The following is a list of songs that the BBC (The British Broadcasting Corporation) has, at one stage or another, considered unsuitable for broadcasting on its radio and television stations. Although the BBC has historically banned songs it deemed unsuitable, in recent years the Corporation has claimed that it no longer bans any records. As the United Kingdom's public service broadcasting corporation, the BBC has always felt some obligation to standards of taste and decency, to varying levels, at different times in its history. This "we know best" attitude has earned it the nickname of "Auntie BBC" or "Auntie Beeb".
The BBC has banned songs from the following artists; Cliff Richard, Frank Sinatra, Noël Coward, The Beatles, Ken Dodd, Elvis Presley, Bing Crosby, the BBC Dance Orchestra, Glenn Miller, and George Formby. In addition, 67 songs were banned from BBC airplay as the first Gulf War began, including ABBA's "Waterloo", Queen's "Killer Queen" and The Boomtown Rats' "I Don't Like Mondays".
Files at the BBC's Written Archives Centre in Caversham, Berkshire now available for public inspection show that the Dance Music Policy Committee, set up in the 1930s, took the role of Britain's cultural guardian seriously: one 1942 directive read:
We have recently adopted a policy of excluding sickly sentimentality which, particularly when sung by certain vocalists, can become nauseating and not at all in keeping with what we feel to be the need of the public in this country in the fourth year of war.
The BBC's director of music, Sir Arthur Bliss, wrote wartime instructions for the committee banning songs "which are slushy in sentiment" or "pop" versions of classical pieces such as "I'm Always Chasing Rainbows", from the 1918 Broadway show Oh, Look!, which made use of Frédéric Chopin's Fantaisie-Impromptu; English rock band The Cougars' 1963 version of Swan Lake, "Saturday Nite at the Duckpond"; or "Baubles, Bangles and Beads", from the 1953 musical Kismet, which was based on the second movement of Alexander Borodin's String Quartet in D.
Other justifications for such bans have included the use of foul language in lyrics, explicit sexual content, supposed drug references, and controversial political subject matter. The implementation of a strict ban on advertising led to the banning of The Kinks' 1970 song "Lola", while Don Cornell's 1954 song "Hold My Hand" was banned from airplay due to religious references. The work of artist Ewan MacColl was banned by the BBC owing to his sympathies with communism. Satire was another reason for banning: in 1953, ten of the twelve tracks on humorist Tom Lehrer's album Songs by Tom Lehrer were banned. In February 1956, the British music magazine NME reported that the theme for the film The Man with the Golden Arm, recorded by Eddie Calvert, was also banned. Despite it being an instrumental, a BBC spokesman reported: "The ban is due to its connection with a film about drugs." – Billy May's version, retitled "Main Theme", was approved for transmission.
In certain cases, appeals to the BBC in favour of banning a song have failed or have only been partial. In 1972, Christian morality campaigner Mary Whitehouse failed in her campaign for the BBC to stop playing Chuck Berry's "My Ding-a-Ling", but a few months earlier in that year had persuaded the corporation to prevent Alice Cooper's "School's Out" from being featured on Top of the Pops. Occasionally, a ban has first been imposed by an individual DJ refusing to play a particular song. In January 1984, Radio 1's Mike Read refused to play Frankie Goes to Hollywood's "Relax" on his mid-morning show, declaring it "overtly obscene", a decision which the BBC then followed.
The BBC has claimed in recent years that it no longer bans any records, as in the controversy over The Prodigy's "Smack My Bitch Up" in 1997. However, cases of direct or indirect censorship have happened; according to a BBC spokesperson, no official ban was imposed in the case of Linda McCartney's posthumous "The Light Comes from Within" despite her widower Paul McCartney running advertisements in the national press criticising a supposed ban. While the bans on some songs have been lifted, other songs have never been officially cleared for airing on BBC radio, and their status is uncertain – in some cases, records which had been banned have since been played on BBC radio without any official announcement that the ban has ended, such as The Beatles' "A Day in the Life". BBC Radio One banned the full version of The Pogues' "Fairytale of New York" in 2007, replacing it with an edited version; however, the ban was quickly lifted due to public outcry.
In some cases, it was considered sufficient to censor certain words rather than banning a song outright. In the case of The Kinks' "Lola", once the offending word had been changed – "Coca-Cola" to "cherry cola" – the song was given airplay. In other cases, it was not necessary for the BBC to formally ban a particular song, since both parties were well aware of what would be acceptable or not, as was the case of George Formby's 1937 song, "With My Little Stick of Blackpool Rock". The "restricted" list included Barry McGuire's 1965 hit, "Eve of Destruction".
