3 Songs by The Beatles That Were Banned in the United States

When John Lennon released his song about heroin withdrawal, “Cold Turkey,” in 1969, radio stations refused to play it because of the lyrics and Lennon’s distorted guitar and screams. Years later, the Beatles also faced a new stream of bans. After 9/11, Clear Channel (later iHeartMedia) sent a memo to more than 1,100+ radio stations under its umbrella with a list of more than 160 songs they suggested pulling from the rotation for being “lyrically questionable” or insensitive to the events. On the list were four Beatles songs.

The Beatles’ songs that were temporarily banned in the U.S., or not played as much, followed the September 11 attacks, and included their 1968 White Album track “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da.”

Decades earlier, the band also faced some radio freezes around some of their other songs in the UK.

Shortly after its release, UK radio refused to play “I Am the Walrus” for its sexually suggestive lyrics—Boy, you’ve been a naughty girl, you let your knickers down. In 1967, “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds” was banned by the BBC for its alleged references to drugs, and the title spelling out LSD.

The BBC also banned “A Day in the Life” for the lyric I’d love to turn you on and the band’s Abbey Road opener “Come Together” for its mention of the brand Coca-Cola.

Throughout their history, the Beatles had their fair share of bans. Here’s a look at three more of their songs that were banned in America following 9/11.

[RELATED: 5 Artists Who Were Censored and Banned on Television]

“Ticket to Ride”

The Beatles 1965 hit “Ticket to Ride” was likely banned for the lines I think I’m gonna be sad / I think it’s today … She ought to think twice … She’s got a ticket to ride / And she don’t care, which were perhaps considered insensitive following the attacks.

Despite its ban decades later, “Ticket to Ride” was a tremendous hit for the Beatles. Originally released on the Beatles’ Help! album in 1965, the song went to No. 1 internationally, including on the Billboard Hot 100. The Carpenters later released the song in 1969 and their version peaked at No. 19 on the Adult Contemporary chart.

“A Day in the Life”

The closing track from the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was likely banned for its insensitivity to a tragic death, following the verse about an apparent suicide—He blew his mind out in a car / He didn’t notice that the lights had changed / A crowd of people stood and stared / They’d seen his face before / Nobody was really sure if he was from the House of Lords—and things just move on directly afterward.

Years earlier, the BBC banned the song for the line I’d love to turn you on, but the band had an inkling they might run into some issues on the radio. “John and I gave each other a knowing look: ‘Uh-huh, it’s a drug song. You know that, don’t you?’” recalled Paul McCartney. “Yes, but at the same time, our stuff is always very ambiguous, and ‘turn you on’ can be sexual so c’mon.”

In their statement, a BBC spokesperson said: “We have listened to this song over and over again, and we have decided that it appears to go just a little too far, and could encourage a permissive attitude to drug-taking.”

Lennon responded to the ban: “I’d like to meet the man who banned this song of ours. I’d like to turn him on to what’s happening. Why don’t they charge the Electricity Board with spreading drugs because to get electricity you have to ‘switch on.’ Everything depends on the way you read a thing.”

“Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds”

Decades after its initial ban in the UK, “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds” resurfaced again following 9/11 as a song to cut from radio, perhaps for its references to larger flowers (much like those at a funeral) or being in the clouds. Whatever the lines that placed the song on hold, and despite its psychedelic sounds, Lennon was always outspoken about the origin of the song, early on. It was inspired by something more innocent than drugs, a painting by Lennon’s then-young son Julian had drawn featuring his schoolmate Lucy O’Donnell with a mess of stars around her.

Lennon decided to animate Lucy’s life and tell a fantastical story around the girl with the kaleidoscope eyes and was inspired by Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland when writing the lyrics. “It never was [about LSD] and nobody believes me,” said Lennon on The Dick Cavett Show in 1971. “This is the truth: My son came home with a drawing and showed me this strange-looking woman flying around. I said, ‘What is it?’ and he said, ‘It’s Lucy in the sky with diamonds,’ and I thought, ‘That’s beautiful.’”

He continued, “I immediately wrote a song about it. The song had gone out, the whole album had been published and somebody noticed that the letters spelled out LSD and I had no idea about it. It wasn’t about [LSD] at all.”

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