The Beatles Song That the BBC Banned Decades After Its Release

There is quite a laundry list of songs that the BBC banned during The Beatles’ heyday of the 1960s. Many of those bans were warranted for the time due to their lyrical content involving drugs, sexual innuendos, and brand name drops. Most of those things wouldn’t make the modern-day listener sweat, but 1960s-era Britain was a very different time and place.

In addition to songs like “I Am The Walrus” and “Come Together” getting the no-go stamp from the BBC, another song was banned for its controversial political content. But it didn’t get banned until years after it first made the airwaves.

At first glance, it makes perfect sense why the BBC banned the 1968 track “Back In The U.S.S.R.”. The song was originally featured on The Beatles (more fondly known as the White Album). It contained a number of references to politics and the former Soviet Union.

American fans weren’t happy about the lyrics “You don’t know how lucky you are, boys / Back in the U.S.S.R”, which alluded to potentially pro-Soviet leanings of the band. It was released weeks after the Warsaw Pact’s invasion of Czechoslovakia, and The Beatles’ sympathetic lyrics prompted outrage from both leftists and right-wing citizens and politicians across the pond.

Why Did The BBC Ban “Back In The U.S.S.R.”?

However, the BBC is a British organization, not an American one. Many would assume that residents of Great Britain shared similar distaste for the lyrics in “Back In The U.S.S.R.”. We’re sure many did scoff at the song and its title. But that didn’t stop it from peaking at no. 19 on the UK Singles chart and no. 11 on the Irish charts.

So, if there wasn’t a particular level of vitriol over the song, why did the BBC ban it? You might just be surprised to learn that the song wasn’t actually banned in the 1960s when it was released.

“Back In The U.S.S.R.” was actually banned shortly before the U.S.S.R. fell in December of 1991. The BBC issued the ban in 1990 at the start of the first Gulf War, nearly 22 years after “Back In The U.S.S.R.” was first released.

It wasn’t the only politically-leaning song to get the boot from the BBC around that time. Songs like “Ghost Town” by The Specials and “Atomic” by Blondie were also banned due to their political lyrics. It would have made more sense for the BBC to ban The Beatles’ song in the 1960s. However, they have definitely banned songs over less egregious transgressions; this one just took a few years.

Courtesy of Apple Corps Ltd.

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