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Posted By: Jim Liddane on: 08/24/2008 10:40:44 EDT
Subject: RE: TRIVIA: Name This Female Singer

Message Detail:
John wrote:

Now, what is this that I hear the BBC doesn't allow name brands of products in songs? True?

Jim replies:

Perfectly correct, but the BBC claim they do not now "ban" songs.

They merely do not choose to play them!

They seem more relaxed about advertising nowadays particularly as so many songs include brand names anyway, but back in the sixties and seventies, BBC did not play quite a few songs which had product references, including

"Kodachrome" by Paul Simon (they felt it advertised Kodak)

"Me & Julio Down By The Schoolyard" by Paul Simon, because it mentioned Newsweek Magazine

"Lola" by the Kinks (Coca Cola) although they played an alternate take which used the words Cherry Cola

"The Cover Of The Rolling Stone" by Dr Hook, and although he re-recorded it as "The Cover Of The Radio Times" (Radio Times is a BBC owned Magazine), they did not play that version either!

"It Would Be Nice" by Pink Floyd (it mentioned the Evening Standard newspaper)

I think the BBC relaxed in the late seventies although a song called "You're Fabulous Babe" by Danny Williams, was not played because a brand of perfume called "Babe" adopted the song soon after release.

Incidentally, BBC played lots of themes from movies, although surely that constituted a form of advertising for the film companies, and they also played football songs (which advertised specific UK football clubs).

On the other hand, they did not play "Caroline" by the Fortunes, once the pirate radio ship Radio Caroline started using it as a theme tune, and they would only play a TV theme from a non-BBC station, if the tune reached the Top 20, and had therefore to be included in Alan Freeman's weekly BBC chart show.

And it is not just advertising - they allowed "Sexual Healing" by Marvin Gaye, but the record had to be referred to by DJs as "Healing", and Johnny Horton's version of "Battle Of New Orleans" was not played because of the phrase "bloody British", although a version by Lonnie Donegan, which used a less offensive phrase, was played, and became a hit.

They did not play Mike Berry's "Tribute To Buddy Holly", (seemingly on the grounds that it might encourage morbid thoughts amongs teenagers - actually it encouraged morbidf thoughts amongst true music lovers instead), although they had played Ruby Wright's tribute "Three Stars" and later played Heinz's "Just Like Eddie" (a tribute to Eddie Cochran).

Incidentally, one of the weirdest recommendations came during the Gulf War, when the BBC allegedly had a list of 64 songs viewed as being "inappropriate" for airplay.

The list (if such a list existed officially) included Paper Lace's "Billy Don't Be A Hero" and Ricky Nelson's "Fools Rush In", as well as Skeeter Davies' "End Of The World", the Animals' "We Got To Get Out Of This Place", The Beatles' "Back In The USSR", Cher's "Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)", First Choice's "Armed And Extremely Dangerous", Maria Muldaur's "Midnight At The Oasis", and Stevie Wonder's "Heaven Help Us All".

What link some of those had with anything, let alone the Gulf War, I still cannot work out.

If on the other hand, they were not playing some on the grounds that they were terrible records anyway, I would be inclined to agree with them!

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