Hi, Hi, Hi is a song written by Paul and Linda McCartney and performed by Wings. It was released as a double A-side with “C Moon” on December 1, 1972 in the UK and on December 4, 1972 in the US.
The single would reach number 5 in the UK and number 10 in the US on the Billboard Hot 100 in January 1973. The song became a classic of the Wings shows of the 1970s.
In the UK the song was banned by the BBC for its sexually suggestive lyrics. The BBC also assumed that the title of the phrase, “We’re gonna get hi, hi, hi.” The executives also took offense at the lyrics, “Get you ready for my body gun,” which McCartney revealed was a printing error by Northern Songs. He actually sang, “Get you ready for my polygon”.
BBC Radio 1 and 2 immediately ban ‘Hi Hi Hi’. The BBC’s official publicist Rodney Collins explains the ban: “The ban has nothing to do with drugs,” he remarked.
During an interview with Rolling Stone about the incident, he said: “I thought the ‘Hi Hi Hi’ thing could easily be taken as a natural high, could be taken as booze high and everything. It doesn’t have to be drugs, you know, so I’d kind of get away with it. Well, the first thing they saw was drugs, so I didn’t get away with that, and then I just had some line ‘Lie on the bed and get ready for my polygon.’”
He continued: “The daft thing about all of that was our publishing company, Northern Songs…got the lyrics wrong and sent them round to the radio station and it said, ‘Get ready for my body gun,’ which is far more suggestive than anything I put. ‘Get ready for my polygon,’ watch out baby, I mean it was suggestive, but abstract suggestive, which I thought I’d get away with. Bloody company goes round and makes it much more specific by putting ‘body gun.’”