Radio stations ban Dottie O'Brien's "Four or Five Times" and Dean Martin's "Wham Bam, Thank You Ma'am" fearing they are suggestive.
The Weavers are blacklisted due to the leftist political beliefs and associations of several members.
The phrase "gardenia perfume linger on a pillow" is altered to "a seaplane rising from an ocean billow" in the song "These Foolish Things."
Six counties in South Carolina pass legislation outlawing jukebox operation anytime when within hearing distance of a church.
Stephen Foster songs are edited for radio to remove words such as "massa" and "darky."
Webb Pierce's "There Stands the Glass" is banned from radio because the lyrics are thought to condone heavy drinking.
Congressional representative Ruth Thompson introduces legislation that is meant to ban the mailing of certain "pornographic" records through the U.S. mail.
The Boston Catholic Youth Organization begins a campaign of policing dances and lobbying disc jockeys to stop playing "obscene" songs at record hops and on the radio.
For radio airplay the perceived drug reference "I get no kick from cocaine," is changed to "I get perfume from Spain." in Cole Porter's classic "I Get A Kick Out of You."
The editorial, "Control the Dimwits," which appears in the September 24 issue of Billboard, condemns R&B songs that contain double entendre references to sex. In response, police in Long Beach, California, and Memphis, Tennessee, confiscate jukeboxes and fine their owners. Similar jukebox bans occur across the country.
In October, WDIA and several other large popular music radio stations ban several songs for their sexually suggestive lyrics. The station runs on-air announcements saying, "WDIA, your good-will station, in the interest of good citizenship, for the protection of morals and our American way of life does not consider this record, [name of song], fit for broadcast on WDIA. We are sure all you listeners will agree with us."
The ABC network bans the Rosemary Clooney hit "Mambo Italiano," saying it did not meet the network's "standards for good taste."
Former radio deejay Pat Boone begins a career by releasing "sanitized" versions of black R&B hits. Boone's versions of these songs often contain edited lyrics: such as substituting "drinkin' Coca Cola" for "drinkin' wine" in T-Bone Walker's "Stormy Monday" and "Pretty little Susie is the girl for me" instead of "Boys, don't you know what she do to me" in Little Richard's "Tutti Fruitti."
In one week's time during April, Chicago radio stations receive 15,000 complaint letters protesting their broadcast of rock music as part of an organized campaign. The letters call for the station to remove controversial songs from their playlists.
Variety runs a three-part series on what they term "leer-ics," or R&B songs with obscene lyrics, calling for censorship of the recording industry. The articles compare these songs to dirty postcards and chastises the music industry for selling "their leer-ic garbage by declaring that's what kids want."
The Juvenile Delinquency and Crime Commission of Houston, Texas, bans more than 30 songs it considers obscene. The Commission's list is almost entirely comprised of black artists
Officials cancel rock and roll concerts scheduled in New Haven and Bridgeport, Connecticut; Boston; Atlanta; Jersey City and Asbury Park, New Jersey; Burbank, California; and Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Observers mistake dancing at concerts for riots and fighting.
CBS television network cancels Alan Freed's Rock 'n Roll Dance Party after a camera shows Frankie Lymon (leader of the doo wop group Frankie Lymon & The Teenagers) dancing with a white girl.
Officials in San Diego and Florida police warn Elvis Presley that if he moves at all during his local performances, he will be arrested on obscenity charges.
ABC Radio Network bans Billie Holiday's rendition of Cole Porter's "Love for Sale" from all of its stations because of its prostitution theme. Stations continue to play instrumental versions of the song.
Also in April, members of the White Citizens Council of Birmingham, Alabama, rush the stage at a Nat King Cole concert and beat the legendary performer. Seeing the reaction of Birmingham's young teen girls to Nat's crooning, the council members confuse Cole's music with newly popular R&B.
The Parks Department in San Antonio, Texas, removes all rock and roll records from jukeboxes located at city swimming pools, terming it "jumpy, hot stuff" that is unsuitable for teens.
Network officials ban the novelty hit "Transfusion" by Dot and Diamond from ABC, CBS, and NBC radios in June. According to one NBC executive, "There is nothing funny about a blood transfusion."
Producers of the Ed Sullivan Show instruct cameramen to show Elvis Presley only from the waist up on his third and final appearance on the program on January 7th.
Fearing the effects of the "hedonistic, tribal rhythms" of rock and roll music, in March Chicago's Cardinal Stritch bans popular music from all Catholic-run schools.
Congress considers that legislation requires song lyrics to be screened and altered by a review committee before being broadcast or offered for sale.