After the death of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher on 8 April 2013, anti-Thatcher sentiment prompted campaigns on social media networks to bring the song "Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead" to number one on the UK Singles Chart. In the days after her death, it became clear that the song was "on course to be one of the top three sellers by the end of the week". On 12 April, Radio 1 controller Ben Cooper said that the station's chart show would not play the song in the usual format, but that a short snippet would be aired as part of a news item.
This article lists songs which have been banned by the BBC over the years. Some were banned for only a limited period, and have since received BBC airplay. Others were banned many years after having been first aired, as was the case of The Cure's "Killing an Arab" and sixty-seven other songs which were banned from BBC airplay as the first Gulf War began. In some cases, more information about the banned songs can be found in their respective articles.
"A-huggin' and A-chalkin'" – Johnny Mercer (1946)
"All the Young Dudes" – Mott the Hoople (1972)
"Angels in the Sky" – The Crew-Cuts (1955)
"Answer Me" – Frankie Laine (1953)
"Baby, Let Me Follow You Down" – Bob Dylan (1962)
"The Battle of New Orleans" – Johnny Horton (1959)
"Baubles, Bangles and Beads" – Kirby Stone Four (1958)
"Be Prepared" – Tom Lehrer (1953)
"Beep Beep" – The Playmates (1958)
"Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered" – Ella Fitzgerald (1958)
"Big Eight" - Judge Dread (1973)
"Big Seven" - Judge Dread (1972)
"Big Six" - Judge Dread (1972)
"Big Ten" - Judge Dread (1975)
"The Blue Danube" – Spike Jones and His City Slickers (1945)
"Burn My Candle" – Shirley Bassey (1956)
"(Celebrate) The Day After You" – The Blow Monkeys and Curtis Mayfield (1987)
"Celebrate the Bullet" – The Selecter (1981)
"Charlie Brown" – The Coasters (1959)
"The Christening" – Arthur Askey (1943)
"Come Again" – Au Pairs (1981)
"Come Monday" - Jimmy Buffett (1974)
"Come Together" – The Beatles (1970)
"The Cover of Rolling Stone" – Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show (1973)
"Cradle Song (Brahms' Lullaby)" – Frank Sinatra (1944)
"Croce di Oro (Cross of Gold)" – Joan Regan (1955)
"Crying in the Chapel" – Lee Lawrence (1953)
"Cuddle Me" – Ted Heath featuring Dennis Lotis (1954)
"Danny Boy" – Conway Twitty (1959)
"A Day in the Life" – The Beatles (1967)
"The Deck of Cards" – T. Texas Tyler (1948)
"Deep in the Heart of Texas" – Bing Crosby and Woody Herman (1942)
"The Devil Is a Woman" – Herb Jeffries (1957)
"Diggin' My Potatoes" – Lonnie Donegan (1954)
"Dinner with Drac" – John Zacherle (1958)
"Don't Let's Be Beastly to the Germans" – Noël Coward (1943)
"Disarm" - Smashing Pumpkins
"Ebeneezer Goode" – The Shamen (1992)
"Ebony Eyes" – The Everly Brothers (1961)
"Eve of Destruction" – Barry McGuire (1965)
"The Foggy, Foggy, Dew" – Peter Pears (1950)
"French Kiss" – Lil Louis (1989)
"Fucking in Heaven" Fatboy Slim (1988)
"The Garden of Eden" – Frankie Vaughan (1957)
"Gimme a Pigfoot (And a Bottle of Beer)" – Bessie Smith (1933)
"Give Ireland Back to the Irish" – Wings (1972)
"Glad to Be Gay" – Tom Robinson Band (1978)
"Gloomy Sunday" – Billie Holiday (1941)
"God Bless the Child" – Billie Holiday (1942)
"God Save the Queen" – Sex Pistols (1977)
"Green Jeans" – The Flee-Rekkers (1960)
"Granny Takes a Trip" – Purple Gang (1967)
"Greensleeves" – The Beverley Sisters (1956)
"Guess Things Happen That Way" – Johnny Cash (1958)
"Hank Janson Blues" – Anne Shelton (1953)
"Have a Whiff on Me" – Mungo Jerry (1971)
"Hard Headed Woman" – Elvis Presley (1958)
"He" – Al Hibbler (1955)
