Banned songs: 11 iconic singles which were cancelled

7 March 2025, 14:08

Some of the biggest songs in music history have been banned from the shops, TV or radio.

In recent years, a number of artists have "cancelled" some of their own songs thanks to changing sensitivities.

Elvis Costello won't play 'Oliver's Army' any more, and Sting has put 'Don't Stand So Close To Me' on the back burner.

• Sting reveals why he's cancelled 'Don't Stand So Close To Me' and will no longer perform it
• Tom Jones song 'Delilah' is banned from rugby matches at Principality Stadium 'due to murderous lyrics'
• Elvis Costello won't ever perform 'Oliver's Army' again due to controversial lyric

The Police still play 'Every Breath You Take', but that song has been axed from the playlist by the UK Rock Choir due to concern over its lyrics, while Tom Jones's 'Delilah' is no longer played at the Principality Stadium in Wales.

Tens of pretty normal songs and artists that have banned during various wars just for having explosive words in them ('Boom-Bang-a-Bang', 'Bang Bang (My Baby Shot me Down)' and 'Atomic' among them... and even ABBA's 'Waterloo').

But even if you ignore such silliness, the history of rock and roll is packed with songs that were banned from the shelves, screens or radio as soon as they were released.

We've rounded up some striking (and sometimes hilarious) examples below.

1. The Who - My Generation

My Generation (Stereo Version)

In the 1960s, The Who were a snotty, brilliant ball of pent up rage and youthful aggression.

So it's no surprise that they've suffered a radio ban. The odd part is just why it happened.

Did 'My Generation' get banned for its clear incitement to rebellion? Advocating a young death? Maybe the obvious implied swear when Roger Daltrey hopes we all just f..f..f..f...f... fade away?

None of the above. 'My Generation' was actually briefly banned because it was felt that the song was potentially insensitive to people who suffered from a stutter. Really.

2. Olivia Newton-John - Physical

Olivia Newton-John - Physical (Official Music Video)

Olivia Newton-John first broke onto the scene as a folk-pop act who did the UK a Eurovision favour with 'Long Live Love' in 1974 (the prize that year went to some group called ABBA).

In the years that followed she went supernova with Grease and Xanadu, and cemented her legendary status with the disco-tinged 'Physical'.

The song was intended for sexpot Rod Stewart and passed over by Tina Turner but we can't imagine anyone other than ONJ doing it justice.

And the song (and its gym-based video) was so very sexy that it got banned in some territories.

Provo’s KFMY-FM and Salt Lake City’s KSL-FM said: "The lyrics are more suggestive than most songs. It goes the one additional step.”

Olivia agreed with ET years later that her song was like a "lullaby" in comparison to modern pop: "The things that are out there now! The things they talk about and say freak me out."

3. John Travolta - Greased Lightning

Grease 1978 - Greased Lightning (by John Travolta)

Okay, it'd be a slight stretch to say that 'Greased Lightning' was ever "banned", but if you hear it on the radio these days (or on pre-TV watershed) there's a fair chance it'll be heavily censored.

Grease was borne of the stage production of the same name, which was a smidge rougher and raunchier than the Hollywood version.

Truthfully, even the film was rougher and raunchier than many people remember from their youth. Especially true if they watched it repeatedly on a VHS taped from a TV edit.

If you're of a sensitive disposition, well, look away now as we publish some of the smutty original words to the filthiest song of the lot, John Travolta's 'Greased Lightning'.

• "You know that ain't no s**t, we'll be getting lots of tit"
• "You know that I ain't bragging, she's a real pussy wagon"

and maybe ickiest of all

• "You are supreme, the chicks'll cream"

Well, you were warned.

4. Donna Summer - Love To Love You Baby

Donna Summer - Love To Love You Baby

Written by disco god Giorgio Moroder with producer Pete Bellotte and Donna Summer herself, 'Love To Love You Baby' didn't have any rude words like 'Greased Lightning', but was every bit as sexy as 'Physical'.

