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"The Bitch Is Back" - Elton John

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Topic: "The Bitch Is Back" - Elton John

Posted By: Todd Ireland
Subject: "The Bitch Is Back" - Elton John
Date Posted: 05 December 2007 at 4:23pm

According to the database, CD entries for Elton John's "The Bitch Is Back" range widely from 3:32 to 3:44. Does anyone have any info regarding the actual vinyl 45 and LP run times? I'm wondering if we have another case of a difference in length between the two.

(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. I realize it's not considered a bad word in Elton John's home country, but I still remain surprised over how the song attained seemingly widespread acceptance in the U.S.)

Replies:

Posted By: Hykker
Date Posted: 05 December 2007 at 4:38pm

Especially when you take into account that the same word was edited out of the 45 version of Billy Joel's "Worse Comes To Worst", which was out around the same time. Of course, Billy's career was just getting established in '74 while Elton was so hot at the time he could have flatulated into a microphone and still hit #1.

Posted By: Todd Ireland
Date Posted: 05 December 2007 at 4:54pm

Hykker wrote:

Elton was so hot at the time he could have flatulated into a microphone and still hit #1.

LOL Given the increasingly vulgar direction popular music has taken in recent years, Hykker, I wouldn't be at all surprised if some artist eventually implements your idea and turns it into a #1 smash.

Posted By: BillCahill
Date Posted: 05 December 2007 at 5:38pm

Couple of interesting side notes on that song, some radio stations only called it "Elton John from Caribou".

Also the American Top 40 show made a rare exception and allowed stations that weren't playing it to edit the track off the show. Normally you were not allowed to edit Casey's show.

Posted By: The Hits Man
Date Posted: 05 December 2007 at 5:40pm

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. I realize it's not considered a bad word in Elton John's home country, but I still remain surprised over how the song attained seemingly widespread acceptance in the U.S.)

Back in 1974, where I lived, it wasn't even an issue. Maybe the country was still reeling from the Watergate Scandal, the lies of Nixon to care. The word was not even considered bad until very recently.

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Posted By: jimct
Date Posted: 05 December 2007 at 7:11pm

Todd, my commercial 45 has both a listed and actual time of (3:42). As mentioned earlier, Elton was absolutely "hot as a firecracker" at the time, but the word "bitch" was obviously a big concern for many stations. When I started working at the station a couple of years later, I asked a station veteran, who was there back in 1974, what the "inside story" was with this song. He said "We were in a tough spot. We had an older, conservative man as station owner, since 1947, and his office was right in our building. We had to ask him about 'The Bitch Is Back' the day it came in, fearing a possible firing if he'd heard the word 'bitch', airing on 'his' station, without having 'why' explained to him first. He really did understand the nature of Top 40 radio, though, and 99.99% of the time he would stay out of such things, and simply allow the Music/Program Directors to do their jobs." (I both listened to, and also own almost all of their old '64-'74 music surveys, and the ONLY big hit song that I remember them never playing at all, during all of those years, was 1967's "Society's Child" by Janis Ian, which I'd only known about because the "other" Top 40 station in town was spinning it.) Back to Elton John. "The PD/MD explained to the owner that he was currently THE #1 hottest act in Top 40, that he was scheduled to come to our city for a concert within 6-8 weeks, and that the station needed to 'stay on MCA's good side'. Our station was 'Presenting Elton John', which meant one of our DJ's got to go up on stage early on, and publicly thank all the people, both for coming AND, of course, for listening to our station! Things like ths were always VERY important image/ego 'gets' for radio stations. We were also hoping to receive absolutely as MANY free tickets from MCA as possible, for on-air giveaway." (Ironically, a few weeks later, this show would be cancelled!) "So, when all this was explained to the owner, he agreed to allow the song to be aired, unless a flood of negative listeners complaints came in about it (they didn't.) At the very least, though, he didn't want our own station's DJ's to actually SAY 'the B word'. Since the 'Caribou' album had already been out for more than two months, MCA had mentioned to us that some album rock stations, who had similar concerns, had long been using the 'Elton John From Caribou, alternative quasi-title' for 'The Bitch Is Back'. When the PD/MD told the owner of this option, he said 'fine'. They then put several big "Jocks: Do NOT say the actual title of 'The Bitch Is Back'; say 'Elton John From Caribou' instead! signs, inside the main studio, as well as another obvious warning on the cart itself. And that's the way the station handled this 'situation', for its entire chart run." Since I wasn't recording this conversation, I know EVERY word of my long quote couldn't possibly be 100% accurate, but I do know I that remember his story details, for this song, almost word-for-word.

Posted By: eriejwg
Date Posted: 05 December 2007 at 7:54pm

FASCINATING story, thanks for sharing!

I suppose if there had been a firestorm of complaints they could have recut the song as "The Witch is Back, but COULD YOU SEE Elton re-recording it? Not likely...

