It was done solely to appease the bigots in ‘conservative’ areas even though those fears were probably overcooked. It’s ironic that in the same year Billy Joel was singing about the chastity of ‘Catholic girls’ and nobody batted an eye.
Of course, two years later Frank Zappa also sang about Catholic girls, but we don’t talk about that.
On the same album, Zappa also sang about a “Jewish Princess”, but we don’t want to talk about it…
Telefunken U47 Drop…
I’ll have you know that the entire ministerial alliance of Paducah, Ky., which included some of the most rabidly anti-Catholic, Southern-fried fundamentalist preachers you’d ever have the misfortune to encounter - all of them banded together to protest my station playing OTGDY.
As soon as the delegation left, my boss ordered the song pulled and never to be played again.
If it happened there, it probably happened elsewhere too. Do you remember any other songs that sparked a similar protest?
There were always songs that one or another preachers railed about in their sermons, but never one in my experience that caused an official, organized response like that.
I’ve been thinking about this thread and a few more examples of Canadian content come to mind.
Circa December 1989, when I was 10, I was taken to see my first musical, the Toronto production of Les Miserables. Jean Valjean’s role was performed by sweet-voiced Canadian tenor Michael Burgess. I was impressed by his performance. Fast forward to the winter of 1997/98. Burgess released an album, “A Place in the Sun.” My attention was drawn to it by this promo. I really liked what I heard and ended up buying the album. It did not disappoint. It’s excellent – again, if you’re the type of person who likes easy listening. The entire album is now available on Youtube; here is the title song A Place in the Sun; the rest of the album can be found on the channel. Very nice songs are “I think My Mind’s Gone Too,” “When Love Finds You,” and “To Love.” Since the close of the 90s I haven’t found any references to this album. Anyone out there remember these songs?
I also remember many songs from children’s entertainers from elementary school. Some of them may be ingrained in the memory of many Canadians who grew up at the same time as me. However, here is a song that may be a bit obscure. In Grade 2, my class was bussed to a school where they put on performances for pupils and we saw a performance by husband-wife children’s entertainment duo Kim and Jerry Brodey. They sang their songs to a recorded backup; one of them was about being visited by a robot from outer space; they introduced it as a story and then sang and acted it out. The song is called There Is a Robot and I liked the 80s synthesizer flavor it had. Here is a music video of it with a set where they wear costumes.
I don’t know if the OP and others want to go in this direction, but “song” is a broad concept. I remember a lot of jingles from old commercials. Since Youtube (and shortly before I discovered it, retrojunk.com) came along, I have been collecting these. It’s been an excellent way to test the accuracy of my memory.
Why I mention this, there are two long-defunct Canadian department stores of which I remember their short slogan jingles from circa 1988, but I haven’t been able to find them online. They are:
Towers (a discount chain, defunct 1991). I remember a radio commercial for it with a choir singing “Extra special! Extra special! [For your Family - the rest of the slogan as I found it online].” I have only been able to find a jingle similar in nature but with a different slogan: “You made us part of your family! Towers!” See here.
Eaton’s (a major Canadian institution, basically Canada’s answer to Sears, definitively defunct 2002): I remember this jingle: “Eaton’s! Where your value guaranteed!” On youtube there are a lot of old commercials that use the melody of the jingle – see here for an example, starts @ 0:0:03 and again @0:0:23 – or where a voiceover and text state “where your value is guaranteed,” but none that include the sung jingle, so maybe it was used only for a radio commercial.
“What’s to Become of Me?” - David Pomeranz
“Jeans On” - David Dundas
And some children’s songs I remember…
“Zoom a Little Zoom” - Tom Glaser and Dottie Evans
“Le Petit Train” - Lucienne Vernay
“Dennis the Menace” Rosemary Clooney and Jimmy Boyd
“What Kind of a Noise Annoys an Oyster” - Frank Crumit
ETA: “Green Christmas” - The Great John L. (not a children’s song, but calypso)
As the OP, it wasn’t the direction I intended the thread to go, but I’ll allow it.
In that case:
“Wherever you go, Sweet 'N Low.” I start out humming this, and invariably segue into the theme to The A Team.
This I remember well. My favorite station plays it from time to time. Nice song.
Storybook Children/Daybreak (1977) by Bette Midler. #57 on Billboard. The intro sounds Oriental (to me), but the memorable thing to me was toward the end when she sings “Looks like it’s daybreak!” toward the end. Old buddy Barry Manilow had already had a hit called “Daybreak,” she says this line sounding somewhat similar to Manilow singing “Looks like we made it!,” Cheryl Lynn, who also recorded this song, did not include this line.
I’m glad someone remembers it! I sang it at a karaoke thing, and everyone asked, “Was that a Paul Simon song?” I replied, “No…David Dundas.” They stared blankly, then said, “Who?” 
Believe it or not, there was a 60s group called H. P. Lovecraft. No, not horror, instead they were something only possible in the late 60s - a psychedelic folk group. Their first album wasn’t much but H. P. Lovecraft II was solid all the way through, with music that didn’t sound like anybody else, even though they did mostly covers.
Hard to pick a standout song, but completists and obsessives will want to start with a group composition called… “At the Mountains of Madness.”
Synthesized electric sound
Trembling from underground
You’ve arrived at the Mountains of Madness
Granted,“Jeans On” practically is the definition for a one hit wonder. I never heard another song by David Dundas and know nothing about him, and if you hadn’t listened to it when it was a hit (around 77/78 IIRC), you won’t know it.
The song was used in a Wrangler Jeans commercial in 2024, so people might recognize it from that.
Ah, not here (or else I never saw it), so I didn’t know this.
I remember “Jeans On” because it we had it on an 8-track of one of those generic groups of singers with "Hits Originally Sung By. . . " in small print. The actual singers could have been anyone.
This got me curious, and I went to his wiki page and was astonished to learn that he is British, heck, even an English Lord by birth .“Jeans On” always sounded so American to me, even already in 1976 when I was 8.
I was also going to mention “Thunder Island” by Jay Ferguson - but I figured a whole bunch of people here would’ve known that song very well.