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.