Here’s Country Music’s Most Controversial Hit {Listen}
Country music history isn't filled with controversial songs. Oh, from time-to-time there is a song that might make a listener's ears perk up. Might make a listener wince. Make even make a listener blush a bit. After all, country music is pretty well known for having some of the best cheatin' songs ever recorded. Some of the finest drinkin' songs ever to come down the pike. But over all? Country music is pretty tame, all things considered.
And then a little tune came along in 1975 that caused an uproar. A tune that was banned by many country music stations across the country. A tune that became not only a huge controversy...but a huge hit. And it was sung and co-written by one of country music's biggest stars, an artist who has now become one of country music's greatest legends.
Loretta Lynn. The Coal Miner's Daughter.
The song was titled 'The Pill' and what caused the ruckus was the fact that the song was about...well, the pill. As in birth control pill. And while it may seem quaint these days, it was anything but in 1975. The pill was one of those subjects that proper folks didn't talk (or sing) about in public.
But Loretta was all about singing her truth, her life. And since her life included having 4 children before the age of twenty, the song was perhaps more than a hint of life.
The bruhaha that surrounded the song, the fact that is was banned from so many stations, didn't stop the song from being a huge hit. In fact, maybe that fueled it, because the song became a Top Ten Loretta smash and helped to cement her place in country music.
By the way word is that Loretta recorded the song in 1972, but her record label held the song back. But in 1975 here it came! The song, the hit...and the controversy.
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