The True song didn't even have any suggestive moaning and gasping in it, as did "Tonight's the Night," "Pillow Talk," "Love Won't Let Me Wait" and probably a few more that have slipped my mind. A decade or more before all these songs, Little Richard and then Mitch Ryder were singing "Good golly Miss Molly, you sure like to ball" and both versions of the song found wide acceptance on radio except in very conservative markets or on stations with straitlaced ownership.
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Ignoring a #1 hit?
- Thread starter tall_guy1
- Start date
"Love to Love You Baby" by Donna Summer was one that someone mentioned back in the day.
Parental and management reaction to lyrics and content was never linear---there were fits and starts and tons of contradictions.
Little Richard caught a break in that "balling" at that time was still a street slang term that hadn't crossed over to middle America. The squares thought it meant dancing. If Pat Boone had cut a cover version, as he did with other Little Richard records, he might have used the same lyrics completely unaware.
By the time of the Mitch Ryder cover, the adults weren't sure what to focus on---way more stations banned Lou Christie's "Rhapsody in the Rain" than "Good Golly Miss Molly."
The mid-70s hits were so sexually charged, I'm amazed every teen girl in America didn't get pregnant. No way to prove it, but probably as many conceptions occurred while Carpenters, Bread and Osmond records were playing (or "Happy Days" was on TV) as with the overt stuff.
The moans and groans were great material for jocks working at stations that weren't uptight. Two I remember from KFRC:
Jack Friday in 1973, back-announcing "Pillow Talk", just when the moans peak---"KFRC and Sylvia, who has once again started without us..."
And Big Tom Parker in 1976, back-announcing "Love Won't Let Me Wait", again, just as the moans peak---"Waiter, more butter please."
Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get It On" album contained a song that was actually titled "You Sure Love to Ball." By 1973, I don't think there was much linguistic confusion with waltzing or do-si-do-ing anywhere in America. Still, the song was only a hit on R&B stations.
Now, about that Little Richard lyric if the song were to be released today: It might be more likely to be misinterpreted as the singer's positive view of his lady's basketball ability.
Unaware and oblivious. Lou Reed gleefully sang about a transvestite. "Walk On The Wild Side" was played on many stations. The line "She never lost her head even when she was giving head" literally went over many heads...
Every time obscenity comes up, the bar gets lowered. The Supreme Court demanded that the FCC narrow the definition of obscenity and so they added the phrase 'lacks artistic merit.' Basic logic says if music is art, and we're dealing with a commercially available piece of music by an artist who has some public standing, then the station is OK to play the song. Especially after 10PM. In the 1950s, the stations that played rock & roll music usually did it after 10PM. That's when the original Moondog Matinee with Alan Freed was on.
I worked at many AOR stations that played songs with profanities. Nobody ever complained or noticed. "Who Are You", "Jet Airliner", "Money" are just a few that were played unedited. For years it was never a big deal. Somewhere along the way some stations felt the need to clip out the "vulgar" word. It actually just draws more attention, makes the songs sound stupid, and is quite ridiculous...
By 1973, no one was confused. And for Marvin, that song was a bridge too far. "You Sure Love To Ball" peaked at #13 on Billboard's R&B chart and #50 on the Hot 100. Low numbers for an artist as hot as Marvin was at the time.
The line was edited from the single. As tbolt909 points out, album stations tended to play cuts that included language in violation of FCC rules and regs. That changed as the FCC went through one of its periodic enforcements of content and radio stations decided hearing The Who drop an F-bomb or Steve Miller the S-word wasn't worth whatever the fine per incident would be.
If a competitor does play it and it is in demand, couldn't it?
Then you add it. Nothing is permanent. What we saw with the Morgan Wallen song is that CHR stations didn't jump on it at first, even though it was #1 on the Hot 100. They waited on the research, waiting to see what other stations did, and then adds started to increase.
So now, after 5 weeks or so, we see Raleigh, Portland, Minneapolis, Charlotte, and both CHRs in Nashville playing the song in heavy rotation, and it's at #12. Not sure if I can predict a #1 yet, but it's looking good for a song that some here said was too country for pop radio.
What TheBigA said, plus:
There are very few direct format competitors anymore. And an examination of shared listening often reveals surprises. There's nothing that says your audience knows your competitor is playing a record you aren't. The vast majority of the audience has no idea what the charts look like at any given moment. So they don't know there's a big hit you're not on.
