"The Bitch Is Back" - Elton John

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Edited by jimct

eriejwg wrote: FASCINATING story, thanks for sharing!

Ditto, Jim!

Todd Ireland wrote: 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.

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."