4 Iconic and Accidental Hit Songs

If songwriters knew where the great songs came from, they’d reach for that magical cupboard every time.

Often, hit songs arrive by accident. You never know when inspiration will strike so the best thing you can do is keep showing up and putting in the work. Many musicians spend hours mindlessly noodling on their instruments, perhaps overlooking the sketch of a future masterpiece.

However, either by sheer luck or intuition, something beyond talent pushes an arbitrary thought into a work of genius. Below, a random pattern of notes becomes an iconic riff. Then, two rock stars are reluctantly persuaded to share their deepest vulnerability with the world. Finally, a drunken joke dramatically shifts pop culture.

Even the greats ask themselves: Where do we go now?

“Sweet Child O’ Mine” by Guns N’ Roses from Appetite for Destruction (1987)

Slash remembered writing the riff to “Sweet Child O’ Mine” almost by accident. He and Izzy Stradlin were living together in a run-down house in Los Angeles. One afternoon, while Slash fiddled with a pattern on his guitar, Stradlin played a chord progression beneath the noodling. Axl Rose happened to be upstairs and while he listened to the music below, began writing lyrics.

At a preproduction rehearsal a few days later, Rose asked them to play the song they were working on, but his bandmates didn’t know what he was talking about. When Slash and Stradlin finally remembered the music piece Rose referred to, they quickly fleshed out the arrangement. According to Slash, “Sweet Child O’ Mine,” like many Guns N’ Roses songs, “wrote itself.” Though the song began with Slash’s riff, he didn’t like it until he created the solo section—which dramatically shifts the tender ballad into one of the great solo breaks in rock history.

“Nothing Else Matters” by Metallica from Metallica (1991)

During a phone call between James Hetfield and his then-girlfriend, Hetfield distractedly picked through a guitar pattern. He later developed the chords into a love song. However, Hetfield was embarrassed to present it to his band. He did eventually play it for Lars Ulrich, who convinced Hetfield it should be a Metallica song. Though Hetfield remained shy about the song, Ulrich wasn’t concerned about alienating Metallica fans with a ballad. Ulrich remembered being moved by the way Hetfield sang it and told Howard Stern he “knew it was something we needed to share with the rest of the world.”

“Nothing Else Matters” is one of Metallica’s most beloved songs. The band famously helped bring heavy metal music to mainstream audiences with the music video for “One.” It was their first music video and before that song reaches its heaviest moments, it develops quietly for more than two minutes until the power chords enter. On “Nothing Else Matters,” the track builds for nearly five minutes before Hetfield emerges with his iconic Yeah! and an epic guitar solo. And there’s no one in the history of rock and roll that utters a better or more guttural affirmation than James Hetfield.

“Under the Bridge” by Red Hot Chili Peppers from Blood Sugar Sex Magik (1991)

While the Red Hot Chili Peppers recorded their masterpiece Blood Sugar Sex Magik, producer Rick Rubin flipped through Anthony Kiedis’ notebook and found a poem. Kiedis was reluctant to show something so vulnerable to the rest of the band but Rubin persisted. The writing expresses the singer’s feelings of isolation, lament for the death of his friend and founding guitarist Hillel Slovak, and finding solace in the city of Los Angeles.

The song became nearly as ubiquitous on MTV as “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” And it helped turn the Red Hot Chili Peppers into a stadium-selling rock band. “Under the Bridge” perfectly defines the Red Hot Chili Peppers—an ode to Los Angeles and all its darkness and beauty.

“Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana from Nevermind (1991)

In 1990, Bikini Kill bandmates Kathleen Hanna and Tobi Vail noticed the deodorant Teen Spirit while shopping at a grocery store in Olympia, Washington. The name and marketing slogan became an in-joke between the two riot grrrl pioneers. Later, Hanna—after a long night of drinking with Kurt Cobain and Dave Grohl—scribbled “Kurt Smells Like Teen Spirit” with a Sharpie on Cobain’s bedroom wall. Some accounts of the joke claim Vail wore Teen Spirit deodorant. Cobain and Vail dated then and the implication is they were sleeping together.

According to Hanna, six months later Cobain called her and asked if he could use what she’d written on his wall for a song. (He didn’t know Teen Spirit was a deodorant, which is more crucial than whether or not Vail really wore Teen Spirit. It only adds to the accidental nature of the song’s creation and projected Gen X-defining wisdom.) Hanna said, sure. So a joke misunderstood by the songwriter and four powerful chords changed pop culture. All by accident.

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