It depends on the format. If you're playing in the CHR lane, you're competing with Spotify and streaming sites, as well as the friends of your listeners, who may be telling them about a song they haven't heard. If a song is #1 in Hot 100, it has some power. It may only be Morgan's P1s who are driving those numbers. That may last a week. But if it hangs around, it may be reaching more people. That's where the research comes in.
The complication with the Morgan song was it started to get airplay on country radio. They may or may not be a competitor, depending on the shared listening statistics you mentioned. So now Last Night is not only #1 in the Hot 100, but it's also # 5 in country airplay. So those people in the south are hearing it on your competitor. Then you have a decision to make.
There are sometimes direct competitors, as well as "almost" direct competitors. For example, in KC, KMXV competes directly with KCHZ (a bottom share station), and KZPT, a Hot AC that is "almost" a CHR in terms of the fact that it is very current-based and outside of the specialty shows (which average 18 hours a week), they roughly have the same spin count.
Listeners don't keep lists of who played which song. They won't miss a song you don't play; they will just think they did not hear it in the time they were listening.
The other thing to keep in mind is that a song can still go #1 without 100% of the panel. I've seen it happen quite a few times. All it takes is for the other reporters to increase their spins by enough to make up for that station. It's up to the promo department at the record label to keep tabs on that, and coordinate the process to get the desired results.
Do I have to explain the phrase "very few"?
It means something very different in KC.
Aerosmith's "Big Ten Inch Record" and AC/DC's "Big Balls" weren't #1 hits, but managed to make it on the air, despite the double entendres. The Rolling Stones had two notorious songs that I've never heard on the radio: "Star Star"--which is definitely not as innocent-sounding as that; and "Schoolboy Blues" (with the jaw-dropping actual title better left unsaid). In the latter case, the song was the Stones' way of sticking it to the record company they were leaving, who demanded they produce one more single--which then obviously couldn't be released.
In the 1960s and 1970s, it was almost impossible to get to #1 Hot 100 without airplay on WLS and WABC.
As far as Madonna Ciccone, she was only born in Bay City while her family was visiting the area. She mentioned growing up listening to CKLW 800, which confused me before I found out she didn't grow up in Bay City, where WSGW 790 would have made it nearly impossible with it close by and with its largest lobe directed toward Bay City. Its minor lobe goes toward Saginaw, with a null toward Midland to protect the station on 790 in Eau Claire, WI at Night. With a slight dogleg three tower pattern multiplied by a two tower pattern with six total towers, it looks like they couldn't modify the Day pattern to fill that null more without adding even more towers, which would help in Midland Days.
Dean Friedman made such a fuss about "Ariel" being edited by the record company, without the reference to Ariel's religion, that it was virtually banned in New York City and in particular WABC, but it reached #4 on WLS. The references to WBAI and WCBS-TV were left in, though probably only understood by radio geeks living outside of the New York City area. I got the impression that "Twelve Thirty" by the Mamas and Papas was virtually banned in New York City because the lyrics cast it in a negative way. "Censorship" in some way probably kept both out of the top 10 on the Hot 100.
As far as Madonna Ciccone, she was only born in Bay City while her family was visiting the area. She mentioned growing up listening to CKLW 800, which confused me before I found out she didn't grow up in Bay City, where WSGW 790 would have made it nearly impossible with it close by and with its largest lobe directed toward Bay City. Its minor lobe goes toward Saginaw, with a null toward Midland to protect the station on 790 in Eau Claire, WI at Night. With a slight dogleg three tower pattern multiplied by a two tower pattern with six total towers, it looks like they couldn't modify the Day pattern to fill that null more without adding even more towers, which would help in Midland Days.
Dean Friedman made such a fuss about "Ariel" being edited by the record company, without the reference to Ariel's religion, that it was virtually banned in New York City and in particular WABC, but it reached #4 on WLS. The references to WBAI and WCBS-TV were left in, though probably only understood by radio geeks living outside of the New York City area. I got the impression that "Twelve Thirty" by the Mamas and Papas was virtually banned in New York City because the lyrics cast it in a negative way. "Censorship" in some way probably kept both out of the top 10 on the Hot 100.
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