How Phil Collins, The Beatles and ABBA were removed from radio due to wars

Given that the British government imprisoned Oswald Mosley and other domestic fascists during World War Two, it isn’t surprising that censorship creeps into the airwaves during major conflicts.

But broadcasters’ extensive lists of forbidden tracks during the Gulf War, after the 9/11 attacks and throughout the Iraq War make for bizarre reading. 

Among the chart-toppers to fall foul of the BBC’s censorship are ABBA, The Beatles and Phil Collins. 

Abba (pictured in Stockholm in 1974, the year they released Waterloo) were one of many bands to have songs taken off BBC airwaves during the Gulf War

Phil Collins (pictured, left, in 1985 at Pine Knob Music Theatre in Clarkston, Michigan) was among the artists who had songs banned by the BBC during the Gulf War. Right, Rage Against the Machine don jumpsuits resembling those worn by inmates of Guantanamo Bay at Reading Festival in 2008 

And although MTV’s refusal to play Bombs over Baghdad might seem tasteful during the 2003 war with Iraq, they also banned the B52s’ video for Loveshack.  

Meanwhile, Rage Against the Machine’s entire back catalogue disappeared from more than 1,100 American radio stations after al-Qaeda’s 2001 atrocity against New Yorkers, due to their left-wing, populist critiques of US politics and history.

Here, we lay out the records that have fallen foul of censorship since 1990, with full lists included at the end of the article.  

A Christmas classic, Phil Collins’ solo debut and hippie pacifism: Songs the BBC banned during the Gulf War of August 1990 to September 1991 

Here are some of the stranger examples of the 67 songs the BBC banned from being played on stations during the Gulf War (you can read the full list further down): 

Atomic, by Blondie

The song was taken off the airwaves because of the bombing connotations of the word atomic. At no point do the lyrics – which include ‘your hair is beautiful’ mention bombing, but the corporation felt like the mere association of the word, even when used in a totally different context, was enough to warrant a ban.

Back in the USSR, by The Beatles

You’d maybe expect sensitivity around this song during tensions between the UK and the Soviet Union, but the opening track of the so-called White Album was banned 22 years after its release. 

The Beatles are pictured at the Saville Theatre in 1968, the year that their self-titled album was released. The opener of the so-called White Album, Back in the USSR, was taken off BBC radio during the Gulf War 

However, with the war launched months after the Iron Curtain fell, it may have been deemed unwise to risk alienating a supporter of the war, namely Russia, by using British broadcasting to constantly remind listeners of the fallen Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.  

Ghost Town, by The Specials 

With its themes of youth disillusionment and mass unemployment, this record became the anthem emblematic of the Thatcher years and perceived neglect of working-class communities. Its talk of clubs shutting down and brief outburst of nostalgia for better days combined with a creepy video in a seminal summary of working class disenfranchisement that at no point mentioned war. And yet the BBC banned it during the Gulf War, a decade after it had been released.   

Give Peace a Chance, by the Plastic Ono Band

With war being deemed unsuitable for the airwaves, you might think that love and peace would be safe bet. You’d be wrong. The Plastic Ono Band’s plea for peace was forbidden, presumably because its overtly pacifist lyrics weren’t exactly the boost of morale that the corporation deemed it its responsibility to deliver. 

I’ll Fly for You, by Spandau Ballet

Seven years after Kemp and co hit number nine in the UK charts with I’ll Fly for You, its incredibly tenuous link to the pilots flying over the Gulf was obviously just bad taste. 

In the Air Tonight, by Phil Collins

This made the list due to fears that it might remind listeners of scud missiles and could therefore be interpreted as insensitive toward those who had relatives out on the front line. The lyrics do not mention physical violence or warfare and Collins wrote his first solo single to reflect the grief he suffered while divorcing his first wife Andrea Bertorelli in 1980. 

Israelites, by Desmond Dekker and the Aces

The choice to stop playing of the ska and reggae legend’s 1968 hit was truly strange. In the lead-up to the Gulf War, Saddam Hussein attacked Israel and Saudi Arabia with scud missiles. It seems strange to ban a song which, though it is not about the state of Israel, could superficially be seen as too supportive of the state, especially by a broadcaster whose country is warring with an avowed anti-Semite. 

Stop the Cavalry, by Jona Lewie

Even Christmas songs weren’t safe! To be fair to the Beeb, if you’re going to refuse to play certain tracks in order to be sensitive to those affected by war, this one would be a cause for concern. 

Pictured: Jona Lewie in the video for Stop the Cavalry, an anti-war song that was also a Christmas hit

As well as being a cheery festive number, it is told from the first-person perspective of a soldier whose service stops him being at home for Christmas. The anti-war song’s lyrics also mention fighting, bombs and nuclear fall-out zones. 

Waterloo, by ABBA

The 1974 Eurovision song contest winner was purged, despite it referring to a battle fought in 1815. It seemed that even the most intangible of links was too risky for the Beeb, who weren’t willing to spare the Swedish disco legends.     

