In our recent story about Universal Music Group’s deal with Yoto, we spotted that ‘Fat Bottomed Girls’ had been removed from the tracklisting of a Queen compilation released for Yoto’s speaker.
We noted that in our piece but didn’t think it was controversial: Yoto is a device designed for young children, and ‘Fat Bottomed Girls’ is… let’s call it ‘1970s bawdy’. It seemed like a diplomatic decision.
However, a week later, the UK’s MailOnline published its “exclusive” (*cough*) story revealing that the track had been dropped. The take is somewhat comical.
“It appears that lyrics such as ‘left alone with big fat Fanny, she was such a naughty nanny, big woman, you made a bad boy out of me’ and ‘fat bottomed girls, you make the rockin’ world go round’ have been hit by the woke cancel culture,” claimed the article.
Cue an anonymous ‘music industry insider declaring that “it is woke gone mad. Why not appreciate people of all shapes and sizes like society is saying we should, rather than get rid of it.”
(Helpfully, MailOnline’s famous sidebar is next to the article providing its usual appreciation of all shapes and sizes – as long as they are wearing “tiny” bikinis.)
‘Fat Bottomed Girls’ remains available on all the non-Yoto versions of Queen’s compilation, as well as streaming services. It’s not been cancelled; just left off a version of the album released for a device aimed at preschoolers and up.
Tools: platforms to help you reach new audiences
Tools :: Wyng
Through Music Ally’s internal marketing campaign tracking, we’ve recently discovered an interesting website by the…