‘Try That in a Small Town,’ ‘WAP’ & More No. 1 Hot 100 Hits That Stirred Controversy

Weeks at No. 1: One (Sept. 25, 1965)

Songwriter: P.F. Sloan

Notes: This downer of a song outlined many of the problems the world was experiencing in the tumultuous 1960s. At the top of the list was the threat of nuclear disaster: “If the button is pushed, there’s no runnin’ away/ There’ll be no one to save with the world in a grave.” (The song was a hit less than three years after the Cuban Missile Crisis made this threat more than theoretical.)

“Destruction” also dealt with the civil rights struggle (“marches alone can’t bring integration”) and with personal hypocrisy (“Hate your next-door-neighbor but don’t forget to say grace”). The Spokesmen recorded a more optimistic answer song, “The Dawn of Correction,” that reached No. 36 in October 1965.

Controversy level: 7

Weeks at No. 1: Five (beginning March 5, 1966)

Songwriter: Robin Moore, Barry Sadler

Notes: By 1966, it was becoming apparent that America was deeply divided over the Vietnam War. You can track changing attitudes about the war just by looking at No. 1 hits on the Hot 100, from this gung-ho salute to the Green Berets (“One hundred men will test today/ But only three win the Green Beret”), to Edwin Starr’s “War” just four years later (“War/ What is it good for?/ Absolutely nothing”).

You can also contrast key lines in this song (“Back at home, a young wife waits/ Her Green Beret has met his fate/He has died for those oppressed/ Leaving her his last request/ Put silver wings on my son’s chest/Make him one of America’s best”) with a nearly opposite reaction in Bo Donaldson & the Heywood’s “Billy, Don’t Be a Hero,” a No. 1 hit in 1974 (“I heard his fiancée got a letter/ That told how Billy died that day/ The letter said that he was a hero/ She should be proud he died that way/ I heard she threw that letter away”).

Controversy level: 6

Weeks at No. 1: Two (beginning Nov. 30, 1968)

Songwriters: Deke Richards, Pam Sawyer, R. Dean Taylor, Frank Wilson

Notes: Songs reflect their time, and in 1968, when this song came out, having a child “out of wedlock” (even the phrase sounds judgmental nowadays) was not socially acceptable. This song reflects those attitudes: “But no child of mine will be bearing/ The name of shame I’ve been wearing/ Love child, love child/ Never quite as good/ Afraid, ashamed/ Misunderstood.” At the time, the record was praised for being topical and socially aware, a departure for the trio. The record, which knocked The Beatles’ “Hey Jude” out of the No. 1 spot, still sounds great. But now, the lyric seems melodramatic and dated. That can happen when you venture into topicality.

Controversy level: Then: 2, now: 7

Weeks at No. 1: Two (beginning May 29, 1971)

Songwriters: Mick Jagger, Keith Richards

Notes: This is one of The Stones’ greatest hits, both commercially and creatively, though the opening lines wouldn’t fly today: “Gold Coast slave ship bound for cotton fields/ Sold in a market down in New Orleans/ Scarred old slaver, know he’s doing alright/ Hear him whip the women just around midnight.” In 1971, people responded to the killer riff, sending this song to No. 1 in just five weeks, the band’s speediest ascent since 1965. Now far more would object to the very idea of a song about a slave auction.

Controversy level: Then: 2, now: 7

Weeks at No. 1: Three (beginning Aug. 24, 1974)

Songwriter: Paul Anka

Notes: Anka landed his first No. 1 hit in nearly 15 years with this song, about a man’s joy at seeing his partner (we’re not told if they’re married) pregnant. The protagonist is a little self-focused: “You’re havin’ my baby/ What a lovely way of sayin’ how much you love me/ Havin’ my baby/ What a lovely way of sayin’ what you’re thinkin’ of me.” But that’s not what made this song controversial — it was this stanza, coming just one year after the Supreme Court made abortion legal nationwide: “Didn’t have to keep it/ Wouldn’t put you through it/ You could have swept it from your life/ But you wouldn’t do it, no, you wouldn’t do it.”

Controversy level: 8

Weeks at No. 1: Three (beginning Nov. 1, 1975)

Songwriters: Elton John, Bernie Taupin

Notes: This reggae-infused smash shot to No. 1 in just four weeks in 1975, the fastest any song had reached the top spot since Paul & Linda McCartney’s “Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey” in 1971. Yet Elton hasn’t performed the song in concert since 1990. Sure, he has too many hits to perform them all, but this was a big one. It seems that Elton has “cancelled” his own song, perhaps before he is pressured by others to drop it. Sample lyrics: “Oh she’s a big girl, she’s standing six-foot three/ Turning tricks for the dudes in the big city/ Island girl/ What you wanting with the white man’s world?/ Island girl/ Black boy want you in his island world.” It’s a dynamic record, and besides, who really pays attention to the lyrics on a record like this? Back then, not many. Now, far more.

Controversy level: Then: 2; now: 5

Weeks at No. 1: Three (beginning Sept. 21, 1985)

Songwriters: Mark Knopfler, Sting

Notes: The song includes a six-letter pejorative for gay people – yeah, that one – that would not be acceptable today: “See the little f—-t with the earring and the make-up?/ Yeah buddy, that’s his own hair/ That little f—-t got his own jet airplane/ That little f—-t, he’s a millionaire.” These were the sentiments of the blue-collar, hard-hat characters that were depicted in the song’s video, but even in that context, those lyrics wouldn’t fly today. But that didn’t stop it then: “Money for Nothing” won video of the year at the 1986 MTV Video Music Awards and was nominated for record and song of the year at the Grammys.

