Banned Songs of the 70s: The Real Story
Dozens of banned songs of the 70s stories get repeated online, and a good number of them are wrong.
Some songs really were pulled from the airwaves by broadcasters, regulators, and even entire governments.
Others were never banned at all, despite endless articles insisting otherwise.
This is a fully sourced look at both categories.
Real bans get the who, the why, and how each song fared on the charts afterward.
Widely repeated myths get corrected outright, not just quietly left off the list.
The bans documented here span the BBC's own written policies, a formal FCC notice, and apartheid-era South Africa's state broadcaster.
Sixteen entries in total make up this list of banned songs of the 70s, thirteen real bans and three busted myths.
Click into any card below to see the full story.
BBC Broadcasting House, Portland Place, London. Image credit: Photo by Oxyman, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
How We Verified Every Banned Songs of the 70s Story
Most lists online blur two very different things together.
A real ban means a broadcaster, regulator, or government body issued an actual policy against a song.
That policy had to be documented somewhere.
It includes the BBC's written trademark and content rules.
It includes a formal FCC notice.
It includes an apartheid-era state broadcaster's own censorship record.
A myth means something looser: a song that struggled to get airplay, or a "ban" story invented for publicity and repeated as fact ever since.
Every confirmed entry below cites its actual source.
That's a broadcaster's stated policy, contemporary press coverage, or a band member's own account, not a vague "reportedly."
Claims that couldn't be verified against a real source were left out entirely.
That standard is what separates a real list of banned songs of the 70s from a recycled one.
One more distinction matters here too.
Several "banned" songs from this exact decade actually got their bans decades later.
Edwin Starr's "War" and Lennon's own "Imagine" both show up on a 1991 Gulf War restricted-playlist memo and a 2001 post-9/11 radio advisory list.
Those later bans don't count here, even though the songs themselves are from the decade.
Myths, Debunked: Songs That Were Never Actually Banned
These three show up on nearly every other "banned songs of the 70s" list currently ranking.
None of them were actually banned.
Here's the specific claim each source gets wrong, and what the record actually shows.
Getting this part right matters more than the confirmed-ban cards below, since it's the corner of banned songs of the 70s coverage almost nobody else bothers to check.
Was "Roxanne" by The Police really banned by the BBC?
Never actually banned by the BBC.
The common claim: multiple currently-ranking articles state flatly that the BBC banned "Roxanne" in 1978.
The stated reason is always its prostitution subject matter.
What actually happened: the BBC declined to add the song to its playlist.
That was a routine editorial call, not a formal ban.
Police drummer Stuart Copeland has since admitted the band and their label leaned into the word "banned" anyway.
It simply made for better press than "the BBC didn't add us to the playlist."
The song still climbed the UK Albums Chart once Outlandos d'Amour caught on, ban or no ban.
Was Helen Reddy's "I Am Woman" banned from the radio?
No formal ban existed.
The common claim: several banned-songs lists describe "I Am Woman" as banned by hostile, male-dominated 1972 radio.
What actually happened: the song struggled to get initial airplay.
Station programmers and DJs simply passed on it.
That's resistance, not policy.
Reddy's label pushed the single to a small station outside Washington, D.C.
Listener call-in demand grew from there.
It re-entered the Hot 100 in September 1972 and reached #1 that December, built on audience demand rather than a ban being lifted.
Did radio stations ban Peter Frampton's "Do You Feel Like We Do" for suggestive lyrics?
No major station ever banned it.
The common claim: a persistent rumor holds that the song's lyrics were too suggestive for 1976 radio.
Several sites repeat that the rumor resulted in bans at multiple stations.
What actually happened: a direct fact-check of the claim found no documented ban at any major broadcaster.
The song reached #10 on the Billboard Hot 100.
It became the centerpiece of Frampton Comes Alive!, one of the best-selling live albums of the decade.
A rumor with no broadcaster or source behind it isn't a ban, however often it gets repeated.
Banned for Sex, Drugs, and "Indecency"
Most confirmed bans from this stretch of banned songs of the 70s trace back to sexual content or drug references.
Broadcasters found both too explicit for the era.
A few of these came from federal regulators rather than individual stations.
Why did the BBC restrict Donna Summer's "Love to Love You Baby"?
Confined to late-night-only airplay for its explicit vocals.
The 1975 studio version ran nearly seventeen minutes.
It was built around Donna Summer's simulated-orgasm vocal performance under producer Giorgio Moroder.
The BBC judged it too explicit for daytime broadcast and restricted it to late-night slots.
Several US stations separately declined to play the full-length version at all.
Despite the restrictions, it reached #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and helped define disco's new sexual frankness.
Donna Summer's chart dominance didn't stop there.
Read about her record four entries on the Top Songs of 1979 year-end chart.
Why did the BBC ban Wings' "Hi, Hi, Hi"?
Banned outright over suspected drug and sexual references.
The BBC banned Paul McCartney and Wings' "Hi, Hi, Hi" in December 1972.
