Southern California is bombarded daily by gospel radio stations based in Mexico who blast out religious messages with music. It still happens but isn't as widespread or as fundemental as it was in the early 1960s. A group of college students in LA (I don't know from which university, tho' many have claimed authorship, but even Berkeley in San Franciso have claimed authorship) put out a spoof station and ran for five weeks before they were shut down. The station was closed, a very unusual occurrance, because a/ it was in America, Mexico have or had no such laws, and b/ because they obviously became more outrageous, claiming all sorts of nonsense and saying all sorts of practises were blessed. They did the Plastic Jesus song as part of a promo for commercial items. The genuine stations sold annointed cloths, picture of the face of Christ in the trees and so on; and the original Plastic Jesus people did two verses:

   I don't care if it rains or freezes
   Long as I've got my Plastic Jesus
   Sittin' in the dashboard of my car.
   You can get him pink and pleasant,
   Glows in the dark, He's phosphorescent,
   Take him with you when you're travelling far.

   You can have a sweet Madonna
   Dressed in rhinestones, sitting on a
   Pedestal of abalone shell.
   Doin' ninety, I'm not scary
   Long as I've got the Virgin Mary
   Guaranteeing I won't go to hell.

   Sometimes the first verse is repeated. I think it's done in Cool Hand Luke.   The reason the producers used the song was is because no royalties need be paid, since there is no author. Copyright claims have been contested, though there was a case where the producers of Cool Hand Luke claimed copyright. They lost.   

   Carl MacDougall (Glasgow)