTION: is taken off of many radio station's play lists, after they receive complaints about the "sexually suggestive lyrics".

Jimi Hendrix - HOW WOULD YOU FEEL: is given little airplay on radio because of the song deals with the plight of blacks in America.

Van Morrison - BROWN EYED GIRL: banned from some radio stations because the lyrics refer to premarital sex and teenage pregnancy. Morrison records an alternative version with more acceptable lyrics and the song becomes his first solo hit in the U.S.

John Denver - ROCKY MOUNTAIN HIGH: In 1972 Radio stations across the country ban John Denver's hit song "Rocky Mountain High," fearing that the song's "high" refers to drugs.

Curtis Mayfield - PUSHERMAN: In 1973 While Curtis Mayfield is lip-synching a performance of his hit "Pusherman" for television's Soul Train, he learns that the show's producers have edited the song to delete drug references.

Loretta Lynn - THE PILL: is banned by radio stations across the United States because of its references to birth control.

Rod Stewart - TONIGHT IS THE NIGHT: In 1976 the song is removed from RKO radio play lists until the lyric "spread your wings and let me come inside" is edited from the song.

Blondie - HEART OF GLASS: In 1979 the band was forced to replace some of the words to their number one hit "Heart Of Glass" to gain air-play on US Top 40 radio. The words "Once I had a love and it was a gas / Soon found out, I had a heart of glass" were inserted over top of the original words "Once I had a love and it was a gas / Soon turned out to be a pain in the ass" .

[Brian Damage]

Ice T---Cop Killer (nuf said :lol:)

[canuckkidd]

Madonna's Like a Prayer video was controversial, with Madonna french kissing a black saint in church, witnessing a graphic murder, and then dancing in front of a field of burning crosses. Madonna had signed a deal with Pepsi Cola wherein her lead single, the title track for the album 'Like a Prayer', would be debuted as a Pepsi commercial in which Madonna would appear. Amid threats of boycotts, Pepsi yanked the commercial.

Public Enemy 911 is a joke

[ABlairican Pie]

Ice T---Cop Killer (nuf said :lol:)Technically, that was Body Count, the heavy metal band fronted by Ice-T. The song was actually part of a story cycle about a bad cop and why he had to be taken out. It was never really about advocating "killing all cops".

[Cactus Jack]

Blondie - HEART OF GLASS:"Once I had a love and it was a gas / Soon turned out to be a pain in the ass" .
DAM I like that better tjhan the lyrics we know!

[Cactus Jack]

James Blunt-You're Beautiful

Banned for being too crappy and overplayed

Terry Jacks-Seasons in the Sun
See above,also because of the part where you can hear the recording studiio guy yelling at Terry during the end

[Ireneparalegal]

Technically, that was Body Count, the heavy metal band fronted by Ice-T. The song was actually part of a story cycle about a bad cop and why he had to be taken out. It was never really about advocating "killing all cops".
Exactly. Ice-T did clarify on a few occasions that the song is abt a cop turning bad, something I think I can say WE ALL HATE. Nothing wrong with the song, just the fact that those who don't listen to the lyrics and understand what was really being said.

[freshprinceofLA]

F*ck tha police by N.W.A.

[gilligan fanatic]

The Big Bopper - Chantilly Lace

An airport was being built in Chantilly, Virginia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chantilly%2C_Virginia) when this song was originally released, but as a result of the somewhat suggestive lyrics, the airport was named after John Foster Dulles (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Foster_Dulles), United States Secretary of State (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Secretary_of_State) under Dwight D. Eisenhower (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwight_D._Eisenhower), and thus the airport was named Dulles International Airport (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dulles_International_Airport) instead of Chantilly International.

Coincidentaly I was there the other day when my sister left for Argentinia.

[ABlairican Pie]

Lola --by The Kinks. The song did not cause controversy 1970 in that it was about a drag queen so much as it featured the registered trademark name of Coca-Cola, which the famed soda pop giant didn't like. So the band changed the lyrics to "cherry cola".

God Save the Queen --by The Sex Pistols. The song was so popular in Britain in 1977 that the BBC banned it for its offensiveness to Her Royal Majesty. One popular music countdown show on t.v. left the Number One spot on the charts BLANK due to the controversy! "And now for #1 on the UK pop charts--NOBODY!!" ;) :lol:

Relax --Frankie Goes To Hollywood. The explicit homoerotic nature of the lyrics caused it to be banned in Britain in 1984.

[Janice]

If the song, Cop Killer, advocated killing even one cop, bad or not, I can see why it would be controversial.

Not so much the song itself, but a controversial incident. Roseanne caught a lot of heat for her disrepectful rendition of The Star Spangled Banner before a baseball game. Screaming the song, grabbing her crotch, spitting - just disgusting.