"The Heel" – Eartha Kitt (1955)
"Hi, Hi, Hi" – Wings (1972)
"High Class Baby" – Cliff Richard and the Drifters (1958)
"Hold My Hand" – Don Cornell (1954)
"Honey Hush" – The Rock and Roll Trio (1956)
"Honey Love" – Dennis Lotis (1954)
"Honeycomb" – Jimmie Rodgers (1957)
"(How Little It Matters) How Little We Know" – Frank Sinatra (1956)
"The House of the Rising Sun" – Josh White (1950)
"I Am the Walrus" – The Beatles (1967)
"I Can't Control Myself" – The Troggs (1966)
"I Hear the Angels Singing" – Frankie Laine (1954)
"I Leaned on a Man" – Connie Francis (1957)
"I Love A Man In Uniform" - Gang of Four (1982)
"I Want to Be Evil" – Eartha Kitt (1953)
"I Want You to Be My Baby" – Annie Ross (1956)
"I Want Your Sex" – George Michael (1987)
"I Went to Your Wedding" – Spike Jones and His City Slickers (1953)
"I'll Be Home for Christmas" – Bing Crosby (1943)
"I'm Always Chasing Rainbows" – Ken Dodd (1963)
"I'm Always Chasing Rainbows" – Perry Como (1949)
"I'm Nobody's Baby" – Frankie Howerd (1948)
"In the Beginning" – Frankie Laine (1955)
"In the Hall of the Mountain King" – Nero and the Gladiators (1961)
"Invisible Sun" – The Police (1981)
"It Is No Secret" – Jo Stafford (1954)
"It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels" – Kitty Wells (1962)
"It Would Be So Nice" – Pink Floyd (1968)
"I've Come of Age" – Billy Storm (1959)
"Jack The Ripper" - Screaming Lord Sutch (1963)
"Jackie" – Scott Walker (1967)
"Je t'aime... moi non plus" – Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg (1969)
"John and Marsha" – Stan Freberg (1950)
"Johnny Remember Me" – John Leyton (1961)
"Jungle Fever" - The Chakachas (1971)
"Keep Me in Mind" – Lita Roza and Al Timothy (1955)
"Killing an Arab" – The Cure (1979) (banned during Gulf War)
"Kodachrome" – Paul Simon (1973)
"La Petite Tonkenoise" – Josephine Baker (1930)
"Lazy Mary" – Lou Monte (1958)
"Leader of the Pack" – The Shangri-Las (1964)
"Let the People Go" – McGuinness Flint (1972)
"Let's Spend the Night Together" – The Rolling Stones (1967)
"Light a Candle in the Chapel" – Frank Sinatra (1942)
"Lili Marleen" – Lale Andersen (1939)
"Little Star" – The Elegants (1958)
"Lola" – The Kinks (1970)
"Love for Sale" – Cole Porter (1930)
"Love for Sale" – Ella Fitzgerald (1956)
"Love Is" – Alma Cogan (1958)
"Love Is Strange" – Mickey & Sylvia (1956)
"Love to Love You Baby" – Donna Summer (1975)
"Lovin' Machine" – Wynonie Harris (1951)
"Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" – The Beatles (1967)
"Mack the Knife" – Bobby Darin (1959)
"Made You" – Adam Faith (1960)
"Maggie May" – The Vipers Skiffle Group (1957)
"The Man with the Golden Arm" – Eddie Calvert (1956)
"Maybellene" – Chuck Berry (1955)
"Mighty Mighty Man" – Bobby Darin (1958)
"Minnie the Moocher" – Cab Calloway (1931)
"Miss You" – Bing Crosby (1942)
"The Mocking Bird" – The Four Lads (1958)
"Monster Mash" – Bobby "Boris" Pickett and the Crypt-Kickers (1962)
"Moonlight Love" – Perry Como (1956)
"My Christmas Prayer" – Billy Fury (1959)
"My Friend" – Eddie Fisher (1954)
"My Friend Jack" – The Smoke (1967)
"My Generation" - The Who (1965)
"My Little Ukulele" – Joe Brown and The Bruvvers (1963)
"Night of the Vampire" – The Moontrekkers (1961)
"Ninety-Nine Years (Dead or Alive)" – Guy Mitchell (1956)
"Nobody Loves Like an Irishman" – Lonnie Donegan (1958)
"The Old Dope Peddler" – Tom Lehrer (1953)
"Old Man Atom" – The Sons of the Pioneers (1950)
"One Has My Name (The Other Has My Heart)" – Jimmy Wakely (1948)
"Paper Doll" – The Mills Brothers (1943)
"Peaches" – The Stranglers (1977)
"Peaceful Street" – Ernest Butcher (1936)
"Please No Squeeza da Banana" – Louis Prima (1945)
