Top Ten Banned Songs: Only the Good Die Young (#4)

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Think I’ll hit the beach! There’s a state park in the bay in Erie, and I’m going to take a peek at it. But first, let’s sing along with this song that was banned by some stations when it was released. #4: Only the Good Die Young - Billy Joel This song has something to offend everyone in it. (Billy Joel in the introduction to the song, linked below) The 70s were all about sex, and keeping true to one’s beliefs was a difficult thing. That’s all this song is about. He could’ve said “Presbyterian”….except it wouldn’t fit the meter pattern of the song! Well, the Catholic Church didn’t see it that way. They launched a campaign to get the song, when it was released as a single, kept off radio stations. From the standpoint of the top 40, it may have had marginal success, as it was one of Joel’s lower-peaking songs (it only got to #24). However, the FM stations didn’t care, and they played the song Joel described as “not so much anti-Catholic as pro-lust” in rotation with a number of other songs from Joel’s breakthrough album The Stranger. “The Vatican Rag,” this ain’t. (Not that Tom Lehrer’s masterpiece about Vatican II ever got top 40 station consideration to begin with…) Billy Joel said it was a simple case of all the teenage tough boys in his neighborhood in New York: “all the boys wanted to make it with a Catholic girl.” Only the Good Die Young Written by Billy Joel Recorded by Billy Joel From The Stranger, 1977 Reason banned: offensive to Catholics All that could give you was a reputation: