Banned Songs: The B*tch is Back

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Happy Canada Day! And happy new countdown! This month, it’s all about songs that have been banned for one reason or another. Some of these reasons will make you laugh in 21st century life, but others will make you go “Really?” We’ll start alphabetically, then do the top ten at the end of the month (as usual). And, as usual, an old favorite is here to sing for us. The B*tch is Back - Elton John In recent years there have been TWO songs with the “F word” in the title that have been nominated for Grammy awards. So for me to tell you that radio stations objected to the B-word in the title is to make you think they never saw the F-word songs coming. And it wasn’t like this was the first time that the B-word showed up in a song title. David Bowie had “Queen B*tch” on Hunky Dory and the Stones had the song “B*tch.” (Side note: there were so many Stones songs to pick from I had a hard time deciding which one would represent them this month. ) However, in 1974 Elton was in his “golden years,” to steal a Bowie song title. Elton has the distinction of having the first TWO albums in history to debut on the Billboard album charts at #1 (Captain Fantastic and Rock of the Westies). From teen mags to Time Elton was on the cover of them all. It was a lot easier to tell Bowie or the Stones “no” than to tell Elton. Some stations, however, DID. There’s a blurb in Picky Wedia that says the program director of New York’s WPIX — one of the biggest radio stations in the country — said flat-out that this song wouldn’t be on their airwaves no matter how big it got. Elton shrugged it off. Apparently, so did the listeners. The song peaked at #4 on the Billboard singles charts. Bernie Taupin said he got the title from his then-wife Maxine (the “seamstress for the band” mentioned in “Tiny Dancer”), who’d utter the title anytime Elton got testy. Elton embraced that. Why not. As long as he knew! The B*tch is Back Written by Elton John and Bernie Taupin Recorded by Elton John From Caribou, 1974 Reason banned: “b*tch” in the title Now the poor get fat: