Spinners One of a Kind Love Affair

Edison, of course you're right, letter of the law. But the VAST majority of my 97%-male-dominated Top 40 co-workers (at the time) always struck me as a little bit embarrassed to have to play some of those "teenybopper" songs that we had to back then; I sensed a lot of "latent album-rock frustration" by the full-timers, as a young kid just starting out in AM Top 40. These jocks all seemed to love the personality part of it, the high-energy jingles, the remote broadcasts, all the many format elements (weather/news/traffic/contests, etc.), but I distinctly remember, in 1978, when "Who Are You" was a current, shortly after I started there - we got serviced a Polydor UK import 45: (5:00) long, that featured the "Who the f*** are you" lyric on it, not included on our (3:22/6:11) U.S. MCA promo, which was lyrically "cleaned up." We IMMEDIATELY started playing THAT import 45 version. Of course, I, the greenhorn, asked the very question you just did, coming off the Element 1,2 & 9 FCC test you had to take/pass to get on-air back then. My bosses said the FCC rarely, if ever, enforced that rule for song lyrics, that we could always "plead ignorance" if we had to, and that it made us sound MUCH more hip. They said that if we got multiple LISTENER complaints about the lyric, however, we'd be MUCH more inclined, at that point, to pull the version, which normally only got played after 7PM anyway. Same with Spinners, I imagine. Kind of a "We are SO hot and SO hip of a radio station that, see, we can straddle FCC language laws as much as that hipper, FM, AOR station across town we're competing against!" An old PD told me, many years ago, "Yeah, of course I want high ratings, but I'm not really trying to impress the LISTENERS - I'm mainly tryin' to impress my colleagues and my competitors, both in this market, in this region, and across the country 1000 times more than the listeners! THAT'S how you get hired into the Top 10 markets!" Hey, I don't really intend to speak for all the "radio guys" here - it just seemed to be a sort of "perverse pleasure" that those guys took at the time, for whatever reasons, and to them was apparently worth any perceived "risk." Any other old jocks with an opinion out there?

Edited by jimct

Hi

I was never even aware of the "F" issue with this song. I was amused so i pulled it out to hear it and for what it's worth (which is nothing) I'm hearing "hug".
Besides the blinding logic that this is a Spinners soft fluffy love song produced and issued for radio and i'm fully confident that neither the lead singer nor Atlantic would drop an F-bomb in it.
However i can see where in passing it can be mistaken so i can understand them being cautious and removing it later.

-MM

Just my two cents worth here.

I remember the first time I heard the uncensored version. It was playing in the background while I worked on some chart stuff, so I wasn't doing much more than casually listening. When the debated line came by, it sounded enough like the f-word to cause me to stop what I was doing and look up.

I immediately replayed the track, this time listening carefully. That time, I clearly heard it as "hug".

So, I agree with MMatthews on this one. It's not what it sounds like, but sounds enough like it that I could see radio asking it to be "fixed".

I'm pretty sure it's the "F" bomb...

jrjr wrote: ahh, the detroit spinners, one of the great soul bands of the 70's, or any era for that matter, and what a shame that phillippe wynne died so young! i have to believe that the lyric is "hug" because back in '73 the ultra-conservative top 40 AM station here in central NY that i listened to when i was a kid, that never ever played anything that sounded remotely "black", played every spinners single release and played the hell out of "one of a kind" and i never knew anything but the "uncensored" version... i never would have even thought of the f-word being there had it not been for this chat room! too classy a group and too classy a producer (thom bell)...

Well, I think the real answer died with Philleppe, but I am certain that it is the "F" word. From all accounts, the man was a loose cannon, so it's not unthinkable. Back then, people tried to see what little things they could get away with. It had nothing to do with class or style. It was probably a way to "cut loose", or "blow off steam" on record. It was the 70s, after all.

I also think it's funny that the ultra-conservative station wouldn't play anything "black", but played everything by the Spinners. I guess they figured the Spinners were "white" enough. I also find it humorous that a station can play top 40 music and avoid anything sounding "black"! It must have had a very small playlist and been run by bigots! Don't scoff! Many stations were/are run and programmed by bigots!