Posted By: Todd Ireland
Date Posted: 05 December 2007 at 9:01pm

eriejwg wrote:

FASCINATING story, thanks for sharing!

Ditto, Jim!

Posted By: Brian W.
Date Posted: 06 December 2007 at 1:50am

Amazing story, Jim! I do remember them playing it on KJR, Seattle's main Top 40 station, but I don't recall whether the DJs announced the title or not.

Posted By: Brian W.
Date Posted: 06 December 2007 at 1:58am

Todd Ireland wrote:

Hykker wrote:

Elton was so hot at the time he could have flatulated into a microphone and still hit #1.

Well, I must admit, I never thought there'd be a #2 smash ballad with the chorus, "I wanna f**k you," like there was last year.

Which reminds me of another thing that makes me feel old: As I was preparing to leave work tonight, I was singing '70s songs with a coworker (about my age) who'd just arrived for the graveyard shift. Somehow Helen Reddy's name came up, and my coworker said, "Oh, it's so nice to talk to someone who actually knows who Helen Reddy is. She was mentioned the other night in a show we were working on, and nobody on my shift had ever heard of her."

Posted By: Paul Haney
Date Posted: 06 December 2007 at 7:28am

Ah, the memories...I was 8 years-old when this song was a hit. I had 2 older brothers who got me hooked on AT40 right around this time (which pretty much set me on my future career path). Mom & Dad would let us listen to the local Top 40 station in the car. When our parents heard us sing along with this song for the first time they shut off the radio and that was it for KDWB in the car!

Flash forward to the fall of 1975...Neil Sedaka sang the offending "B" word in "Bad Blood" (which just happened to feature Elton!)...Mom was a big Neil Sedaka fan from the early 1960's, so all of a sudden that word wasn't so bad after all and KDWB was once again allowed in the family Buick.

Posted By: Gary Mack
Date Posted: 06 December 2007 at 9:42am

I was program director of KLEO in Wichita then and I remember warning our GM ahead of time that we might have a problem. It helped that we were the #1 station in town and had been for many years (long before my arrival). He approved playing it and we instructed station personnel to immediately let us know about any complaints. My memory is that there were none! And Wichita was and still is a conservative city in the "Bible belt."

GM

Posted By: The Hits Man
Date Posted: 06 December 2007 at 9:49am

Man, I feel so alone at work. None of my fellow baby-boomers listen to music unless it's blues or country.

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Posted By: Todd Ireland
Date Posted: 06 December 2007 at 10:06am

Brian W. wrote:

Well, I must admit, I never thought there'd be a #2 smash ballad with the chorus, "I wanna f**k you," like there was last year.

Yep, you of course are referring to Akon featuring Snoop Dogg's hit which actually went all the way to #1 last year. Even though record labels have pretty much an "anything goes" mentality anymore with the music they produce and market, the labels realize the decency standards of today's commercial Top 40 radio stations haven't completely deteriorated to the point where radio will blatantly play a song featuring the "f-word". So Akon's label had him re-record the song as "I Wanna Love You" and that's how it officially charted on Billboard. Granted, the label still heavily promoted the explicit version at retail and many teens and pre-teens went out and bought it. Personally, I find it quite disturbing (and even frightening) to think that somehow over the past 40+ years, record labels have gone from marketing "I Want to Hold Your Hand" to "I Wanna F**k You" to young kids.

Posted By: bwolfe
Date Posted: 06 December 2007 at 11:14am

I recall the same "Elton John from Caribou" line too.
Also "that was/is Elton John" was popular too.

Wonder what the Kidz Bop Kids would do with that one?
They altered "Makes Me Wonder" by Maroon 5 recently.

Today's music has a lack of class.

I remember being afraid my parents would find my "Brown Sugar" single.
It was backed with "Bitch."
I was 8 years old.

-------------
the way it was heard on the radio

Posted By: Brian W.
Date Posted: 06 December 2007 at 7:14pm

Todd Ireland wrote:

you of course are referring to Akon featuring Snoop Dogg's hit which actually went all the way to #1 last year.

Oops! I must have an error in my Word file. But, yeah, the download sales far and away favored the "explicit" version, if I recall correctly.

Posted By: sriv94
Date Posted: 29 March 2014 at 3:49pm

Thought I asked this once before, but danged if I can find it. On Elton John's GHV2 CD, "The Bitch Is Back" opens with a couple notes and some cymbal taps before launching into the guitar. On the T-L SOTS 1974 disc, the opening notes/cymbal taps are excised and it starts with the guitar.

Which way was it on the 45?

-------------
Doug
---------------
All of the good signatures have been taken.

Posted By: Yah Shure
Date Posted: 29 March 2014 at 6:11pm

sriv94 wrote:

On Elton John's GHV2 CD, "The Bitch Is Back" opens with a couple notes and some cymbal taps before launching into the guitar. On the T-L SOTS 1974 disc, the opening notes/cymbal taps are excised and it starts with the guitar.