The Mutual Broadcasting System drops all rock and roll records from its network music programs, calling it "distorted, monotonous, noisy music."
Link Wray's instrumental classic "Rumble" is dropped from radio stations across the country in January - even though it has no lyrics. The title of the song is thought to be suggestive of teenage violence. When Wray appears on American Bandstand to perform the song, Dick Clark introduces Wray and his band, but refuses to mention the song's title.
Wanting to secure an appearance on the hit television program American Bandstand, singer Lloyd Price agrees to re-cut the lyrics to his song "Stagger Lee," removing all references to violence.
In October, several radio stations refuse to play Ray Peterson's "Tell Laura I Love Her," calling it the "Death Disk."
New York Bishop Burke forbids Catholic school students from dancing to "The Twist." Burke considers R&B music, and its associated dances, to be lewd and un-Christian.
The FBI begins collecting data on folk singers Phil Ochs. Ochs is one of several popular musicians to be tracked by the FBI during their careers (Bob Dylan, Jim Morrison, Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie).
Bob Dylan refuses to perform on the Ed Sullivan Show in February after producers tell him he cannot sing "Talking John Birch Paranoid Blues." Dylan is never invited to perform on the show again.
Fear it contains obscene messages, Indiana Governor Matthew Welsh attempts to ban the Kingsmen hit "Louie, Louie." After review by the FCC, the agency determines that the song's lyrics are indecipherable.
After splitting his pants while dancing wildly at a European concert, the boisterous P. J. Proby is uninvited to perform on ABC's music variety show Shingdig.
Cleveland Mayor Ralph Locher bans all rock concerts in the city following a Rolling Stones performance.
The Barry McGuire song "Eve of Destruction" is pulled from retail stores and radio stations across the country after some groups complain that it is nihilistic and could promote suicidal feelings amongst teens.
In June, radio stations across the country ban the Rolling Stones hit "I Can't Get No Satisfaction" because they believe the lyrics are too sexually suggestive.
Many radio stations ban The Who's single "Pictures of Lily" because the song contains a reference to masturbation.
MGM Records alters the Frank Zappa song "Money" because it contains a sexual reference.
WLS radio commissions a local group to re-record the Them hit "Gloria" because they object to the lyrics. Station management feels that the lyric "she comes in my room" is too suggestive for broadcast. Instead, they contact a local band, the Shadows of Knight, to re-record the tune. The Shadows of Knight version becomes a national top ten hit; the original stalls at number 71 on the charts.
A statement by John Lennon in March, comparing the popularity of the Beatles to that of Jesus Christ, results in wide-spread Beatles record burnings and protests. Lennon's comments regarding what he perceives as a decrease in Christianity's popularity with teens are taken out of context. He says, "We're more popular than Jesus now."
After radio stations refuse to air the original, The Swinging Medallions are convinced by their record company to re-record their song "Double Shot (of My Baby's Love)" with more benign lyrics.
In June, Capitol Records recalls all copies of the Beatles' Yesterday And Today album following complaints over the album's gory cover art. The "butcher" cover depicts the four Beatles wearing white smocks and covered with decapitated baby dolls and raw meat.
Police attempt to shut down a James Brown concert, alleging the singer's dancing is obscene.
After enduring calls for censorship over the song "Rhapsody in the Rain," Lou Christie agrees to change the song's suggestive lyrics.
The Rolling Stones agree to alter the lyrics to "Let's Spend The Night Together" for an appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show in January. Producers request that singer Mick Jagger alter the title phrase to "Let's spend some time together."
Against his wishes, Frank Zappa's record company removes eight bars of his song "Let's Make the Water Turn Black." This occurs when a well-intentioned executive from Verve Records hears the lyric, "And I still remember mama with her apron and her pad, feeding all the boys at Ed's café." The executive thinks the referred-to "pad" is a sanitary napkin.
Radio programmers pass on Van Morrison's "Brown Eyed Girl" because the lyrics reference premarital sex and teenage pregnancy. Morrison cuts an alternative version with more acceptable lyrics.
Producers of the Ed Sullivan Show request that Jim Morrison change the lyrics to "Light My Fire" for The Doors' September appearance on the program. Morrison initially agrees to alter the lyric "Girl we couldn't get much higher" to a more innocuous phrase. During the live performance, Morrison sings the original lyric. The band is not invited back on the program.
An El Paso, Texas, radio station bans all songs performed by Bob Dylan because they cannot understand the folk singer's lyrics. The station continues to play recordings of Dylan songs performed by other artists with clearer diction.
The Doors' single "Unknown Soldier" is banned from airplay at many radio stations because of its anti-war theme.
