Did US stations play Relax by Frankie Goes To Hollywood?

Another song made famous by being banned by the BBC although most commercial radio stations in the UK played it, not that commercial radio was very widespread here in 1984.

Even by today's standards the lyrics are pretty strong. I notice it only reached a relatively modest number 10 on Billboard.

Did US stations play it? Even those in the Bible belt?

We played it. In fact we had it in the hot rotation for longer than most songs. Granted this was in a Texas college town.

BMR said:

Even by today's standards the lyrics are pretty strong. I notice it only reached a relatively modest number 10 on Billboard.

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And even that #10 figure was from the reissue in winter 1985.

It had been issued as a single in summer 1984, and topped out at #67. No real controversy yet. It just simply had not caught on yet, at the time.

In recent years I've even heard it on some AC stations.

For me, it was "Relax, don't do it, hurry up and tune it (out)"

It's the big conundrum that I guess programmers face with currents that push the envelope. If it's a hit, you play it, I suppose. But once it falls off the charts, it should be banished, never to return. At least that's how it should be in my perfect world, and why I figured I didn't have a future as a music director.

I remember hearing it in regular rotation on WPLJ NYC, when it was Top 40 "Power 95." They went late on it, but once it was a hit, it was treated like any other song. I'm sure most people hearing the song didn't figure out what the lyrics were talking about. There are no bad words in it. How about Cyndi Lauper's "She Bop"? Again, no bad words. (I remember laughing when cartoon video of the song pictures Lauper driving into a gas station and pulling up to the "self service" pump!)

I remember MTV played a less suggestive video of "Relax." The original longer video was a fairly hard-core gay leather mini-movie.

Yes and the lyrics were somewhat scandalous at the time, but they got away with it because they were weren't overtly inappropriate.

I heard "Relax" on a "we play anything" station yesterday. I was going down a hill enjoying Bread and at the bottom of the hill, I lost Bread and ended up on the other station.

In Cincinnati, WKRQ didn't regularly play it. (I think they may have played it years later as part of a retro feature.) But WCLU played it a lot.

I heard it a few days ago on either Jack-FM (93.1) or KRTH (101.1) in LA....

joebtsflk1 said:

It's the big conundrum that I guess programmers face with currents that push the envelope. If it's a hit, you play it, I suppose. But once it falls off the charts, it should be banished, never to return. At least that's how it should be in my perfect world, and why I figured I didn't have a future as a music director.

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Wasnʼt that the case with Bay City Rollers “Money Honey”, back in the mid-70s?
It was all over the radio, then as it peaked, it suddenly seemed to disappear, never to be heard from again—?
I was only in elementary school at the time, but remember someone saying that some controversy cropped up and the record quietly vanished from the airwaves.

(I just tried googling it and couldnʼt find anything about a controversy, so I donʼt know... )

I duknow. Controversial maybe, but the song's pretty tame nowadays compared to some of the stuff that's come out in the meantime.

I actually heard it in a set-down restaurant several years ago that was a known Muzak user (Blackfin (Encompass) XD)! My buddy and I just looked at each other reacting with the "they actually used THAT?!" look. It wasn't a custom library either, think it might have been 7890. Funny thing though, it never came up on any of my 7890 airchecks of around the same time, so it could have been one of those "here-for-a-little-while-then-gone" entries they were known to do then.

Dan <><