"Radio Times" – The BBC Dance Orchestra (1935)
"The Reefer Song (If You're a Viper)" – Fats Waller (1943)
"Relax" – Frankie Goes to Hollywood (1984)
"Rock You Sinners" – Art Baxter and His Rock 'n' Roll Sinners (1958)
"A Rose and a Baby Ruth" – George Hamilton IV (1956)
"Rum and Coca-Cola" – The Andrews Sisters (1945)
"A Russian Love Song" – The Goons (1957)
"The Sabre Dance" – Woody Herman (1948)
"Sad Affair" – Marxman (1993)
"Saturday Nite at the Duckpond" – The Cougars (1963)
"Say a Prayer for the Boys Over There" – Deanna Durbin (1943)
"Send Me to the 'Lectric Chair" – George Melly (1953)
"Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll" - Ian Dury (1977)
"The Shag (Is Totally Cool)" – Billy Graves (1958)
"Shall We Take a Trip" – Northside (1990)
"She Had to Go and Lose It at the Astor" – Johnny Messner (1939)
"She Was Only a Postmaster's Daughter" – Durium Dance Band (1933)
"The Silver Madonna" – Kirk Stevens (1957)
"Sincerely" – Liberace (1955)
"Six Months in a Leaky Boat" – Split Enz (1982) (banned during Falklands War)
"Sixty Minute Man" – The Dominoes (1951)
"The Sky" – Petula Clark (1957)
"Song of India" – Tommy Dorsey (1938)
"So What?" – Anti-Nowhere League (1981)
"Soldier" – Harvey Andrews (1972)
"Somebody Up There Likes Me" – Perry Como (1956)
"A Souvenir of London" – Procol Harum (1973)
"Spasticus Autisticus" – Ian Dury and the Blockheads (1981)
"Statue of Liberty" – XTC (1978)
"St. Therese of the Roses" – Malcolm Vaughan (1956)
"The Story of a Starry Night" – Glenn Miller (1943)
"The Story of Three Loves" – Ray Martin (1954)
"Stranger in Paradise" – The Four Aces (1953)
"Such a Night" – Johnnie Ray (1954)
"Summer Smash" – Denim (1997)
"Teen Angel" – Mark Dinning (1959)
"Teenage Prayer" – Gale Storm (1955)
"Tell Laura I Love Her" – Ray Peterson (1960)
"Tell Laura I Love Her" – Ricky Valance (1960)
"Terry" – Twinkle (1964)
"The Test of Time" – Robert Earl (1959)
"A Theme from the Threepenny Orchestra (Mack the Knife)" – Louis Armstrong (1956)
"Three Stars" – Ruby Wright (1959)
"'Til the Following Night" – Screaming Lord Sutch (1961)
"Till the End of Time" – Perry Como (1945)
"Ting Tong Tang" – Ken Platt (1958)
"To Keep My Love Alive" – Ella Fitzgerald (1956)
"Toll the Bell Easy" – Les Hobeaux (1957)
"The Tommy Rot Story" – Morris & Mitch (1957)
"Too Drunk to Fuck" – Dead Kennedys (1981)
"Tribute to Buddy Holly" – Mike Berry and The Outlaws (1961)
"The Unbeliever" – Guy Mitchell (1957)
"Urban Guerrilla" – Hawkwind (1973)
"The Voice in My Heart" – Eydie Gormé (1958)
"Walk Hand in Hand" – Tony Martin (1956)
"We Call It Acieeed" – D-Mob (1988)
"We Can't Let You Broadcast That" – Norman Long (1932)
"(We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thang" – Heaven 17 (1981)
"We Have to Be So Careful" – The Beverley Sisters (1953)
"We Will All Go Together When We Go" – Tom Lehrer (1959)
"Wet Dream" – Max Romeo (1969)
"When I'm Cleaning Windows" – George Formby (1936)
"Whoa Buck" – Lonnie Donegan (1959)
"With My Little Stick of Blackpool Rock" – George Formby (1937)
"With My Little Ukulele in My Hand" – George Formby (1933)
"Woman Love" – Gene Vincent (1956)
"A Worried Man" – The Kingston Trio (1959)
"You'll Get Yours" – Frank Sinatra (1956)
As the first Gulf War began, the BBC deemed several songs inappropriate for airplay in light of the situation and subsequently banned them from their radio stations for the duration of the war. A list of sixty-seven banned songs was published by New Statesman and Society in conjunction with British public-service television broadcaster Channel 4. The Cure's "Killing an Arab" is absent from the list, but is known to have been banned in connection with the Gulf War.
