Don’t You Listen to That Dirty Song!!!!

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July. The month America celebrates its independence and freedom. So what better way to do it than looking at songs that have been banned? I’d mentioned a song or two that had been lobbed off playlists before, and I thought it’d make a good countdown. The sad thing is I had way too many for a top ten. So we’re in for a month of banned songs! Now, in this list you’re going to have a lot of laughs…maybe. Some of the reasons for these songs being banned will be quite obvious (such as the first song tomorrow), while others will make you go “WHAT??????” The song that started the discussion, believe it or not, was “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus” by Little Jimmy Boyd. Here’s a 12-year-old having to explain this song’s meaning to learned cardinals in the Catholic Church in dioceses in New York and Boston, because they considered the song dirty! Some of these songs go back a long way, so it may at least give you some minimal comfort to know that “woke” or “cupcake” mentality didn’t start in the last few years. People have always been offended by things. The teaser is a good example. If you think of Billie Holiday this is the song that probably comes to mind. Needless to say, areas where the Klan was active didn’t allow this song on the radio. Her record label (Columbia) didn’t want her to record it, to the point where she had to go to another label to have it committed to vinyl. According to the Biography Channel’s website, Harry Anslinger, who was the commissioner of what was then called the Bureau of Narcotics, was so determined to have this song banned that he had his agents frame Holiday after she refused to stop singing it. No, not all of the stories are that bleak. Not all of the songs are this powerful, however. Billie Holiday and “Strange Fruit,” banned for the subject matter (black lynchings):