Top 40 Music on Compact Disc: "The Bitch Is Back"

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Topic: "The Bitch Is Back" - Elton John

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Bill Cahill
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Posted: 01 January 2018 at 7:31pm \| IP Logged

I don't know of one. I only knew of stations not playing it, or only allowing the DJ's to say "Elton John from the album Caribou"
or simply "Elton John from Caribou". But they played the song as it was. I don't believe that Casey Kasem ever said the title but
it was in the countdown, I think he just said "here's Elton John" at whatever number it was. The Casey shows with the song in it I
believe came with a letter to stations saying they had permission to edit the song out. (The Casey contract forbid editing of the
show if I remember correctly)

Edited by Bill Cahill on 01 January 2018 at 7:31pm

KentT
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Posted: 05 January 2018 at 9:12am \| IP Logged

Policy in my market was "Play It, announce it as Elton
John from Caribou" This was followed by all Top 40
stations in the East Tennessee market.

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The Hits Man
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Posted: 05 January 2018 at 10:12am \| IP Logged

delete

Edited by The Hits Man on 05 January 2018 at 10:18am

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Bill Cahill
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Posted: 05 January 2018 at 11:34am \| IP Logged

Funny, I just noticed I answered this in the same way a couple of years ago!

The Hits Man
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Posted: 06 January 2018 at 12:40pm \| IP Logged

Bill Cahill wrote:

Funny, I just noticed I answered this
in the same way a couple of years ago!

I do the same thing. That's why I deleted my comment
above because once I realized this is an old thread, I
looked back at my old post and saw that I pretty much
wrote the same thing over again.

Most of you guys are talking about how the song, or the
way it was announced was censored, but all of that is
alien to me because I have a different experience from
where I grew up.

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eriejwg
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Posted: 06 January 2018 at 3:15pm \| IP Logged

Growing up in Erie, PA, I seem to remember the jocks
saying "Elton John from Caribou."

There were 2 top 40 stations here back in the 1970.
WJET-AM and WCCk-FM, both owned by different companies.
In 1974, WCCK refused to play "Jet" from Paul McCartney
and Wings because JET was their main competitor and the
PD of WCCK didn't want to place the thought of JET in
the listeners minds. They did, however, play "Bennie and
the Jets."

Odd,I know.

PopArchivist
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Posted: 22 December 2019 at 4:29pm \| IP Logged

Todd Ireland wrote:

On a side note, I'm still amazed to this day how a song with "bitch" in the title managed to go all to #4 on Billboard, given how strict radio was in 1974 with censoring lyrics that could be interpreted as offensive or inappropriate to a general audience.

Todd,

As I am reviewing the 70's I am just as shocked as everyone else that there was no radio edit for it. In the 90's Meredith Brooks had the Bitch edit and just a year ago Halsey's Bad At Love was edited when it used the word Bitch (which seems pointless but whatever). Elton seemed to be immune to censors. Not just that have you ever really seen any radio edits for Elton? His songs often pass 5 minutes (think of Bennie and the Jets and Little Jeanie) and no one tries to shorten them they just play them as is.

Edited by PopArchivist on 22 December 2019 at 4:43pm

Brian W.
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Posted: 22 December 2019 at 5:54pm \| IP Logged

PopArchivist wrote:

have you ever really seen any radio edits for Elton?

"Bitch" was almost a playful word back in those days,
and also the fact that he's saying "I'm a bitch"
rather than a woman is a bitch probably had some
bearing on there being no radio edit as well.

But as far as Elton edits for length, during the
early '70s "Levon" and "Tiny Dancer" both had edit
versions, but I think there were no more until the
late '70s with "Bite Your Lip," "Victim of Love," and
"Johnnie B. Goode." Once he left MCA for Geffen, many
of his singles were edited for length.

Edited by Brian W. on 23 December 2019 at 6:03am

Santi Paradoa
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Posted: 22 December 2019 at 7:03pm \| IP Logged

Brian W. wrote:

PopArchivist wrote:

have you ever really seen any radio edits for Elton?

"Bitch" was almost a playful word back in those days,
and also the fact that he's saying "I'm a bitch"
rather than a woman is a bitch probably had some
bearing on there being no radio edit as well.

But as far as Elton radio edits for length, during the
early '70s "Levon" and "Tiny Dancer" both had edit
versions, but I think there were no more until the
late '70s with "Bite Your Lip," "Victim of Love," and
"Johnnie B. Goode." Once he left MCA for Geffen, many
of his singles were edited for length.

Where does the "Levon" radio edit appear? This is news to me.

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garye
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Posted: 22 December 2019 at 8:12pm \| IP Logged

There is no edit for "Levon". The promo from Uni is 4:59
same time as commercial release.
Only Uni edit was "Tiny Dancer"and that was just an
early fade to the 3:45 mark.
In fact until "Bite Your Lip" was issued as a 45 at 3:37
there was no Elton John edits on any singles I have
seen.

Brian W.
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Posted: 23 December 2019 at 6:01am \| IP Logged

Santi Paradoa wrote:

Where
does the "Levon" radio edit appear? This is news to
me.