When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Going, by Billy Ocean

It’s unclear why this song – whose lyrics portray a relentless quest for love against all odds – was deemed unsuitable, though it may have been felt that a repetitive chorus conveying an image of hard men ‘going’ might be a bit much for those who had loved ones fighting in Iraq. 

From Celebration to self-righteous suicide: The memo that banned more than 160 songs – and an entire back catalogue – from 1,100 US radio stations after 9/11 

In the wake of al-Qaeda’s 2001 attack on New York City, Clear Channel Communications (CCC), which would go on to become iHeartMedia, hit its DJs with a memorandum. 

Three days after the attack, it sent a list to its 1,100+ radio stations comprised of songs that they deemed ‘lyrically questionable’ and insensitive to play following the 9/11 attacks.

Some were obvious choices – such as the suggestion that it might not be a great idea to blast Drowning Pool screaming ‘let the bodies hit the floor’ – but the memo also included songs that were too happy for a country suffering the aftershocks of such a profound tragedy. 

Bodies by Drowning Pool (pictured in Dallas in 2015 promoting their Hellelujah album) was banned by CCC

The media company insisted that the list was not compulsory and so it could be argued the it didn’t constitute bans. 

However, when WASH played ‘Celebration’ by Kool & The Gang while the memo was in circulation, it took just one polite call from a listener for the station to insist it had been a mistake to play the track. 

Here are some other tracks that were culled (you can read the full list at the bottom of the story). 

Chop Suey! by System of a Down

Blasting an erratic song in which Serj Tankian expresses disbelief at people being able to ‘trust in my self-righteous suicide’ probably wasn’t the most sensitive track to play after terrorists who believed they were on a holy mission that would sent them to heaven murdered 2,977 people and killed themselves too.      

Dancing in the Street, by Martha and the Vandellas.

Not only was the original banned, but the cover by Van Halen and the duet version between David Bowie and Mick Jagger in another casualty as a result of being too jolly. 

Ironic, by Alanis Morissette 

The chief complaint this song has faced over the years has been from pedants pointing out the singer’s misapplication of the word ‘ironic’ throughout. 

But it also features the following verse: ‘Mr. Play It Safe was afraid to fly, he packed his suitcase and kissed his kids goodbye, he waited his whole damn life to take that flight and as the plane crashed down he thought: “Well, isn’t this nice.”‘

Mack the Knife, by Bobby Darin

Though most listeners probably recall the shark and pearly whites of the opening verse, its second speaks of a body on the sidewalk ‘oozin’ life’ on a sunny morning. 

New York, New York, by Frank Sinatra

You might have thought that this bombastic, feel-good anthem to the Big Apple would be a welcome sound to listeners in the wake of a terror attack. But CCC disagreed in the sombre aftermath of the atrocity. 

It wasn’t the only upbeat track banned, as the company’s belief that it might be inappropriate to play happy music after the attacks also cut out two versions of ‘What a Wonderful World.’

Rage Against the Machine – All songs

The year before the 9/11 attacks, the left-wing rap-rockers had stormed the New York Stock Exchange, shutting it down for two hours as part of filming for the video to ‘Sleep Now in the Fire’. 

Rage Against the Machine are pictured onstage at Rock In Rio music festival in Madrid in June 2010. Behind guitarist Tom Morello and singer Zack de la Rocha is the black flag and a red star of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation, referenced in the track ‘War Within a Breath’

Fittingly for a band so critical of American politics both foreign and domestic, the promo was directed by Michael Moore. 

With other songs comparing police forces to the Ku Klux Klan and describing the American dream as ‘assimilation’ and ‘brutality’, their less-than comfortable take on successive US governments was so legendary as to warrant a blanket ban. 

Smooth Criminal, by Alien Ant Farm 

Thought it isn’t a song about terror, this song about breaking and entering famously features the lyric ‘as he came into the window, it was the sound of a crescendo’, which happens to also be an accurate description of the evil perpetrated by the hijackers who ploughed into the Twin Towers. Curiously, Michael Jackson’s original version did not feature in the memo.

That’ll Be the Day, by Buddy Holly and the Crickets

Not only does the hit repeat the lyrics ‘That’ll be the day that I die’, their singer’s life ended as the result of a plane crash in 1959. The accident in Iowa also killed rock ‘n’ roll singers Ritchie Valens and J. P. Richardson as well as pilot Roger Peterson. 

Frank Sinatra (pictured, left, giving testimony to a Senate Committee on the divorce between Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio) was among the singers to have songs taken off the air in the aftermath of 9/11 along with Buddy Holly (right, performing on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1958)

Ticket To Ride, by The Beatles 

Tracks that were too happy were included in the memorandum, but sorrowful ones weren’t safe either. The theme of travel might have played a part, the phrase that serves as the song’s title and chorus could be linked to air travel, but at no point does the 1965 song make that clear, with lyrics instead focusing on the breakdown of a relationship.