Surprisingly, it wasn’t the 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.
"Light My Fire" by The Doors
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 substance 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" by The Notorious B.I.G.
Today, when “Juicy” plays on the radio, there’s an awkward silence in place of the line, “Blow up like the World Trade.” This is 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 disaster in the underground parking area that took six people's lives, 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 or the catastrophic event. Tragically, Biggie lost his life in 1997.
"Physical" by Olivia Newton-John
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 as an intimate suggestion. The music video for “Physical,” released the same month as the premiere of 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 altogether. The song won a Grammy for Video of the Year and was the most popular song of Newton-John’s career.
"Greased Lightning" by John Travolta
From the Broadway musical to the movie, "Grease" has been widely adopted as family entertainment, which is curious considering it’s about wild teens and illegal street racing.
On the radio, the word “sh*t” 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. Besides 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.