I meant to say "edits," not "radio edits" in particular.
The commercial and promo 45 for "Levon" are shorter than
the album version.

Edited by Brian W. on 23 December 2019 at 6:02am

Santi Paradoa
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Posted: 23 December 2019 at 7:19pm \| IP Logged

Ok so is the "Levon" 45 just an early fade of the longer LP version?

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Hykker
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Posted: 24 December 2019 at 8:31am \| IP Logged

Bill Cahill wrote:

I don't know of one. I only knew of
stations not playing it, or only allowing the DJ's to say
"Elton John from the album Caribou"
or simply "Elton John from Caribou".

That was the dictate at the station I worked at in 1974,
there was a note on the cart itself that said essentially
you NEVER mention the song title on air. Upthread I
referenced Billy Joel's "Worse Comes To Worst" which was
out at around the same time, and the b-word was ducked on
the promo copies. I recall at the time one of my fellow
jocks commenting on the air after playing it saying how
he wondered how Elton John's new song if they did the
same thing.
As far as Meredith Brooks' song in the 90s, I don't
recall that we had a specific policy on announcing the
title...I'd always just refer to it as the "big bad b-
word song".

PopArchivist wrote:

Not just that have you ever really
seen any radio edits for Elton? His songs often pass 5
minutes (think of Bennie and the Jets and Little Jeanie)
and no one tries to shorten them they just play them as
is.

While MCA never put out an official edit for any of EJ's
songs (aside from "Tiny Dancer"), many stations did their
own...I definitely remember we did house edits for "Lucy
In The Sky..." (shortened intro/early fade) and "Someone
Saved My Life" (one verse removed, early fade). We might
have done one on "Philadelphia Freedom" too, don't recall
for sure.

The RKO-General chain was pretty strict on song lengths
then, I'd imagine they created their own edits too.

garye
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Posted: 24 December 2019 at 10:45am \| IP Logged

Had a promo of the single one time.
Word Bitch was still there.
Any removal of the word was an in house edit.

Paul Haney
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Posted: 27 December 2019 at 4:43am \| IP Logged

I may have mentioned this previously, but I never recall
hearing either "Bad Blood" by Neil Sedaka (there's Elton
again!) or "Rich Girl" by Hall & Oates being edited at the
time they were popular. In many ways, people just weren't
as uptight about such trivial matters back then.

Also, many stations across the country did in-house edits
on those longer Elton John hits.

Edited by Paul Haney on 27 December 2019 at 4:43am

Hykker
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Posted: 27 December 2019 at 6:58am \| IP Logged

Paul Haney wrote:

I never recall
hearing either "Bad Blood" by Neil Sedaka (there's Elton
again!) or "Rich Girl" by Hall & Oates being edited at
the
time they were popular.

There was an edit of the Hall & Oates song, I recall
hearing it on several stations (including some small
market ones) during the song's chart run. Not sure where
it came from...I wasn't working in radio in the spring of
'77 ("day job" conflict), and I've never come across an
RCA promo that had the edit...dunno if the label produced
an edit and distributed it on tape to stations that
asked, or if it was done by a third party and just made
the rounds. Essentially the line "you're a rich girl"
was substituted for "it's a bitch girl" throughout the
song.

PopArchivist
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Posted: 27 December 2019 at 9:30am \| IP Logged

Paul Haney wrote:

In many ways, people just weren't
as uptight about such trivial matters back then.

Yet songs like the Devil Went Down To Georgia by the Charlie Daniels Band in 1979 avoid the bitch lyrics on the 45 version that were present on the LP ("I told you once, you son of a bitch I'm the best that's ever been").

So they were more uptight in 1979 then just two years earlier with Rich Girl? Hell who's the genius who thought "white boy" in Play That Funky Music needed to be edited out? Now that's destroying a classic...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=On6VtPhOxr4

Edited by PopArchivist on 27 December 2019 at 9:31am

PopArchivist
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Posted: 27 December 2019 at 9:39am \| IP Logged

Hykker wrote:

Essentially the line "you're a rich girl"
was substituted for "it's a bitch girl" throughout the
song.

Now that would be quite interesting to hear. Too bad it wasn't issued as a legit promo 45...

Edited by PopArchivist on 27 December 2019 at 9:40am

sriv94
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Posted: 27 December 2019 at 10:50am \| IP Logged

Interesting to note (going back to "Bitch") that WLS and WABC did play an edited version of "The Bitch Is Back," but not censoring the B
word. Seems ABC had more problem with the verse ending in "I get high in the evening sniffing pots of glue."

(Although it did help make it a tight (3:13) run time to suit their "nothing over three minutes" tastes. :) )

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eriejwg
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Posted: 27 December 2019 at 11:13am \| IP Logged

There was a local Adult Contemporary station in 1977 that
played the 'edited' version of Hall & Oates. I remember
visiting a DJ at the station that I knew and he showed me
a small reel box from WWWE in Cleveland. He said that's
who sent them their edit.

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