[Brian Damage]

Technically, that was Body Count, the heavy metal band fronted by Ice-T. The song was actually part of a story cycle about a bad cop and why he had to be taken out. It was never really about advocating "killing all cops".


True, but when the song first came out, it was extremely controversial.

[ABlairican Pie]

One In a Million --by Guns N' Roses. The 1989 song from G N' R Lies sparked controversy with its racist and homophobic rants with use of the "N" word and attacks on various ethnic groups in Los Angeles.

Smack My Bitch Up --by Prodigy. The British electronica band courted controversy with the apparently misogynistic title in 1997.

Suicide Solution --by Ozzy Osbourne. This song was widely touted as "promoting" suicide on his 1980 solo album, especially after parents filed a lawsuit allegedly blaming him for inducing such thoughts in their troubled teen son They came back after days to find their son from an apparent suicide--and "an Ozzy album was on the turntable!" Why this child wasn't being supervised after days is anyone's guess. Upon closer examination, the song Suicide Solution was about alcohol as a "suicide-inducing chemical", a solution, and that the song was really written about the alcohol-related death of AC/DC singer Bon Scott, when most likely it was written about Ozzy himself, who suffered from debilitating alcohol addiction after being fired from Black Sabbath in 1979. The lawsuit was thrown out of court, the judge saying that artists were not responsible for writing about suicidal thoughts. If so, "Anna Karenina" by Leo Tolstoy would become suspect. Ozzy said, if he just promoted suicide to all his fans, he wouldn't have much of a fan base left, would he?

Beyond the Realms of Death, and Better By You, Better Than Me --Judas Priest. These songs from the 1978 album Stained Class album by Judas Priest were at the center of the famed lawsuit in 1990 brought on by the parents of two young men who allegedly attempted suicide, one successfully, on Christmas Eve 1985, after supposedly receiving the album. The prosecutors' case was that the band allegedly planted "subliminal" messages in the album to enhance the thoughts of suicide, such as the cryptic command, "Do it." The band replied, "Do what? Mow the lawn? Have a drink? Watch television? What??" The defense argued that the two young men had suffered such horrific abuses and a traumatic turn of events in their lives that their decision to kill themselves did not require any so-called commands from the band to do so. The band argued that if they did put subliminal messages on their albums, they would say, "buy more of our albums!!!" :lol: The band was acquitted of the charges.

[snl 70s show fan]

wake up little susie by the everly brothers was banned in boston because some people thought the lyrics about susie and her date falling asleep at the movies implied that they had actuilly slept with each other

[jpcanes]

How 'bout some 2 Live Crew? You pick the song. ;)

[Ireneparalegal]

How 'bout some 2 Live Crew? You pick the song. ;)
BANNED IN THE USA
ME SO HORNY...;)

[Ohio8]

The Rolling Stones had several controversial songs.
"It's All Over Now" had the "playing her half-assed games" line.
"Highwire" was banned by BBC because it was about the British relations with Iraq during the 1980s.
"Stoned." The lyrics were supposedly about drugs, but there aren't any lyrics. Mick Jagger said the word "stoned" several times in the song.

The Association's "Along Came Mary" caused controversy because they said it was about pot, which it isn't.:eek:

[catlover79]

When the Stones played in China, the Chinese government forbade them from playing "Satisfaction", "Brown Sugar", "Let's Spend the Night Together", etc.

Donna Summer - "Love to Love You Baby"

That's all I can think of right now. :lol:

[ABlairican Pie]

The Rolling Stones had several controversial songs.
"It's All Over Now" had the "playing her half-assed games" line.
"Highwire" was banned by BBC because it was about the British relations with Iraq during the 1980s.
"Stoned." The lyrics were supposedly about drugs, but there aren't any lyrics. Mick Jagger said the word "stoned" several times in the song.

The Association's "Along Came Mary" caused controversy because they said it was about pot, which it isn't.:eek:In the mid-60's, the Stones were forced to change the lyrics of "Let's Spend the Night Together" when they played it on the Ed Sullivan Show to "Let's Spend Some Time Together". Of course, that was the least of the controversies over their songs.

[ABlairican Pie]

The song "Sympathy For the Devil" by the Stones was controversial in that it was tied in to the bloodshed at Altamont in 1969.

[LadyBee]

Janis Ian "Society's Child (Baby I've Been Thinking)" - About an interracial romance. People spat at her and she was only like, 16 when she wrote the song. :rolleyes:

[Ireneparalegal]

Janis Ian "Society's Child (Baby I've Been Thinking)" - About an interracial romance. People spat at her and she was only like, 16 when she wrote the song. :rolleyes:
I forgot abt that controversy. Good one.

[Ohio8]

"Hi Hi Hi" by Paul McCartney & Wings