10 Bizarre Reasons Songs Were Banned From The Radio

The Doors released the second single from their first album in April 1967 to critical acclaim, and less than a year later, Puerto Rican artist José Feliciano released his cover of the song in 1968. After that, everything was alright for 22 years.

It was only once the Gulf War broke out in 1990 that the BBC took issue with the song. Light My Fire and 66 other songs found their way on to a blacklist of tracks that shouldn't be played whilst Britain was in conflict. Some of the songs on the list have explicit references to war, so it's more understandable as to why they were banned, but this particular entry is more confusing.

Light My Fire is a straight-up love song, so the only way this song could have made it on to a war-time blacklist is if someone at the BBC saw the title alone, and wrote it off based on one word. Some would have thought that the drug references would stir more controversy, but apparently not. Also worthy of note is the fact that only Feliciano's cover was banned, with the original seemingly deemed fit for broadcast.

On a similar tangent, other strange inclusions on the Gulf War blacklist include ABBA's Waterloo, John Lennon's Imagine and Elton John's Saturday Night's Alright For Finding.