A strange detail fed the controversy.
The song's publisher sent stations a lyric sheet that mis-transcribed the line "get ready for my polygon" as "get ready for my body gun."
That error made the song sound more explicit than the actual lyric.
McCartney insisted the title referred to any kind of "high," not drugs specifically.
The BBC banned it anyway.
It remains one of Wings' best-remembered singles from their most productive early run.
See more of Paul McCartney's decade-spanning chart reach in Best Songs of the 70s.
Why did the FCC get involved with "One Toke Over the Line"?
A federal notice, not just a station-level call.
Brewer & Shipley's "One Toke Over the Line" climbed the charts in early 1971.
As it climbed, the FCC issued a public notice reminding broadcasters they were responsible for screening lyrics that might promote illegal drug use.
Vice President Spiro Agnew separately condemned the song by name as drug-culture propaganda.
Rolling Stone reported in April 1971 that multiple Top 40 stations dropped the song from rotation in response.
It still peaked at #10 in the US and #5 in Canada.
It's the only song on this list to draw direct federal government attention rather than a broadcaster's own internal policy.
Why was the Rolling Stones' "Brown Sugar" banned by US radio stations?
Banned by multiple stations over slavery, sex, and drug references.
"Brown Sugar" opens with lyrics referencing a slaveowner and non-consensual sex.
That's set against one of the band's most recognizable riffs.
Multiple US radio stations refused to air it on release in 1971.
It topped the Billboard Hot 100 regardless, and remained a live staple for decades.
The band itself later quietly dropped it from setlists over the same lyrics that got it banned in the first place.
Read more about the Rolling Stones' place in the decade's 70s Rock story.
Which stations banned "Walk on the Wild Side," and why not the BBC?
Some US daytime stations banned or edited it, but not the BBC.
Lou Reed's 1972 single references transgender performers from Andy Warhol's Factory scene.
It also references drug use, in terms explicit for the era.
Several US daytime radio stations refused to play it, or aired edited versions with the more explicit lines removed.
The BBC, despite its strict content policies elsewhere on this list, reportedly let it through.
It apparently missed some of the song's coded references.
It peaked at #16 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Was Alice Cooper's "Only Women Bleed" banned for being about menstruation?
Restricted and retitled after being misread, not formally banned.
The 1975 ballad is actually about a woman in an abusive marriage.
Many listeners and some stations misread the title as being about menstruation, which limited its airplay in certain formats.
Rather than face a formal ban, the label shortened the song and retitled the single "Only Women" to keep it radio-friendly.
It still reached #12 on the Billboard Hot 100 under the softened title.
Banned by the BBC's Own Rulebook
Not every entry on this list of banned songs of the 70s came from shock value.
Some came straight out of the corporation's own written policy, especially its strict rule against product placement.
Why did the BBC ban "God Save the Queen" during the Silver Jubilee?
Banned outright for its anti-monarchy stance.
The Sex Pistols released "God Save the Queen" in 1977, timed against Elizabeth II's Silver Jubilee celebrations.
The BBC banned it from airplay entirely.
Major UK retail chains refused to stock the single.
It still reached #2 on the UK Singles Chart.
Persistent claims hold that chart compilers undercounted its sales to keep it off #1 during Jubilee week.
It's one of the most famous banned songs of the 70s for exactly that reason.
Punk's most notorious single in the UK came out of the same scene documented in this site's 70s Rock post.
Why did the BBC ban Paul McCartney's "Give Ireland Back to the Irish"?
Banned as a direct response to Bloody Sunday.
British troops killed thirteen civil rights protesters in Derry on January 30, 1972, an event known as Bloody Sunday.
McCartney wrote the song directly in response.
The BBC banned it outright.
Independent commercial UK stations were separately ordered to pull it from their own playlists too.
Both public and commercial broadcasters acting together was unusual, even by the standards of this list.
The song still topped the charts in Ireland and Spain.
See more of McCartney's chart reach across the decade in Best Songs of the 70s.
Why did the BBC ban "Lola," and why did Australia ban it separately?
Two countries, two completely different reasons.
"Lola" is one of the earliest banned songs of the 70s on this list, banned within days of its 1970 release.
The BBC banned The Kinks' hit for mentioning the trademarked brand name "Coca-Cola" in the lyrics.
That fell under its policy against product placement on air.
Ray Davies flew back mid-tour to rerecord the line as "cherry cola" specifically to get the ban lifted.
Australian radio stations banned it separately, over listeners' interpretation that the song's title character was transgender.
That reason was entirely unrelated to the BBC's trademark objection.
Despite both bans, "Lola" still reached #2 on the UK Singles Chart.
Why couldn't British and Australian radio play "Kodachrome"?
Banned for using a trademarked brand name in the title itself.
Paul Simon's 1973 hit "Kodachrome" was banned by both the BBC and the Federation of Australian Radio Broadcasters.
Both cited the same problem.
