Plenty of songs through the 20th century have been banned from radio stations around the world. Rock music, in particular, has historically been censored quite a bit. “God Save The Queen” by Sex Pistols was banned by the BBC for taking aim at the Queen in 1977. “The Pill” by Loretta Lynn was banned by conservative radio stations for promoting birth control in 1975. Countless Beatles songs were banned for just about every reason under the sun, from brand messaging to poetic drug mentions to sexual innuendo.
You might notice one thing in common about all of these songs: They were banned for their lyrics. That makes sense, of course. Why else would a song get the boot if it didn’t boast language considered lewd or dangerous? Oddly enough, one song got banned back in the 1950s that is entirely an instrumental track with no lyrics. And the reason it got banned is pretty crazy.
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“Rumble” by Link Wray & His Wray Men: The Only Banned Instrumental Rock Song in Music History
Well, it doesn’t get more rock and roll than this. Famed old-school rocker Link Wray managed to get banned from radio stations for his instrumental song, “Rumble”. The tune was written by Wray and Milton Grant and released in March 1958. It’s a garage rock classic that was apparently way too ahead of its time.
This famously banned 1950s rock song features virtually unexplored musical techniques for its time. Specifically, the song features plenty of distortion as well as tremolo. You’d be hard-pressed to find a rock song closer to the 21st century that doesn’t feature these elements. But in the 50s, it was unheard of. In a way, Wray was a proto-punk pioneer. And “Rumble” was just too crazy-sounding for its time. That, coupled with the fact that the song was associated with “brawling” or street fights, led to its inevitable ban from radio stations across the United States. The fear was that the song would encourage “juvenile delinquency,” and I think that’s rock and roll in a nutshell.
You might be wondering how an instrumental rock song could be associated with street fights. “Rumble” was named, more or less, by Phil Everly of The Everly Brothers after hearing it for the first time. Rolling Stone used that title in a write-up for the song, where they labeled it as an “invitation” to a “knife fight.” From there, “Rumble” became a bona fide fighting song.
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