The Sex Pistols single 'God Save The Queen' released in the UK on 27th May 1977. Banned by TV and radio, high street shops and some plant workers refused to press the record. The single reached #1 on the NME charts and #2 on the UK singles charts. Some newspapers refused to have it printed out and left it blank.
The U.K. Parliament threatened to ban all sales of the single. A spokesperson from Virgin said “It’s remarkable that MPs should have nothing better to do than get agitated about records which were never intended for their Ming vase sensibilities.â€. Even with the backlash and haters of the single the record was selling up to 150,000 copies a day.
The closing phrase to the song 'no future' became symbolic to the punk movement. And the prelude to the symbolic phrase 'And England's dreaming'.
Before the band signed to Virgin records because they were sacked from A&M. A small number of the 7"s had already been pressed on the A&M label. These 7" records are now the most valuable records ever pressed in the UK. The median price for these records go for around AUD$10,000.00 on discogs.
Never Mind The Filth And The Fury
The song featured on their one and only studio album 'Never Mind The Bollocks'. Released on 28th October 1977. The group had already been through the 'Filth and The Fury' swearing on TV debacle, fired from two record labels and banned from many live venues throughout Britain. The word 'Bollocks' offended some of the square folks.
Frontman John Lydon aka Johnny Rotten explain in an interview with Daniel Rachel about writing the song. "'God Save the Queen' was running around in my mind for months, long before joining the Sex Pistols; the idea of being angry. The indifference of the Queen to the population and the aloofness and indifference to us as people. I had to work on building sites to get money to go to college because I wanted to further my education. Yet I was taxed to fuck. Why am I paying for that silly cow who couldn't give a shit about me? Along come the Pistols and just one morning over baked beans I wrote it down in one go on Mum and Dad's kitchen table"
It's a bloody great song with great covers by many bands. The one that stands out for me the most is the cover by Mötorhead. Check it out