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Music Trivia -> Songs That Are Banned -> W
Can you think of a song that was specifically banned by a radio station, tv station, or government?
Entries Beginning with W
"Waist Deep In The Big Muddy," Pete Seeger
After being invited by the Smother Brothers to perform this anti-Vietnam War anthem on their television show, in 1968, Pete Seeger is edited out of the program by the censors at CBS television.
Peter
"Wake Up Little Suzie," The Everly Brothers
It was banned in one city because of its supposedly suggestive lyrics about a teen couple that fell asleep in a movie theater.
Barry Disbrow
"Walk Like an Egyptian," The Bangles
Banned by the BBC during the Gulf War, a year before it was banned in the US following 9/11
Evan
"Walk Like An Egyptian," The Bangles
One of the 166 songs "blacklisted" by the Clear Channel Communications group following the September 11th attacks.
Ra'akone
"War Pigs," Black Sabbath
This song was banned from Korean radio stations, due to it being an anti-war song. The rest of Sabbath's catalog was also banned.
GlamRockNinjaLord
"We Are The World," Chumbawamba
The song was banned on 1985 for explicit direct action support.
weirdkid106
"We Call It Acieed," D-Mob
Banned by the BBC because it hated acid house music. Stupid. Even so, it went to number 4 in the UK charts.
dxman
"We're Not Gonna Take It," Twisted Sister
Ranked high on the PMRC's Filthy Fifteen due largely in part to it's violent lyrical content.
Celeste
"Wear My Ring Around Your Neck," Elvis Presley
In 1958, a Minneapolis based Catholic youth magazine, "Contacts", launches a campaign for "clean lyrics in pop songs." Songs they target include Presley's "Wear My Ring Around Your Neck" because it promotes going steady.
Peter
"Welcome To The Boomtown," David & David
Known for it's strong anti-drug message and graphic descriptions, the song had a lot of airplay. But one of it's most famous lines "Cocaine on her dresser" was altered to "Cheap thrills on her dresser" in some radio versions.
Paul Bear
"Wet Dream," Max Romeo
banned by the BBC on 1969 Max claimed it was a song about his bedroom ceiling. The BBC weren’t having it either
weirdkid106
"Wham Bam, Thank You Ma'am," Dean Martin
Another song from 1951 that was banned by radio stations for fear it was suggestive.
Peter
"What It's Like," Everlast
An obvious example of unnecessary censorship, as some of the words that were bleeped out of the radio version include "weed", "drugs", and "Colt .45 (a gun)". Strangely, the word "balls" was left untouched on some of the "clean" versions.
Rocky
"What's My Age Again?," Blink 182
Not banned exactly, but the version played on the radio is severely altered.
G
"When I Was Young," Eric Burden and The Animals
When this song was first released in early 1967 Clark Weber the morning disc jockey on Chicago's WLS cut short a play of this song and announced: "This song will never be played on this station again as long as I am program director". Interestingly, they began playing the B-side "Sandoz" instead, not realizing it was a "love song" dedicated to Sandoz labs the site of the discovery of LSD.
GB
"Where are you?," Original Score
.........................
Slyth66
"White Christmas," Elvis Presley
In December 1957, Disc Jockey Al Priddy of KEX in Portland, Oregon is fired for violating the radio station's band against playing Elvis Presley's rendition of "White Christmas" (Elvis' first Christmas album in the target of many boycotts and bans due to the fact that Elvis doesn't really reflect, "Christian values"). 1957 is also the year that Ed Sullivan refused to show Elvis from the waist down to the "suggestiveness" of Elvis' hip or pelvis movements, and Elvis and the new music form of Rock 'n' Roll, in general, are the target of many Christian organization's bans and boycotts.
Peter
"White Rabbit," Jefferson Airplane
In 1998, the high school band at Fort Zumwalt North High School in St. Louis is forbidden from playing Jefferson Airplane's 1967 hit "White Rabbit" because of drug references in the song's lyrics, even though the band's version of the song is entirely instrumental.
Peter
"Who Are You?," The Who
In the original studio version, the question "Who are you?" is asked on two occasions as "Who the f**k are you?"
Bob
"Whole production pre-1991," Sleepy Sleepers
Sleepy Sleepers was an enormously popular punk/hardcore band in Finland, whose lyrics were essentially anti-Soviet, anti-Communist and anti-estabilishment, considering nothing as taboo except pedophilia and sodomy. The whole band was in performance ban in the Finnish radio until 1991 and breakup of USSR. Needless to say, their gigs were extremely popular and their records sold gold.
Susanna Viljanen
"Why Can't I Be You," The Cure
The video was banned because in one part, when Robert Smith says "can't", it sounds like he is saying "c*nt"
JeReMy
"Why Can't I Be You?," The Cure
The video was banned in America because in one line, it sounds like Robert Smith is saying "c*nt" instead of "can't"
JeReMy
"Why?," Jadakiss
The political hip-hop song was banned or censored in some radio stations for its lyrical content alleging then-President George W. Bush's complicity in the September 11, 2001 attacks: "Why do ni**as push pounds of powder?/Why did Bush knock down the towers?" Conservative pundit Bill O'Reilly accused Jadakiss of being a "smear pusher" in response to the song.
Patrick McReary
"Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?," The Shirelles
The song was banned by some stations for being sexually suggestive.
Barry Disbrow
"Wings," Little Mix
Not banned, but one of the opening lines in the song goes "And if they give you shhhh...." Guess they just backed out of saying the whole 's' word there.
Dongquan
"Woman Is The N***** Of The World," John Lennon
In mid-April 1972, this John Lennon song is banned by radio stations across the U.S. The song still manages to reach #57 on Billboard Magazine's HOT 100 charts.
Peter
"Work Bitch," Britney Spears
Not banned per se, but I think most music stations don't play it on the radio because of "bitch" Geez, what has been happening to songs? (It didn't get banned on iTunes though since there is a clean version)
William
"Working Class Hero," John Lennon
Banned because of lyric that society typeclasses children until they are
"So f***in' crazy that you can't even see".
"So f***in' crazy that you can't even see".
DENNIS REMME
"Wouldn't It Be Nice," The Beach Boys
I've heard that lines like "You know its gonna make it that much better / When we can say goodnight and stay together" caused many radio stations to decline to play the song when it was new. The thought was that the lyrics were suggestive of a couple sharing a bed, with sex implied. Defenders have often pointed out how it is elsewhere indicated in the lyrics that the singer is thinking about a time when the couple are married, and that would mean that the sex envisioned is entirely within the bounds of wedlock and in no way "illicit".
Jane Farnsworth
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