3 Hit Songs That Started As Jokes Between Band Members

The creative process doesn’t have to be all serious all the time. In fact, many artists have found that a measure of silliness in the studio pays off big time. The three songs below are great examples of this. Somewhere along the way, the bands behind these tunes realized there was more to them than a laugh, but they all started their lives as jokes said between bandmates.

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“Highway to Hell” (AC/DC)

“Highway to Hell” is AC/DC’s signature tune. It has become synonymous with the band and rock’s irreverent spirit. However, this 1979 release wasn’t meant to be taken very seriously. According to Angus Young, this song was born out of a joke he told his bandmates.

“That was a result of being asked what we’d call one of our tours, and I replied, ‘A highway to hell!’ It was a joke again,” Young once said. “When we arrived in America, I didn’t know what a fundamentalist was. And I didn’t really care. All that satanic stuff is more groups pretending because it goes with their image.”

[RELATED: Brian Johnson’s Favorite Bon Scott-Era AC/DC Song: “I Wish We Did It”]

“Heart of Glass” (Blondie)

“Heart of Glass” more than sticks out in Blondie’s discography. It stood in stark contrast to the band’s typically punk demeanor. As it turns out, that was the whole point. The band apparently wanted to “be uncool” when they recorded this “joke” song. It seems inconceivable by modern standards, but “Heart of Glass” had the potential of being a trite, radio-pandering pop track. “When we did ‘Heart of Glass’, it wasn’t cool in our social set to play disco,” Debbie Harry once said.

Unfortunately (or fortunately?) for Blondie, the song defied their expectations, becoming a calling card for decades to come.

“Michelle” (The Beatles)

Michelle, ma belle / Sont les mots qui vont très bien ensemble / Très bien ensemble, the lyrics to the Beatles’ “Michelle” read. For those of us not fluent in French, these lyrics read as beautiful, poetic lines that are as intricate as they are seductive. Translated, they are markedly simple and only slightly touching.

Paul McCartney set out to write a fake French song with “Michelle.” The lyrics were meant to mirror the idea of listening to a French song as an English speaker, only to find that the lyrics make little to no sense when translated.

“Michelle’ was like a joke French tune for when you go to a party or something,” McCartney once said. “That’s all it was. And then after a while, you say, ‘Well, that’s quite a good tune. Let’s put some real words to it.’”

(Photo by Fin Costello/Redferns)