The song had some saucy lyrics ("Do it to me again and again") but the thing that really got the censors attention was the non-lyrical verbalisations from Ms Summer.

Donna apparently lay down in a darkened studio and, inspired by the thought of Marilyn Monroe, writhed around in (acted) sexual exhilaration for this 17 minute epic (on the full length version).

Love To Love You Baby

"A marathon of 22 orgasms," said Time magazine, and it's been widely reported that the BBC banned the song, while Reverend Jesse Jackson was most definitely not a fan.

"Everyone's asking, 'Were you alone in the studio?'" Summer said at the time.

"Yes, I was alone in the studio. 'Did you touch yourself?' Yes, well, actually I had my hand on my knee. 'Did you fantasize on anything?' Yes, on my handsome boyfriend Peter."

5. Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin - Je T'aime ... Moi Non Plus

Serge Gainsbourg & Jane Birkin - Je t'aime... moi non plus/Original videoclip (Fontana 1969)

You can't talk about orgasms in pop without talking about Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin's 'Je T'aime ... Moi Non Plus'.

Maybe the sexiest song ever written? After Jane Birkin assures us "Je T'aime", Serge Gainsbourg's louche French gives way to all sorts of oooh-ing and aahing

The song was originally written by Serge for Brigitte Bardot (apparently the same day he wrote 'Bonnie and Clyde').

Confirmed by the studio engineer William Flageollet, the story goes that Serge and Brigitte version records the sound of the pair getting it on. Bardot's husband and the actress herself stopped the song getting a release for nearly 20 years.

Je t'aime moi non plus

So it's Gainsbourg and Birkin's version that's stood the test of time.

"I got a bit carried away with the heavy breathing – so much so, in fact, that I was told to calm down, which meant that at one point I stopped breathing altogether," Birkin later revealed.

"If you listen to the record now, you can still hear that little gap."

Did they get it on for real, too? "Thank goodness it wasn't, otherwise I hope it would have been a long-playing record," quipped Birkin.

The song was banned from radio stations in countries all over the world, including the UK, Brazil, Spain and Sweden.

Even in France, they couldn't play it on the radio before 11pm.

As well as being banned in Italy, the record label boss who released it got a two month suspended sentence for offending public morality. The song was even denounced by the in-house Vatican newspaper.

6. The Kinks - Lola

The Kinks - Lola (Official Music Video)

Speaking of sauciness, everyone knows about the controversy surrounding The Kinks' excellent 'Lola', right?

The song of a fella who goes out and meets a gal named Lola (L-O-L-A Lola), who's not quite like other girls..

So you can guess exactly why the song got banned from the UK airways and needed a redubbed lyric to get played.

Nope, not that bit. Or that bit. Okay, some prudish radio stations in Australia and elsewhere did fade out the song before the big reveal, but the BBC weren't happy with a lyric right at the very start.

"Where you drink champagne and it tastes just like Coca-Cola"

Cross-dressing and/or trans lovers is one thing. Product placement is quote another thank you very much.

Ray Davies had to make a 6,000 roundtrip from New York to London and back to record the word "Cherry-Cola" in place of "Coca-Cola".

7. Queen - I Want to Break Free

Queen - I Want To Break Free (Official Video)

Talking of cross-dressing, the history books are a little unclear on whether or not 'I Want To Break Free' was actually banned, or just "ignored" more than it should have been for a video by a band as massive a Queen were at the time.

The song itself wasn't actually controversial, even though its emancipatory lyrics could well have been seem by some as a call to arms against authoritarianism.

It was the campy video with Freddie Mercury as a long suffering housewife, fake boobs and all, that annoyed some people.

"It was a very narrow-minded station then. It just seemed to be all f**king Whitesnake," Queen's drummer Roger Taylor said of MTV.

"It was a measure of the... thinking, MTV, that they... thought it was disgraceful, and didn't show it, and banned it."