Sponsors go into an uproar and threaten to pull support after a television program shows interracial "touching." During the taping of a duet between Petula Clark and Harry Belafonte, Clark lays her hand on Belafonte's arm (Clark is white and Belafonte is black).
Jim Morrison is arrested on stage in New Haven, Connecticut, for making lewd gestures and profane remarks during a concert. The arrest is one of several that occur during Doors concerts after Morrison is marked by the FBI and several police organizations as a troublemaker.
Fearing the Rolling Stones' song "Street Fightin' Man" will incite violence during the National Democratic Convention in September, Chicago radio stations refuse to play the song. During the ban, the single sets all-time sales records in the Chicago area.
After being invited by the Smothers Brothers to perform his anti-Vietnam anthem "Waist Deep in the Big Muddy" on their TV show, Pete Seeger is edited out of the program by the censors at CBS television.
In January, New York police seize 30,000 copies of John Lennon and Yoko Ono's Two Virgins album.
Controversy over the cover of Blind Faith's debut album prompts their label to issue the record with two different covers. The original cover, released in February, features a photograph of a naked 11-year old girl, holding a metallic, rather phallic-looking model airplane. The airplane points toward her lower abdomen. Atco Records eventually drops the benign second cover because it doesn't sell as well as the original.
In September, the local Roman Catholic Diocese runs a two-page ad spread in the Seattle Post Intelligencer calling for the criminal prosecution of rock musicians and for bans against "rock festivals and their drug-sex-rock-squalor culture."
Record company officials delay the release of Volunteers by Jefferson Airplane over concerns with the album's lyrical themes.
In July, one-half of the country's Top 40 stations refuse to play "The Ballad of John and Yoko" because they feel that the lyrics are blasphemous. The song's lyrics contain references to Christ and crucifixion.
After Hudson's, a large department store chain, refuses to carry the debut record from MC5 when it is released in April, the group agrees to delete the expletive "motherfucker" from "Kick Out The Jams."
A group known as the Movement to Restore Democracy calls for the banning of rock music to end the spread of Socialism in America.
MCA Records drops 18 acts from their record label because they believe the performers promote hard drugs in their songs.
Under the direction of President Richard Nixon, Vice President Spiro Agnew ignites widespread interest in censoring popular music by making statements concerning drug imagery in rock music.
Claiming that he fears the song "Ohio" will incite further violence on college campuses following the killing of four students at Kent State University, Governor James Rhodes attempts to order Ohio radio stations to ban the song.
Concerns over drugs and rioting cause a wave of protests of large rock festivals. Citizen groups in Chicago, Houston, Tucson, and Atlanta rally to cancel large, outdoor rock festivals in their cities.
Country Joe McDonald is fined $500 for uttering an obscenity during a concert performance of his song "I Feel Like I'm Fixin' To Die Rag."
Janis Joplin is fined $200 for violating local profanity and obscenity laws for her performance after a concert in Tampa, Florida.
Several radio stations alter the John Lennon song "Working Class Hero" without the consent of Lennon or his record label.
Radio stations across the U.S. ban Bob Dylan's single "George Jackson" over concerns about the song's political theme and the word "shit" in its lyrics.
In May, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) sends all radio stations telegrams threatening their licenses for playing rock music that glorified drugs.
In April, the Illinois Crime Commission publishes a list of popular rock songs that contain drug references, including Peter, Paul and Mary's "Puff The Magic Dragon" and the Beatles' "Yellow Submarine."
Chrysalis Records changes the lyrics to Jethro Tull's "Locomotive Breath" without the band's knowledge or consent. Label executives fear radio stations will not play the original, which contains the lyric "got him by the balls."
In January, the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee issues a report on John Lennon and Yoko Ono, advocating the termination of Lennon's visa to live in the U.S. The report calls the couple "strong advocates of the program to 'dump Nixon'."
After Indiana Attorney General Theodore Sendak calls rock festivals "drug supermarkets," Hoosier legislators adopt legislation meant to "get tough" on large rock concerts. In the process, the regulation accidentally outlaws the Indianapolis 500 and other large outdoor gatherings
John Lennon's song "Woman is the Nigger of the World" is banned by radio stations across the country.
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's "Pusherman" is edited without his knowledge for a live appearance on American Bandstand.
Record company execs alter the cover of Mama Lion’s Preserve Wildlife after concerns over the album’s original cover photograph. The original image showed group singer Lynn Carey nursing a lion cub.
Atlantic Records decides to change the title and lyrics of the Rolling Stones' "Starfucker" in order to avoid protests.
