3 Classic Rock Songs That Were Almost Sung by Somebody Else

Sometimes, a person needs a little luck in the music business. Some of the best classic rock songs out there were this close to slipping through the fingers of the people who made them famous, but at the last moment, they got it back. Or maybe a song a musician is proud of was offered to someone else, only for them to strangely reject it, and then for the tune to fall into the original artist’s lap. Happens all the time!

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We wanted to examine three times when that was the case. Let’s look at a trio of examples of songs that almost fell into another artist’s hands. But instead, these songs found their rightful owner and became fan favorites. Indeed, these are three classic rock songs that were almost sung by somebody else!

“Hungry Heart” by Bruce Springsteen from ‘The River’ (1980)

Just as The Boss was becoming a household name, he ran into another music icon, Joey Ramone. The meeting took place in Springsteen’s home turf of Asbury Park, New Jersey. Ramone and Springsteen talked about the latter writing a song for the punk rock band The Ramones. So, that night Bruce went home and penned the tune quickly; it just poured out of him.

But when he played Joey the demo, Springsteen said that the famous Ramone responded, “Nah, you better keep that one.”

“He was right about that, it did pretty well,” Springsteen told late-night show host Jimmy Fallon.

At that point, Springsteen had already given away so many upbeat hits, including “Because The Night” to Patti Smith, that his management was also glad he kept it. “Hungry Heart” later became Springsteen’s first song to make the Billboard Hot 100, traveling all the way up to no. 5.

“I’m A Believer” by The Monkees from ‘More Of The Monkees’ (1966)

This track is likely The Monkees’ most famous and popular to date. It’s been featured in countless TV shows and movies, including the Shrek animated films. But it wasn’t written by The Monkees. Instead, it was first written by Neil Diamond.

While the TV band The Monkees released it in 1966, Diamond later tracked his own version a year later for his LP, Just For You.

“The head of my record company freaked,” Young later told People of the tune. “He went through the roof because he felt that I had given no. 1 records away to another group. I couldn’t have cared less because I had to pay the rent, and The Monkees were selling records, and I wasn’t being paid for my records.”

“Call Me” by Blondie from ‘American Gigolo’ (1980)

Ever heard of Blondie? Ever heard of Stevie Nicks? Of course you have! Well, there was an interesting sliding-door moment for the two around 1980. Italian producer Giorgio Moroder wrote a song for the movie, American Gigolo. That track is now known as “Call Me”, but he first approached Nicks with the music to see if she wanted to perform on it.

Unfortunately for the Fleetwood Mac singer, she had to decline the opportunity, and so Moroder asked Blondie lead singer Debbie Harry, who wrote the lyrics based on the movie’s main character. The rest is music history.

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