Ignoring a #1 hit?

[michael hagerty]

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;

Backstory to "Star Star":

When the Stones' EXILE ON MAIN STREET album came out in 1972, KDAY in Los Angeles was doing an album rock format on AM.

Bob Wilson, the station's PD (who a year later would leave to launch Radio & Records), played the obvious hits ("Tumbling Dice", "Happy") and a few other cuts, including "Sweet Virginia",which has the line "got to scrape the s*** right off your shoes" as part of the chorus---meaning you hear it three times.

A trade sheet (lost to the sands of time---The Hamilton Report, maybe?) asked Wilson why he'd play that and if he wasn't worried about the FCC. Wilson's reply:

"It's a new album from the Stones. If the song's catchy and it says "f***" a bunch of times, I'm probably going to play it."

On the very next album (GOATS HEAD SOUP), comes "Star, Star", which says "starf***er" SIXTY-FOUR times. That was the actual title of the song and Ahmet Ertegun himself (president of Atlantic Records) had to negotiate with Mick to change it on the record jacket and label.

Wilson wasn't around for his bluff to be called (he'd already bailed to start R&R).

 

[davideduardo]

Wilson wasn't around for his bluff to be called (he'd already bailed to start R&R).

... with some guy named Robert Kardashian who had several rather famous daughters. And defended a rather infamous football player.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_&_Records

 

[Mikey Radio]

... with some guy named Robert Kardashian who had several rather famous daughters. And defended a rather infamous football player.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_&_Records

Wait! Did you just cite a Wikipedia article in one of your posts, while frequently admonishing others about doing the same???

 

[davideduardo]

Wait! Did you just cite a Wikipedia article in one of your posts, while frequently admonishing others about doing the same???

Nope. I put that as a published reference as it is, while incomplete, accurate.

My primary source: I know many of the people who originally worked at Radio & Records even before it became R&R and knew even more of the later people... that is how I got my nearly complete collection of issues of the magazine and nearly all the special editions and ratings summaries.