How did radio stations edit this Meredith Brooks song?

I know a lot left it uncensored, but I'm curious as to how certain stations that played it edited the song "Bitch?"

Yeah I'm curious too! I've never heard an edited version.

Not sure why you would edit it.....surely there's a difference between a man calling a woman a bitch and a woman saying "I'm a bitch"?

Always heard the song unedited here. It's the title, it's a woman calling herself one, and besides, the Stones' "Bitch" was played unedited on radio here years earlier. The last time I remember that word being chopped or changed for radio was four decades ago, with the "son of a gun" version of Charlie Daniels' "The Devil Went Down to Georgia."

Then there's Elton John's The Bitch Is Back.

TheBigA said:

Then there's Elton John's The Bitch Is Back.

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I can remember hearing a DJ announcing the song saying "Here's Elton John, guess who's back!"

anotherguy said:

I can remember hearing a DJ announcing the song saying "Here's Elton John, guess who's back!"

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There was an alternate title for the Meredith song, for DJs who were looking for one.

Your right about that Elton John has a song with bitch, but at least be glad there isn't too many songs wth bitch in the tittle or the song

TheBigA said:

There was an alternate title for the Meredith song, for DJs who were looking for one.

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I am very sure I never heard the song in edited form, anywhere. I have no recollection of the song ever being re-titled for that matter. When the song came out, a station I frequented made use of HitDiscs from TM Century, and I don't remeber the title being altered. I could be wrong.

I would think a station which didn't like the title or content of Ms. Brooks' song would simply opt not to play it. To omit it from their lineup and not report spinning it.

NewsStud said:

I am very sure I never heard the song in edited form, anywhere. I have no recollection of the song ever being re-titled for that matter. When the song came out, a station I frequented made use of HitDiscs from TM Century, and I don't remeber the title being altered. I could be wrong.

I would think a station which didn't like the title or content of Ms. Brooks' song would simply opt not to play it. To omit it from their lineup and not report spinning it.

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As you can see here, there was another title: "Nothing In Between."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitch_(Meredith_Brooks_song)

It wasn't a #1, so obviously a few stations chose not to play it.

As for the Bitch Is Back, many jocks said "here's Elton John from Caribou," which was the parent album.

I worked in the industry at the time, including making radio edits for a format company. I don't recall any edit version of Meredith Brooks' "Bitch", and I remember it was a huge hit unedited. I also don't recall the "B" word acquiring quite the same taboo status that it attained later in that decade.

here's another one for you, Metallica has a song called "Ain't My Bitch" which was off their 1996 hit album "Load" which was a smash hit on the rock radio stations in the late 90s and is a mainstay on Rock radio for over 21 years.

Pink's "just like a pill" has the word bitch in it, and was played unedited on every station I know of, but potentially you could take out just that one word.

But I don't see how you edit Meridith Brooks. The word 'bitch' is so prominent in the song, and obviously the title, about the only thing you could do would be ban it altogether.

OK, here's a song with bitch in that did get banned, in the UK at least
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smack_My_Bitch_Up

But obviously it went quite a lot further than just using the word 'bitch', if it was titled 'smack my woman up' it would still probably have faced the chop.

And rightly so, IMHO. I like a bit of Prodg, but I feel very uncomfortable with that song.

WNMB in Myrtle Beach SC just didn't play it.

What I want to know is how Hall & Oates got away with "Rich Girl".

I have never heard this song edited. She says "bitch" so often it would be virtually impossible to edit.
Unless she recorded a whole new version where she says "witch" or something.

Like the movie Slap Shot, so much profanity it's virtually un-editable for broadcast TV.

vchimpanzee said:

WNMB in Myrtle Beach SC just didn't play it.

What I want to know is how Hall & Oates got away with "Rich Girl".

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They "got away with it" because (a) it was the '70s, not the snowflake millennium in which manufactured outrage and exaggerated offense are the norm, and (b) they weren't calling the girl a bitch, they were using the idiom "it's a bitch," meaning it's a "you got what you deserved" situation.

Not to mention Elton John's "The Bitch Is Back" which was a considerable success for him on the charts in the early to mid 70s. There are a ton of songs with questionable lyrics that have been played unedited on many stations, Dire Straits Money For Nothing is another one. (Though recently some stations have started to edit it)

LibertyNT said:

Not to mention Elton John's "The Bitch Is Back"

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Yes we already "mentioned" it in post #4

Wow, what nice memories this brought back for me. My first on air shift when I was 19, we did an aircheck session and my pd almost spit out his coffee when he heard me say "..and now kicking off another 10 hits in a row with that bitch Meredith Brooks" perfectly timed to post the jingle of our call letters. He could help but to laugh, saying to me as he tried to gather himself you can't say that, did you really think that was ok? I responded, "well I'm just taking her word for it, she says she's a bitch about 28 times in the song so who am I to take issue with how she chooses to identify herself.