"Kodachrome" was a trademarked Kodak film product name, and their policies barred what amounted to on-air brand promotion.
Kodak reportedly required the trademark symbol printed wherever the title appeared in writing.
Simon released a different single, "Take Me to the Mardi Gras," in the UK instead, with "Kodachrome" relegated to its B-side.
In the US it reached #2 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Paul Simon was one of several artists tied for two hits on the Top Songs of 1973 year-end chart.
Banned Beyond Britain: South Africa's Apartheid-Era Censors
Nearly every other banned songs of the 70s list stops at Britain and the United States.
South Africa's apartheid-era state broadcaster banned far more music than either country.
Often, the reasons tied directly to the regime's own politics.
Why was John Lennon's music banned in South Africa throughout the 70s?
A 1966 ban that outlasted the Beatles themselves.
Among every entry in this roundup of banned songs of the 70s, this is the one that ran longest and reached furthest.
The South African Broadcasting Corporation banned all Beatles records in 1966, after Lennon's "more popular than Jesus" remark.
The apartheid-era broadcaster ruled the remark anti-religious.
The Beatles split in 1970, but the SABC didn't lift the ban.
Instead, it extended the ban to Lennon's solo output specifically.
That meant "Imagine," released in 1971, went unplayed on South African state radio for years.
It became a global peace anthem everywhere else in the meantime.
McCartney, Harrison, and Starr's solo work, by contrast, was granted airtime.
Some sources separately point to "Imagine"'s own "no religion too" lyric as a second reason for the ban.
That specific claim is worth noting, but it's less consistently sourced than the Beatles-era carryover explanation above.
Why did South African censors object to Chris de Burgh's "Spanish Train"?
Banned and retitled for blasphemy.
Chris de Burgh released "Spanish Train and Other Stories" in 1975.
Its title track is built around God losing a card game with the Devil over human souls.
Apartheid-era South African censors found the premise blasphemous.
Rather than pull the album from the South African market entirely, its release there was retitled.
Spanish Train and Other Stories became Lonely Sky and Other Stories to get past the censors.
It remains one of the more obscure entries on this list outside South Africa itself.
It's also one of the clearest examples of censorship reshaping how an album reached listeners.
Why did apartheid South Africa ban Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2"?
Banned after Black schoolchildren turned it into a protest anthem.
Pink Floyd released "Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2" in November 1979, right at the close of the decade.
The ban itself came later, in May 1980.
South African schoolchildren were protesting the country's segregated, unequal education system under the Bantu Education Act.
They adopted the song's "we don't need no education" refrain as a protest chant.
The apartheid government responded by banning the song outright.
That ban stood for roughly a decade.
The release date and the ban date sit on opposite sides of the decade line.
That's worth stating plainly rather than smoothing over: a 70s song, banned in 1980.
That's the full, sourced list of confirmed banned songs of the 70s covered here, plus the myths that don't hold up.
Want to test what else you know about the decade?
Try the interactive 70s Music Trivia Quiz, a fresh set of questions every round.
Or find out what song topped the charts the week you were born with the Birthday #1 Song Finder.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does it actually mean for a song to be banned in the 1970s?
A real ban in the 1970s meant a broadcaster or government body issued a formal, documented policy against airing a song.
The BBC's written trademark rules and the FCC's 1971 drug-lyrics notice are two real examples.
Many songs remembered as banned were actually just informally discouraged by individual DJs or program directors, a real but different obstacle covered separately in this post's myths section.
Which banned song from the 70s had the longest-lasting ban?
John Lennon's "Imagine" holds that record.
South Africa's state broadcaster banned all Beatles output in 1966 over Lennon's "more popular than Jesus" remark.
It extended the ban to his solo work once the group split in 1970, keeping "Imagine" off South African state radio for years after its 1971 release, despite its global popularity elsewhere.
Were any songs commonly listed as banned in the 70s actually never banned at all?
Several widely repeated banned claims don't hold up under scrutiny.
The Police's "Roxanne" was never actually banned by the BBC.
Drummer Stuart Copeland has admitted the band invented that story for publicity.
Helen Reddy's "I Am Woman" and Peter Frampton's "Do You Feel Like We Do" both faced informal radio resistance, never a documented ban.
Which countries outside Britain and the United States banned 70s songs?
South Africa's apartheid-era state broadcaster banned multiple 70s songs.
That list includes John Lennon's solo catalog, Chris de Burgh's "Spanish Train" for blasphemy, and Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall" after it became a protest anthem for Black schoolchildren.
Australia's radio broadcasters separately banned both "Lola" and "Kodachrome" over trademarked brand names in their lyrics.
Did getting banned actually hurt these songs commercially?
Getting banned rarely hurt these songs and often helped them.
"Brown Sugar" still topped the Billboard Hot 100 despite US station bans.
"God Save the Queen" reached #2 in the UK during its own ban, and "Love to Love You Baby" hit #2 in the US despite BBC restrictions.
The controversy frequently drove more attention than a quiet release would have.
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