After Preachers and Radio Stations Denounced This 1975 Country Song, It Sold 15,000 Copies in a Week
After Preachers and Radio Stations Denounced This 1975 Country Song, It Sold 15,000 Copies in a Week
Virginia ChamleeSat, April 18, 2026 at 10:00 AM UTC
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Loretta Lynn in 1972Credit: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty -
In 1975, Loretta Lynn released an anthem for female independence that raised the ire of some preachers and radio stations
Lynn's song "The Pill" was an ode to the freedoms that the birth control pill (which was introduced in 1960) provided women
The controversy against it backfired, as Lynn sold thousands of copies in mere days
While she went on to become one of the most renowned country music artists in history, there was a time when Loretta Lynn was so controversial that even church preachers were calling on their congregations to disavow her music.
The country music icon — who died at age 90 in 2022 — burst onto the scene in the 1960s with her first single, "I'm a Honky Tonk Girl."
Married at 15 to a moonshine runner six years her senior, Lynn was a mother of four by the time she turned 20 — and many of her songs were inspired by her own marital issues. But perhaps none of her songs garnered quite as much attention as her 1975 record, "The Pill," an ode to the impact that the birth control pill, which was introduced in 1960, had on women.
Loretta LynnCredit: Rick Diamond/Getty
A 1975 PEOPLE story described how the controversy only propelled the song further: "A preacher in West Liberty, Ky., recently denounced country singer Loretta Lynn and her new song 'The Pill.' The effect was to send much of the congregation scurrying out to buy the record. More than 60 radio stations from Boston to Tulsa have banned the song, but through word of mouth and the FM underground, 'The Pill' is selling 15,000 copies a week."
Speaking to PEOPLE that same year, the mother of six said she didn't understand the outcry over the song, saying, "If I'd had the pill back when I was havin' babies I'd have taken 'em like popcorn. The pill is good for people. I wouldn't trade my kids for anyone's. But I wouldn't necessarily have had six, and I sure would have spaced 'em better."
She described the song as being one side of a conversation between a man and his wife, saying, "It's just a wife arguin' with her husband. The wife is sayin', 'You've kept me barefoot and pregnant all these years while you've been slippin' around. Now you straighten out or I'll start, now that I have the pill.' "The success of "The Pill," PEOPLE reported at the time, capped "a decade of prosperity for Loretta" — one she celebrated with "a new gold-green Jaguar convertible."
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Lynn's bestselling 1976 autobiography, Coal Miner's Daughter, was later transformed into a 1980 box-office hit that won a Best Actress Oscar for leading lady Sissy Spacek.
The singer, who stopped touring in 2017, continued working well into her 80s, releasing her final album, Still Woman Enough, in 2021.
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When Lynn died in October 2022, her family said in a statement that "the world lost a legend."
Weeks after her death, Lynn made an appearance via video footage and recordings at her own public memorial service, telling the crowd she hoped to be remembered "just as a good person."
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
