Okay. We know that many songs have two different recordings – one “clean” version, which can be played on radio and television (example: The Steve Miller Band’s “Jet Airliner” talking about those “funky kicks going down in the city”); and one “mature” version, which has a curse word here or there, maybe a lyric with some sexual suggestion (it wasn’t funky “kicks”), maybe a product mentioned in the lyric that might be construed as advertising.
So for this little edition of K-Chuck Radio, I have found some songs in which the “clean version” got all the radio airplay… well, at least on the AM stations.
Starting with…
THE KNACK
Good Girls Don’t
The Knack’s debut single, “My Sharon,” got played TO FREAKIN’ DEATH in the late 1970’s. This song, their follow-up, has lyrics that are more explicit about what good girls don’t (but the protagonist in the song “does…”) If you do hear “Good Girls Don’t” on the oldies station today, they’re more likely to play the mature version.
Here’s the clean version.
RADIOHEAD
Creep
Trust me. This song was a bunch of false advertising. I only heard THIS version on the radio, or on MTV. So when I got my mitts on the 45 of this song, I put it on the turntable … and yep. He’s not singing “You’re so very special.” He’s got another adjective for “special.”
SOULJA BOY
Crank That
Hard to remember that at one time, this song was being played more often than the National Anthem. Everybody was dancing the Soulja Boy dance that went with this song. Maybe I should mention there’s a mature version of this song that explains that his references to “Superman” are not to the Man of Steel, its about having sex with his girlfriend and leaving Kleenex tissues on her body to stick there like Superman’s cape. Ewww…
THE KINKS
Lola
The original version of this song had to be re-recorded before it could receive airplay in England. Why? Was it the mature lyrics about a man’s dalliance with a transvestite? Nah, none of that. What bugged the UK radio stations was that there was a lyric that referenced a specific beverage, and by adding that to the song, it would have been free advertising every time the song was played. In fact, here’s the original version, you should notice the difference within about 20 seconds.
LOU REED
Walk on the Wild Side
Nowadays, radio stations are more than happy to play the full, uncut version of this Lou Reed classic. But in 1973, the 45 – which you can hear in this clip – is missing the song’s second lyric. Yep, the radio stations playing the song were fine with cross-dressing (Holly), hustling (Little Joe), go-go-dancing (Sugar Plum Fairy) and motor vehicle homicide (Jackie) – even references to “and the colored girls sing.” But what about Candy, who came out from the island, in the bathroom she was everybody’s darling, she never lost her head… oh yeah, THAT’S why that lyric is missing. Hmm…
PET SHOP BOYS
West End Girls
This song was a major hit in 1985, and still gets some love on oldies radio. But that’s not the original version. This right here is the original official version, produced a year earlier by Bobby Orlando. This version was taken off the market due to an unlicensed James Brown grunt sample and a reference to Josef Stalin in one of the lyrics.
An interesting run through the oldies world, with alternative versions of this song, that song, and this/that song… right here on K-Chuck Radio!
Chuck The Writer 