buster2 said:
Steve Winwood's "While You see a Chance" has the WORST edit in the middle (removing the second verse). He's singing "can't you see?" and in the middle of "see" the pitch changes noticeably and it goes into a synth progression. You'd think the record company could have at least cross-faded to make it more seemless, but they just chopped it.
The edit comes after Steve sings "one more day.... your way.." and it chops "way" in half, splicing it to "be" (on "can you be..." during a repeat of the the first verse) before the song goes into the fake syntho-sax bridge. So it's "your wayEEeeee..."
Billy Joel's "My Life" has been mentioned, but in "The Entertainer," he specifically lays into radio edits in one telling verse:
"...it was a beautiful song, but it ran too long,
If you wanna be a hit, you gotta make it fit,
So they cut it down to 3:05..."
And indeed, the edited "Entertainer" runs 3:05. (The second verse, where he sings about having "laid all kinds of girls," was cut.)
Then there's another of his songs, "Piano Man":
"Now John at the bar is a friend of mine,
He gets me my drinks for free,
And he's quick with a joke, or a light of your smoke,
But there's some place that he'd rather be..."
And the radio edit jumps to "And the waitress is practicing politics, as the businessmen slowly get stoned..." while we never get to hear where John would rather be.
("He said 'Bill, I believe this is killing me,'
as the smile ran away from his face,
'Well, I'm sure that I could be a movie star,
if I could get out of this place.'
la la la de de da...
Now Paul is a real estate novelist
who never had time for a wife
And he's talking with Davy who's still in the navy
and probably will be for life.")
The edit to "Three Times a Lady" was bothersome, not so much because of verse 2 being axed, but because Lionel Richie's buildup at the end was blunted.
Dan Hill's "Sometimes When We Touch" had its third verse cut; during that verse, the orchestra was swelling for the big finish. The edit has the orchestra instantly going from soft to loud, and it's jarring.
The censorship edits: "Jet Airliner" substituting "kicks" for "shit" was mentioned, but there also were these:
Charlie Daniels "The Devil Went Down to Georgia":
Original: "I done told you once, you son of a bitch, I'm the best that's ever been..."
Censored: "Cause I told you once, you son of a gun..."
Jimmy Buffett "Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes":
Original: "Good times and riches, and son of a bitches"(sic)
Censored: "Good times and riches, some bruises and stitches..."
And then there was an edit of Van Morrison's "Brown Eyed Girl" that Gulf 104 (which played "Who Are You" with the F-bomb intact) played well into the last decade; it omitted the "making love in the green grass" line by cutting and pasting "laughing and a-runnin' hey, hey" from the first verse over it.
One of the oddest edits was to Wild Cherry's "Play That Funky Music," in which the words "white boy" were deleted. ??? The chorus goes "play that funky music, hey, funky music, play that funky music right..."
I read that the change in "Lola" from Coca-Cola to cherry cola was for British airplay; the BBC has never allowed mentions of products in songs. Similarly, in Jimmy Buffett's "Come Monday," the line "I got my Hush Puppies on" was altered to "I got my hiking boots on..."