Explicit Top 40 Hits
Printed From: Top 40 Music on CD
Category: Top 40 Music On Compact Disc
Forum Name: Chat Board
Forum Description: Chat away but please observe the chat board rules
URL: https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9213
Printed Date: 11 May 2025 at 9:02am
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 12.07 - https://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: Explicit Top 40 Hits
Posted By: jebsib
Subject: Explicit Top 40 Hits
Date Posted: 13 January 2020 at 6:24pm
|
This week's #1 song is Roddy Ricch's "The Box", currently unavailable
commercially in a Clean Version and jam-packed with expletives and N-Words. While there have been coarse / vulgar hits for decades, does anyone know the first commercial hits that actually had out-and-out swear words? |
Replies:
Posted By: PopArchivist
Date Posted: 13 January 2020 at 6:37pm
A Boy Named Sue had no explicit version, just a clean release until the Live album it came from came out decades later unedited. It contained son-of-a-bitch in the lyrics censored. That was 1969. If I recall the Isley Brothers Fight The Power contained the first true curse word "bullshit", which was censored out for the radio in the 70's but available on the LP Version. There were other instances of changed lyrics like Lou Christie's Rhapsody In The Rain in the 60's, but if your talking about vulgar/offensive language, I can't recall any before the Isley Brothers hit. Unless you want to count John Lennon's use of the N Word in his 1972 song, which due to its use of an offensive racial epithet and what was perceived as an inappropriate comparison of women's rights to the oppression of African-Americans, most radio stations in the US declined to play the record. Either way if you want to discount Bitch go right ahead. Apparently radio was okay with playing Elton John's The Bitch Is Back and Neil Sedaka's Bad Blood without edits. Almost forgot 1976's Hurricane Part 1 by Bob Dylan as a special mention.... |
jebsib wrote:Posted By: PopArchivist
Date Posted: 13 January 2020 at 6:54pm
The last time this happened was Eminem's Killshot in 2018. No clean version exists for it. If it is popular enough, Promo Only might issue an edit of it. Or it might make it to the next NOW cd. I can tell you that even if it isn't lossy I've personally been able to match up an explicit with a clean if need be. I checked Tidal, Qobuz and 7Digital and they all have the explicit album track.... |
Posted By: aaronk
Date Posted: 13 January 2020 at 7:42pm
|
“Money” by Pink Floyd was from 1973, and commercial copies also
contain the word “bullshit.” ------------- Aaron Kannowski http://www.uptownsound.com" rel="nofollow - Uptown Sound http://www.919thepeak.com" rel="nofollow - 91.9 The Peak - Classic Hip Hop |
Posted By: jebsib
Date Posted: 14 January 2020 at 10:54am
|
Amazing how the culture has shifted. How long before we get a #1 hit with one
of the "Big 2" words in the title? |
Posted By: eriejwg
Date Posted: 14 January 2020 at 11:11am
|
Ironically, I emailed the programmer at Promo Only
yesterday about this song and the huge increase in spins this week. He initially serviced to POOL the promo [clean] version, then last night, they uploaded a PO Clean Edit. Top Hits U.S.A. hasn't even serviced the song at all. ------------- John Gallagher Erie, PA https://www.johngallagher.com" rel="nofollow - John Gallagher Wedding & Special Event Entertainment / Snapblast Photo Booth |
Posted By: PopArchivist
Date Posted: 14 January 2020 at 11:21am
Aaron, Did radio back then even censor John Lennon's Woman is the N... Of The World? Or was Money in 1973 the first true censored top 40 hit? |
Posted By: eriejwg
Date Posted: 14 January 2020 at 11:25am
|
No radio station in my area played that John Lennon song
in 1972. ------------- John Gallagher Erie, PA https://www.johngallagher.com" rel="nofollow - John Gallagher Wedding & Special Event Entertainment / Snapblast Photo Booth |
Posted By: Hykker
Date Posted: 14 January 2020 at 2:22pm
As noted, it was only censored on the mono side of promo copies. Stock copies and the stereo side of the promo were left intact. A couple censored songs from the early 60s... "Greenback Dollar" - Kingston Trio ("damn" was replaced with a guitar strum) "My Boomerang Won't Come Back" - Charlie Drake (original had the line "practiced until I was black in the face", later issues replaced "black" with "blue")
Nor mine. I'd guess most of its chart position came from sales. |
Posted By: Paul Haney
Date Posted: 15 January 2020 at 5:51am
Well, Cee Lo Green got pretty close with "F**k You!" (which did have a clean version "Forget You") and Pink had "F**kin' Perfect", both of which peaked at #2 on the Hot 100 in 2011. |
Posted By: Paul Haney
Date Posted: 15 January 2020 at 5:52am
There's not a single American radio station survey which shows that song in the ARSA database. |
Posted By: PopArchivist
Date Posted: 19 January 2020 at 12:02am
|
So before the era of numerous explicit hits began right around 1993 to chart on the top 40 and storm up the top 10, is there a definitive top 40 list of songs from 1955-1992 that have a clean radio edit and an explicit to match? I would be curious to see if I missed any. ------------- Favorite two expressions to live by on this board: "You can't download vinyl" and "Not everything is available on CD." |