Which way was it on the 45?

Doug, those notes and cymbal taps are present on all three of my 45s: U.S. DJ and stock MCAs and the U.K. DJM stock 45.

Looks like the T-L folks edited out the wrong part. ;)

Posted By: The Hits Man
Date Posted: 29 March 2014 at 10:10pm

Todd Ireland wrote:

According to the database, CD
entries for Elton John's "The Bitch Is Back" range widely
from 3:32 to 3:44. Does anyone have any info regarding
the actual vinyl 45 and LP run times? I'm wondering if we
have another case of a difference in length between the
two.

(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. I realize it's
not considered a bad word in Elton John's home country,
but I still remain surprised over how the song attained
seemingly widespread acceptance in the U.S.)

I guess it depends on where you lived in 1974. Where I
lives, radio hardly censored any records. The only one I
ever heard censored was "Fight The Power" by The Isley
Brothers.

My experience in the 70s was that radio was pretty
liberal in what they would play. We played it at school
functions and no one raised an eyebrow.

-------------

Posted By: edtop40
Date Posted: 01 January 2018 at 3:10pm

so, was there ever issued a promo 45 that edited out the
word 'bitch'?

-------------
edtop40

Posted By: Bill Cahill
Date Posted: 01 January 2018 at 7:31pm

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)

Posted By: KentT
Date Posted: 05 January 2018 at 9:12am

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.

-------------
I turn up the good and turn down the bad!

Posted By: The Hits Man
Date Posted: 05 January 2018 at 10:12am

delete

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Posted By: Bill Cahill
Date Posted: 05 January 2018 at 11:34am

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

Posted By: The Hits Man
Date Posted: 06 January 2018 at 12:40pm

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.

-------------

Posted By: eriejwg
Date Posted: 06 January 2018 at 3:15pm

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.

Posted By: PopArchivist
Date Posted: 22 December 2019 at 4:29pm

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.

Posted By: Brian W.
Date Posted: 22 December 2019 at 5:54pm

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.

Posted By: Santi Paradoa
Date Posted: 22 December 2019 at 7:03pm

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.

-------------
Santi Paradoa

Miami, Florida

Posted By: garye
Date Posted: 22 December 2019 at 8:12pm

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.

Posted By: Brian W.
Date Posted: 23 December 2019 at 6:01am

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.

Posted By: Santi Paradoa
Date Posted: 23 December 2019 at 7:19pm

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

-------------
Santi Paradoa

Miami, Florida

Posted By: Hykker
Date Posted: 24 December 2019 at 8:31am

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.

Posted By: garye
Date Posted: 24 December 2019 at 10:45am

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

Posted By: Paul Haney
Date Posted: 27 December 2019 at 4:43am

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.

Posted By: Hykker
Date Posted: 27 December 2019 at 6:58am

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.

Posted By: PopArchivist
Date Posted: 27 December 2019 at 9:30am

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

Posted By: PopArchivist
Date Posted: 27 December 2019 at 9:39am

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...

Posted By: sriv94
Date Posted: 27 December 2019 at 10:50am

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. :) )

-------------
Doug
---------------
All of the good signatures have been taken.

Posted By: eriejwg
Date Posted: 27 December 2019 at 11:13am

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.

-------------
John Gallagher
Erie, PA
https://www.johngallagher.com" rel="nofollow - John Gallagher Wedding & Special Event Entertainment / Snapblast Photo Booth

Posted By: Paul Haney
Date Posted: 28 December 2019 at 6:01am

Now that you guys have jogged my memory a bit, I do
recall hearing the edited "Rich Girl", at least a few
times in 1977 (possibly a daypart issue).

As for "The Devil Went Down To Georgia" I think the fact
that it was going to get a lot of airplay on more
conservative Country radio is what made the label go with
the "son of a gun" lyrics for the single.

As for "Play That Funky Music" I never once heard the
non-"White Boy" version until it showed up on a various
artists CD years after the fact. It was quite startling
to hear it!

Posted By: AndrewChouffi
Date Posted: 28 December 2019 at 8:28am

To Paul Haney & PopArchivist:

Regarding "Devil Went Down To Georgia", If you listen carefully on headphones, the 'sun-of-a-gun' lyric is what was ORIGINALLY recorded (and presumably intended 'cos it kinda rhymes with 'once' & Charlie Daniels is somewhat conservative and sings this generally in concerts).

The album version with the 'sonofabitch' lyric was presumably created to make the album sound "more rock" or to potentially appeal more to that audience. You can hear on headphones the punch-in of the new 'sonofabitch' line because either a different microphone was used or different room acoustics were present. (Possibly a suggestion from producer John Boylan).

I strictly assume this was the case based on the aural evidence...

Andy

Posted By: Paul Haney
Date Posted: 28 December 2019 at 1:29pm

Thanks, Andy! I'm always learning something new.