Cherry Cola for Lola

June 3, 1970 - Ray Davies of The Kinks made a 6,000-mile round-trip flight from New York to London and back again on this day. It was all because of one word in his new song that was about to become a huge hit.

Davies had written the song, Lola, which tells the story of a guy picking up a transvestite in a bar. The orginal recording for the album included the lyric "where you drink champagne and it tastes just like Coca-Cola." This was a problem for the BBC who enforced a strict policy against product placement inside songs.

So when the time came to release the single, Davies had to interrupt his American tour, jump on a plane in New York and fly to London for a quick recording session in which "Coca-Cola" went away and "cherry-cola" went in.

The song went all the way to #2 on the UK charts.  Rolling Stone lists it as one its Top 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.