New York Senator James Buckley writes a report linking rock music to drug use. He calls for the record industry to eliminate drug-using or drug-endorsing rock musicians before the federal government feels it necessary to take action.
Richfield, Ohio, zoning commissioner Richard Crofoot attempts to ban all concerts at the Richfield Coliseum after witnessing marijuana use at an Elton John concert.
Radio stations across the country refuse to play Loretta Lynn's "The Pill" because of its references to birth control.
In November, Reverend Charles Boykin of Tallahassee, Florida, blames popular music for teenage pregnancy. Boykin conducts his own survey of 1,000 unwed mothers and determines that 984 became pregnant while listening to rock music.
A billboard advertisement for the Rolling Stones' Black and Blue LP (featuring a photo of a battered woman) triggers protests again Time-Warner by women's groups.
The RKO radio chain refuses to play Rod Stewart's hit "Tonight's The Night" until the lyric "spread your wings and let me come inside" is edited from the song.
The Reverend Jesse Jackson calls for bans against disco music, insisting the music promotes promiscuity and drug use.
British punk band the Sex Pistols are initially denied visas to enter the U.S.A. for their first American tour.
Frank Zappa's song "Jewish Princess" sparks vocal protests to the FCC from the B'nai B'rith Anti-Defamation League.
Fearing association with its theme, Mercury Records refuses to release Frank Zappa's single "I Don't Wanna Get Drafted."
A representative of the New York State Division of Substance Abuse Services suggests a tax on musicians whose songs promote drug use.
In October, Youth Minister Art Diaz organizes a group of local teenagers who conduct a record burning at the First Assembly Church of God in Des Moines, Iowa, including albums by the Beatles, Ravi Shankar, Peter Frampton, and the soundtrack to the movie Grease. A similar burning takes place a few months later in Keoku, Iowa, where a church group burns the work of The Carpenters, John Denver, and Perry Como.
A municipal judge in Newark, Ohio, bans rock concerts at the Legend Valley Park because they pose a public nuisance.
Believing that rock condones drug abuse and promiscuous sex, Carroll, Iowa, nightclub owner Jeff Jochims renounces his transgressions and sets fire to $2,000 worth of rock records.
The morals of Provo and Salt Lake City residents are saved when two radio stations ban Olivia Newton John's hit single "Physical." The stations fear that the song's lyrics may be a bit too suggestive much for their heavily Mormon audiences.
Ozzy Osbourne is forbidden from performing in San Antonio, Texas, after he is arrested for urinating on the Alamo. Osbourne's various legal troubles also prevent him from playing in several other cities, including Boston, Baton Rouge, Corpus Christi, Las Vegas, and Philadelphia and Scranton, Pennsylvania.
California assemblyman Phil Wyman introduces a bill to outlaw the practice of including subliminal messages in rock records.
Roger Wilcher, a Baptist youth minister in Emporia, Virginia, petitions the city council to remove MTV from the local cable system.
Voice of America programmer Frank Scott issues a directive to staff that they are not permitted to play music which might offend any portion of their audience.
Rick Allen and his wife express concerns over a Prince album to their local PTA meeting in Cincinnati, Ohio. This action started the mid-80s music censorship movement that eventually results in the RIAA universal parental warning sticker.
Following a complaint by Wal-Mart, PolyGram Records changes the cover of the Scorpions' Love At First Sting. The original features a partially nude couple locked in an embrace; the man is giving the woman a tattoo on her thigh.
In May, popular Surgeon General C. Everett Koop speaks out against rock music when he insists that rock video fans have been "saturated with what I think is going to make them have trouble having satisfying relationships with the opposite sex ... when you're raised with rock music that uses both pornography and violence."
Dade Christian School in Miami, Florida, forbids students from attending a local concert by the Jackson Brothers, because they fear it will lead the youth to use drugs, drink, behave irresponsibly, and participate in lewd dancing. Any student who attends the concert is guaranteed fifteen demerits.
Critics call for boycotts of Bruce Springsteen's Born In The U.S.A. after it is widely rumored that the cover depicts "the Boss" urinating on an American Flag.
After issuing a report on the violence in music videos, in December the National Coalition on Television Violence calls for the federal government to regulate rock music on television.
Fearing that MTV induces a "temporary state of insanity" over patients, Dr. Richard Bridgberg orders the staff of the Institute of Living, in Hartford, Connecticut, to remove MTV from the mental hospital's television system. Even though patients are allowed to watch listen to radios, recorded music, and watch the evening news and popular movies, hospital spokesperson Robert Fagan says MTV is "too inciting" and can potentially cause hallucinations.
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