8. Frankie Goes To Hollywood - Relax

Frankie Goes To Hollywood - Relax (Official Video)

One song that was absolutely, definitely, banned (song, sleeve, video... everything) was Frankie Goes To Hollywood's incredible debut 'Relax'.

ZTT absolutely made sure of that with its press adverts ( "ALL THE NICE BOYS LOVE SEA MEN... Nineteen inches that must be taken always") and the song and its promo film absolutely delivered on the promise of all that naughtiness.

DJ Mike Read was especially aghast and the BBC banned it (Kid Jensen and John Peel ignored the ban) not just from the airwaves, but for a long, long time on Top of the Pops too till they eventually relented and played it on the end-of-year specials.

For a while, the band incredibly claimed the song wasn't about sex.

"Everything I say is complete lies,"  Mark O'Toole admitted in the Welcome to the Pleasuredome album liner notes

"Like, when people ask you what 'Relax' was about, when it first came out we used to pretend it was about motivation, and really it was about shagging."

Well, duh.

9. The Shirelles - Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow

The Shirelles - Will You Love Me Tomorrow

A quarter of a century before Frankie said 'Relax' it took a lot, lot less to get people riled up.

Written by the all-timer partnership of Gerry Goffin and Carole King, 'Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow' doesn't have any out-and-out sauciness, but the lyrics are pretty unambigious all the same.

A girl worries that while "tonight you're mine completely" (with love given "so sweetly"), is this just an overnight thing or "will you love me tomorrow?".

In 1964 this was pretty hot stuff, and some US radio stations banned it outright.

It didn't stop the song going to No. 1 in the United States Billboard Hot 100, becoming the first song by an African-American girl group to top the main pop charts.

10. Van Morrison - Brown Eyed Girl

Van Morrison - Brown Eyed Girl (Official Audio)

I know what you're thinking. In 2025 isn't the law that radio stations legally have to play 'Brown Eyed Girl' a few times a day, rather than the song being banned.

But when it was released, Van Morrison's evergreen hit fell foul of some radio stations who objected to a relatively tame lyric towards the end of the song.

That lyric? "Making love in the green grass / Behind the stadium with you"

It's hardly 'Relax', is it?

To get around the ban a not particularly well-made radio edit was compiled, cutting out "making love" and pasting in "laughin' and a-runnin'" from previous verse.

It sound rubbish, and unforgivably some compilation albums seem to (presumably accidentally) used this poorly-edited version.

11. Sex Pistols - God Save the Queen

Sex Pistols - God Save The Queen

Wilfully controversial, pretty much the whole Sex Pistols back catalogue has been banned by some shops and radio stations.

Even the bravest broadcasters think twice about if or when they'll play songs like anti-abortion rant 'Bodies' ("f**k this and f**k that, f**k it all and f**k her f**king brat") or Holocaust satire 'Belsen Was a Gas'.

The band's album Never Mind the Bollocks... here's the Sex Pistols sparked an actual obscenity trial, heard at Nottingham Magistrates' Court. The Pistols won.

But when it came to Queen Elizabeth II's Silver Jubilee, plenty of people got cold feet about the Pistols' celebration 'God Save The Queen' ("God save the Queen/ The fascist regime...").

The banned were dropped by A&M before they could release the song (if you have a copy on that label then get it up on eBay and watch the money come in).

Even when Virgin Records released the song, plenty of places wouldn't sell it and radio absolutely wouldn't play it.

Despite all that, it peaked at number two in the singles chart, just below Rod Stewart's double-A-side of 'I Don't Want to Talk About It'/'The First Cut is the Deepest'.

Despite that, some charts just left a blank line where the Sex Pistols title should have been.

It's long been believed that there was jiggery pokery done behind the scenes to stop the Pistols getting the number one accolade that its sales actually earned (for one week, sales from Virgin Megastores weren't counted for the charts). We can well believe it.