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Big Band Music of the War Years (Coll) (Tin)

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by Lake Dell

The BBC, or British Broadcasting Corporation, exercises the right to ban certain material that the company feels deviates from their standards of civility.

During the years, many singles that were seen as too explicit, distasteful or bear the potential for offending the British public were banned from BBC airplay. Here you can read about some of them.

In 1977, as England was in the middle of the Queens Jubilee celebration, the Sex Pistols decided to release a song which was titled. God Save the Queen. The song contained very controversial lyrics as well as an offensive cover which displayed the Queen.

The single was found to offensive to be air played by the BBC, but it did not stop it from reaching number two on the BBC official singles chart. According to the myth, God Save the Queen was the top selling single in the UK at the time, but it was held back of number one to avoid controversies.

Although sexual revolution was being practiced at it’s time of release, Je TAime … Moi Non Plus (love you… me neither) by Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin, the BBC was still unable to get past the explicit lyrics of the single in 1969. Also, Birkin is heard moaning and groaning throughout the song. Je TAime … Moi Non Plus was the very first number one song to be banned by the BBC.

Even with the ban by the BBC and the denouncement by the Vatican, Je TAime … Moi Non Plus became the top selling single worldwide. In October 7, 1969, the song not only reached number 1 in BBC’s official charts, but it also made it to number 69 in the US charts.

Je TAime … Moi Non Plus also played an important role in the making of another banned single by the BBC. Love to Love You Baby by Donna Summers was also a massive hit despite being banned by the corporation. The main reason for the ban was most likely any on of the 23 faked orgasms during the song. The song did, however, top many charts in the UK.

With controversially explicit lyrics, Relax by Frankie Goes to Hollywood was also banned by the BBC. Even with the the ban, Relax managed to become one of the most commercially recognizable songs in history. The song even managed to stay among the UK’s tops singles charts for 42 weeks in the year 1984.

There is an ongoing debate whether the success of Relax was propelled by the BBC ban or simply unaffected by it. Embarrassed by the ban, the BBC removed the ban by the end of 1984. Even today, the song Relax is still very popular worldwide.

Paul McCartney and the Wings response to the 1972 Bloody Sunday events titled Give Ireland Back to the Irish, was banned by every media resource in the UK. It was forbidden from being broadcast by the BBC, Radio Luxembourg and the Independent Television Authority.

A record by the group Wings was the title of Give Ireland Back to the Irish being displayed in the BBC charts because the song title wasn’t even allowed to be announced. Despite the zero air time in the UK, Give Ireland Back to the Irish hit the top of the Irish singles charts.

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