Top-40 hit lyrics of the past that would not be acceptable today

Oliver’s Army, a number 2.

 

When it comes to the Beatles virtually all of their songs count as a top 40 hit since many album tracks got airplay. Granted the songs didn’t chart but they are widely known, as much as many charted songs.

 

Gary Puckett "Young Girl" could definitely be problematic when filtered through modern sensibilities. Although the theme of the song is centered around resisting the temptation, many of the lines definitely come across (to modern ears) as creepy and "pervy" and I don't think a song like this possible in today's climate.

 

See. I always thought that the singer of "Under My Thumb" sounds like a hapless dweeb engaging in a power fantasy, who may likely not even BE in a relationship, much less being dominant in one. An incel, to use the current term.

 

NOT PC

"Patricia" by Ronnie Hawkins, featuring Duane Allman.
The ending credits to the Flintstones, the last line before Fred yells "Wilma"
"Timothy" by The Bouys, unless they now are a protected identity group
Frank Zappa, many to many to mention
Blues Music, almost all of them have a "hidden message" the MeToo fanatics would throw into the bon fire
Barry White songs
Country Music
Some Opera music and lyrics

PC for the most part

but not certain types of modern/popular so-called lyrics

 

A bunch of teenagers at a party, and you think "engagement ring"? C'mon…did you live through this era?

I have no idea if teenagers still give or exchange "going steady" rings today, but it's hard to see what would be offensive about it if they did. If anything, the idea of teens of either sex declaring "I'm not gonna hop in the sack with just anyone" would be rather quaint and charming — and IMHO preferable to the alternative.

Why? From all I can tell, with the way social media works these days, relationships between warring high school-age females are far more vicious now than they've ever been, and there are many more ways for that viciousness to be expressed publicly. What's portrayed in this song seems pretty mild by comparison.

How so? What is "submissive" about "She's a Fool"? Lesley likes a guy (OK, so indulge the fantasy!) and is disturbed that the girl he's with treats him shabbily. She says she would be a better person than that. This is a politically incorrect notion?

So far, I'm unimpressed by your examples.

 

...and the dweebiest thing about him is that he apparently doesn't know (or care) his marimba player ripped off the bass line of the Four Tops' 1965 hit "It's The Same Old Song" to give his phony-sounding song its only decent musical hook.

 

Angry old white men outrage bingo in full swing on this thread

 

Well...at least Steve Lawrence admits he's trying to control himself in "Go Away Little Girl"......

 

Thanks for the clarification, and forgive a Yank for not instantly thinking "Costello" when Elvis is mentioned.

That Elvis has had only two Top 40 hits in the states, with one of them only crawling up to #36.

I have a lot of respect for him, but only know selected highlights of his long career. Reading the story of "Oliver's Army" was very interesting to me.

 

Considering horndog objectifying lyrics are still prevalent, just less rock and more hip hop than they used to be, as well as indie rock bands being able to slather their lyrics in reverb and conceal them or more successfully being able to claim ironic content in the name of art, I can't think of much. Seriously, if Thom Yorke did a song on necrophilia I'm sure it would be considered brilliant and deep. Today's atmosphere would wag an understandable finger to anything lyrical about an adult going for a minor, but I think on a lighter level anything sung from a female's point of view that is less than empowering in school, career or a relationship (beyond the bedroom in which all seems fair game) would get the flag. Sort of like Stand By Your Mind by Tammy Wynette. The song I keep thinking of that would not pass muster is Burt Bacharach's Wives and Lovers.

Hey! Little Girl
Comb your hair, fix your makeup
Soon he will open the door
Don't think because there's a ring on your finger
You needn't try anymore
For wives should always be lovers too
Run to his arms the moment he comes home to you
I'm warning you
Day after day
There are girls at the office
And men will always be men
Don't send him off with your hair still in curlers
You may not see him again
Better wear something pretty
Something you'd wear to go to the city and
Dim all the lights, pour the wine, start the music
Time to get ready for love

 

Going just by what the song tells you, "Under My Thumb" is about a guy who's turned the tables on a girl who once had him under her thumb. Interpreting it as "incel fantasy" is something that probably would have never occurred to Jagger or anyone else at the time. Frankly, I think it may be somewhat of a true story, and probably about (wait for it) Chrissie Shrimpton. When they met, Chrissie was an aspiring model (kid sister of a successful model) and Mick Jagger was a pimply, slovenly nobody from nowhere with a bizarre, obnoxious voice and questionable taste in clothes. And yet, within a short time, Chrissie was pretty much under Jagger's thumb as he rose from being a nobody to being a grade A 1960's sex symbol. It's kinda weird and edgy any way you look at it but I don't think it's about anything "incel."

I was listening to Jagger's cover of Bill Withers' "Use Me" and realized that it's not altogether different from "Under My Thumb", at least how Jagger interprets it. It's just the view of the relationship before the power center shifts.

 

Tough call. "It's the Same Old Song" only made it to #34 on the British charts, but it's certainly plausible that Brian Jones was aware of it.

The marimba part he plays is indeed identical to the repeated riff in "It's the Same Old Song" in its first iteration, but then descends with each measure, whereas it stays in the same place on the Four Tops song. (ETA: The riff is also over a major chord in ITSOS, but over a minor one in UMT.)

Obviously, the musical "mood" of both songs is quite different, and I have to confess that until now, it never occurred to me that they share a common phrase.

I don't think a pissing contest between the two songs in terms of their relative greatness would be productive, but "Under My Thumb" is a great song in spite of its sexist lyrics. I'm not of a mind to dock it because it borrows a brief passage from another song — something that wasn't exactly unknown back in that era.

 

Sorry for the confusion and for being a tad Brit-centric. We’re very fond of our Elvis!

 

My first thought was "Hey Joe."

Hey Joe, where you going with that gun in your hand?
Hey Joe, where you going with that gun in your hand?
I'm going to shoot my old lady,
I caught her messing 'round with another man.

Always surprises me when I hear it on the radio.

As for Mungo "Jerry's In the Summertime," I always thought the following was far more of a "bingo":

If her daddy's rich take her out for a meal
If her daddy's poor just do what you feel

 

I'm going the other way. Surely we have progressed enough that The Rolling Stones parting single for Decca could now be officially released.

 

Come off it. Don't you remember beyonce singing Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It)?

Those songs of Lesley Gore's probably would not make the top 40 today - but not because of their lyrical content, simply because it's not the style of music that usually makes the charts these days.

 

OK, I'll be the one to ask. What was it?

 

That line has always struck me as the real ringer in the song!

 

********er Blues

Jeez isn't allowed on SHMF

 

'Hot Child in the City' - Nick Gilder

Made it all the way to #1 in 1978.

 

Its a Calypso tune I know it from a record from the Bahamas. Lots of double entendre' songs in the genre. Its also a variation of the song Johnny Be Fair.

 

Given that Nick Cave regularly gets airplay with his songs about people committing gruesome murders, I think a song like Hey Joe would hardly get noticed.

There are some real double standards at play in the public broadcasting arena today. People get worked up about that word in Money For nothing, yet at the same time rap and hip hop seems to get a free pass to throw in as many swear words and be as sexist, misogynistic or homophobic as it wishes - and same applies to some modern Jamaican reggae and dancehall. Check out the lyrics to songs by such acts as Beany Man, Elephant Man, and T.O.K..

 

Gold Coast slave ship bound for cotton fields
Sold in the market down to New Orleans
Scarred old slaver knows he's doin' alright
Hear him whip the women just around midnight

Brown sugar
How come you taste so good
Brown sugar
Just like a young [/black] girl should

 

From 1931.