How the Rolling Stones' 'Let's Spend the Night Together' Got Banned from Ed Sullivan

In early 1967, the Rolling Stones released “Let’s Spend the Night Together,” a song whose title alone was enough to set off alarm bells in middle America. The lyrics didn’t even need to be racy — the phrase “spend the night together” was understood as a direct invitation to premarital sex, which the censors at CBS weren’t about to let through on a Sunday night family show.

When the Stones booked an appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show to promote the single, Sullivan’s producers demanded they change the lyric to “Let’s Spend Some Time Together.” Mick Jagger famously complied on camera, but while singing he rolled his eyes and mugged to the audience, making it clear he was being forced. After the performance, Sullivan told the band they were banned from his show — though they returned years later. The whole thing only made the song more famous and cemented the Stones’ image as rebellious bad boys.