What rock songs, released as singles, have caused the most controversy?

If you want to go farther back, I remember in the late 60s, Janis Ian's "Society's Child" (interracial dating) and the Rolling Stones' "Let's Spend the Night Together" (premarital sex!) were quite controversial. "Eve of Destruction" (Barry McGuire?) made the grownups really mad when I was in elementary school (opposing the Vietnam war).

Bodies (Let the bodies Hit the Floor) by Drowning Pool was released just before 9/11 happened. After 9/11 several radio stations here in Las Vegas took the song off the air (FCC getting involved).

1. he recorded a best-selling first album 2. his album "Thriller" was the album with the most copies sold ever and went 3. he sold a lot more albums after 4. he sparked controversy after he changed his skin clour to white and had lots of plastic surgery 5. he earned a small reputation of being a pedofile 6. he died in 2009, making at least a qauter of the whole world sad. Hope this helped.

It's not rock, but the biggest controversies I can remember are the 2 Live Crew song (if it speaks to it at all, I don't remember the song at all but all sorts of people were all up in arms because it was very raunchy). It was a real trailblazer towards the PAEL stickers.

Oh, I've got it. It has to be Cop Killer by Bodycount. There was a huge to do over that song. People went aboslutely nuts when that came out.

Hey Barb!

Since you said ROCK song, I won't include 2 Live Crew in the discussion. Prince though is fair game.

Prince - Darling Nikki - Tipper Gore nearly had a stroke

Ozzy Osbourne - Suicide Solution - Good call by Ozzy, kids were stupid enough to look upon it as an anthem to off themselves.

Marilyn Manson - Lunchbox - People who like to blame Manson for Columbine often look at this particular song even though those critics clearly weren't paying attention to detail.

I'm agreeing with Cop Killer. I remember the pressure Time -Warner was under to pull the Body Count album off the shelves right after the release. They finally reissued it after the song was removed but everyone was up in arms. Hell of a marketing ploy though, sometimes the worst publicity is the best publicity.

Creatrix has a fantastic one with The Pill. I find it ironic that country music, a normally much more conservative style, helped to serve as one of the starting points for the female sexual revolution.

Israel's Son, by Silverchair

The lyrics are dark and violent, but the real controversy surrounding the song arose during a 1996 trial, in my homestate, of two teens charged with double homicide. The victims were the parents of one defendant. In open court, they claimed the song inspired them to commit the murders, and when the media heard that, well, all hell broke loose.

Don't forget about The Cure "Killing An Arab". Imagine that song playing now. John McCain probably bumps this song 5 times an hour!

Mystikal's "Shake YaAss" was semi controversial as well.

Haven't seen anyone yet mention The Beatles' “A Day in the Life”.

The "supposed" drug reference in the line “I’d love to turn you on” was good enough to get the song banned by the world's largest broadcasting corporation. (BBC)

The ban might of been worth a 'few' more units sold.. Think?

Multiple songs by Rage Against the Machine was pretty controversial, like Guerilla Radio and and Killing In the Name.