Most of us can relate to the feeling of turning in an assignment, project, or work of art only to realize—just past the point of no return—that there was something we should have changed. For the Average Joe, these small errors are usually inconsequential and, in some cases, easily fixable.
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But for large commercial artists who press thousands upon thousands of vinyl records at a time, one small error can cost a small fortune to remedy. Fortunately for the artists behind these seven songs, they were able to change troubling, off-brand, or censor-able lyrics before they did any real damage.
“Lola” by The Kinks
The original version of “Lola” by The Kinks included the line, “It tastes just like Coca Cola / C-O-L-A Cola.” Consequently, the BBC was ready to ban the song from radio airplay due to its strict rules about product placements in songs. So, Kinks vocalist Ray Davies made two trips to the U.K. in between tour stops in the States—a total of 16,000 miles—to re-record the song to say “tastes just like cherry cola.” By switching the drink to a generic name, the band avoided banishment.
“Tutti Frutti” by Little Richard
Little Richard was no stranger to potential censorship, either. As a flamboyant Black man living in the U.S. during the Jim Crow era, Richard had even more pressure not to rock the boat. Thus, he changed the original, hypersexual lyrics of his signature hit, “Tutti Frutti”, to be more modest and radio-friendly. Suggestive lyrics like, “If it don’t fit, don’t force it / You can grease it, make it easy” became “Tutti Frutti, aw rooty / Tutti Frutti / aw rooty.”
“I Saw Her Standing There” by The Beatles
Sometimes, an artist will change the lyrics to a song before they release it at the behest (or strong suggestion) of their bandmates. Such was the case for The Beatles’ “I Saw Her Standing There”. When Paul McCartney first showed John Lennon the lyrics, “She was just seventeen, never been a beauty queen,” Lennon laughed at them and suggested, “She was just seventeen, you know what I mean.” Lennon’s revision, though opaque, was more tongue-in-cheek and made the final album version.
“Mrs. Robinson” by Simon & Garfunkel
Paul Simon was working on the set of The Graduate while he was still woodshedding what would become “Mrs. Robinson”. Originally, Simon and his musical partner, Art Garfunkel, were going to name the song’s main character, “Mrs. Roosevelt.” One day, they switched Roosevelt with Robinson to match the name of one of the characters in The Graduate. When the film’s director heard it, he insisted on using the song in the movie with its second title, “Mrs. Robinson”.
“Mary Jane’s Last Dance” by Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers
The chorus to Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers’ 1993 track, “Mary Jane’s Last Dance”, is so iconic that it’s difficult to imagine the lyrics being anything other than what they are. However, Petty originally wrote the lines to be, “Hey, Indiana girl, go out and find the world.” After coming to the conclusion that “Indiana girl” was too clunky and awkward, Petty changed the lyrics to “last dance with Mary Jane, one more time to kill the pain.” The rest, as they say, is history.
“After the Gold Rush” by The Trio
Dolly Parton has gone through phases where she leans more toward country, pop, disco, bluegrass, and even rock ‘n’ roll. But she has always avoided profanity and other explicit lyrics. Parton often modifies lyrics to her cover songs if they include expletives or drug references she wouldn’t normally sing about, and that includes her version of Neil Young’s “After the Gold Rush” with Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt. Instead of “and I felt like getting high,” they sing, “and I felt like I could cry.”
“Kokomo” by The Beach Boys
Something as simple as changing a verb tense can make all the difference in a song, which is certainly true of The Beach Boys’ late-era hit, “Kokomo”. The song, written by The Mamas & the Papas’ John Phillips, originally described faraway paradises in the past tense. The Beach Boys’ Mike Love suggested he change the narrative to the present tense so it sounded like a hopeful, romantic escape, not a wistful elegy for idyllic scenes gone by.
Photo by Tom Hustler/Central Press/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
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