Controversy level: Then: 2; now: 7

Weeks at No. 1: Two (beginning Jan. 5, 1991)

Songwriters: Lenny Kravitz, Ingrid Chavez, Madonna

Notes: Madonna, of course, has built a career on controversy, from “Papa Don’t Preach” (where a pregnant young woman tells her father she’s keeping her baby) to “Like a Prayer” (which had a video that was condemned by the Vatican). The lyrics to “Justify My Love” are tame by today’s standards: “I don’t want to be your mother/ I don’t want to be your sister either/ I just want to be your lover.” And there’s this smart line: “Poor is the man/ Whose pleasures depend/ On the permission of another.”

But, again, it was the video, more than the song itself, that caused the drama. The video contained imagery of sadomasochism, voyeurism and bisexuality, which resulted in it being banned from MTV. That, of course, was the jet fuel this needed to become a smash. The clip was released as a video single and became the first short-form video to be certified multiplatinum by the RIAA. The song also became Madonna’s ninth No. 1 on the Hot 100.

Controversy level: 7

Weeks at No. 1: Two (beginning Jan. 30, 1999)

Songwriter: Max Martin

Notes: Spears was just 16 when this song entered the Hot 100 in November 1998, though she had reached 17 by the time it cracked the top 10 the following month. The erotically charged song was far removed from the teen crush songs that had been popular a decade earlier for Tiffany and Debbie Gibson. “My loneliness is killing me/ And I must confess, I still believe/ When I’m not with you, I lose my mind/ Give me a sign/ Hit me, baby, one more time.” Spears’ age caused a bit of controversy, but it didn’t halt the song’s progress to No. 1.

Controversy level: 3

Weeks at No. 1: Seven (beginning July 5, 2008)

Songwriters: Cathy Dennis, Lukasz Gottwald, Max Martin, Katy Perry

Notes: This song was seemingly crafted to get Perry noticed – and it did. The song signals, perhaps too clearly, that the protagonist was straight and was just fooling around in her sexual experimentation: “I kissed a girl just to try it/I hope my boyfriend don’t mind it/It felt so wrong, it felt so right/Don’t mean I’m in love tonight.” It would have been braver to leave that open to interpretation, rather than shutting the door on even the possibility that this same-sex attraction was real.

Three years later, Lady Gaga topped the Hot 100 for six weeks with “Born This Way,” which was more progressive (and has held up better). Perry has heard the criticisms of the song that made her a star and agrees, at least in part. In a 2018 interview with Glamour, she said if she could do it all over again, she would rewrite a few of the song’s lyrics. “Lyrically, it has a couple of stereotypes in it. Your mind changes so much in 10 years, and you grow so much. What’s true for you can evolve.”

Controversy level: Then: 3; now: 6

Weeks at No. 1: 12 (beginning June 22, 2013)

Songwriters: Marvin Gaye, Clifford Harris (T.I.), Robin Thicke, Pharrell Williams

Notes: This sexy, strutting smash was the longest-running No. 1 hit of 2013 and even landed a Grammy nod for record of the year.  “Blurred Lines” won video of the year at the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards. But many criticized the song for trivializing the idea of sexual consent through lyrics such as “I know you want it,” and faulted the video for promoting the objectification of women. How come the men in the video are fully dressed while the women are topless? One last controversy: The song leans so heavily on the groove of Marvin Gaye’s 1977 smash “Got to Give It Up (Pt. I) that Gaye was awarded a co-writing credit.

Controversy level: Then: 4; now: 7

Weeks at No. 1: Four (beginning Aug. 22, 2020)

Songwriters: Cardi B, Megan Pete (Megan Thee Stallion), Austin Owens, James Foye III, Frank Rodriguez, Jorden Thorpe

Notes: This song proved that women artists could be just as ribald as men. “WAP,” which entered the Hot 100 at No. 1, is explicit – let’s just say it’s a good thing the song title was an acronym. But it has some funny and clever lines: “Bring a bucket and a mop.” “Swipe your nose like a credit card.” “I ride on that thing like the cops is behind me.” “WAP” was nominated for video of the year at the 2021 MTV Video Music Awards. Will this song one day be supplanted as the most explicit song ever to reach No. 1? Probably. Will it ever seem tame, as some once-controversial songs do? That’s hard to imagine.

Controversy level: 8

Weeks at No. 1: One (April 10, 2021)

Songwriters: Montero Hill (Lil Nas X), Denzel Baptiste, David Biral, Omer Fedi, Rosario Lenzo

Notes: The rapper announced he was gay in 2019, while “Old Town Road” (featuring Billy Ray Cyrus) was in the midst of its record-setting run at No. 1 on the Hot 100. He incorporated his sexuality into his art on this smash, which entered the Hot 100 at No. 1 two years later, on its way to landing Grammy nods for record and song of the year. The song is highly sexual, but the video, where he gives the devil a lap-dance, is what made this so controversial. “Montero” was nominated for video of the year at the 2021 MTV Video Music Awards.

Controversy level: 8

Weeks at No.1: One (so far) (Aug. 5, 2023)

Songwriter: Kelley Lovelace, Neil Thrasher, Tully Kennedy, Kurt Allison

Notes: The country is deeply divided, and this song plays on those divisions in pitting small-town values against those of progressive bastions. “Cuss out a cop, spit in his face/ Stomp on the flag and light it up/ Yeah, ya think you’re tough/ Well, try that in a small town/ See how far ya make it down the road/ Around here, we take care of our own.” The last line evokes the title of a 2012 Bruce Springsteen song that fans of “Try That in a Small Town” would probably consider hopelessly woke.

Controversy level: 10