Now Johnny Mathis’ Christmas classic When A Child Is Born has its lyrics censored on radio after being branded racist
Radio stations have censored the lyrics of When a Child is Born after listeners branded a verse in Johnny Mathis’ classic Christmas song as racist.
Listeners have taken offence to the word ‘yellow’ in a lyric that refers to a child as ‘black, white, yellow, no one knows’.
‘Yellow’ has been cut out on Heart FM and Magic Radio, The Sun has revealed.
News that radio stations will be censoring When a Child is Born comes just two weeks after Radio 2 announced it would censored version of The Pogues’s classic song Fairytale Of New York for the first time this holiday season.
When a Child is Born was written in the early 70s but was made popular by Mr Mathis in December 1976 when the song spent three weeks at the top of the UK Singles Chart.
It was also the number one Christmas song in Great Britain that year.
But now, the popular holiday hit will be censored on some radio stations, despite listeners arguing the song is ‘just a product of its time.’
‘The world has gone mad,’ one listener told The Sun. ‘Another Christmas classic ruined. Leave Christmas alone and leave Johnny Mathis alone.’
At least two radio stations have already started censoring the tune.
A BBC Radio spokesperson told MailOnline: ‘When A Child Is Born is not a song that has been played regularly on BBC Radio this month, but as always we continue to monitor audience response to our programming.’
The radio station noted that the original version of the song has only been played twice this month on live radio.
MailOnline has also approached Heart FM and Magic Radio.
