Whether they’re a rapper-turned-country-star or a legendary art rock icon, few famous musicians have had “perfect” beginnings. That’s part of becoming famous for your art, after all. Failure, experimentation, and eventually success often lead to bigger and better things. At least, that’s the case for these three famous pop stars and bands, whose first songs weren’t exactly stellar. Let’s take a look (and possibly have a laugh)!
Videos by American Songwriter
1. Post Malone
Oh, Post Malone. Few artists have had a career as diverse as his. The song that made him famous was “White Iverson” from 2015. His time as a rapper was excellent, and his move toward genre-bending country has proved to be lucrative. His recent release, F-1 Trillion, was a massive success.
Malone is a talented guy, but some of his early work was downright hilarious. This song from 2014 was released under Leon DeChino, Malone’s early-career alter ego.
2. David Bowie
Pop stars’ first songs aren’t always great, but nobody’s perfect. David Bowie had a bit of a rough start before becoming one of the greatest rock stars of his generation. He finally got the love he deserved when “Space Oddity” was released in 1969. However, his earlier debut album was polarizing, to say the least.
One song that sticks out from that self-titled 1967 album is “Mr. Gravedigger”, a song widely considered to be one of the icon’s worst. I personally like it, but I also get where listeners were coming from at the time. The song sounds more like a one-man play with someone recording the audio, rather than an actual song. There’s no instrumentation here, other than the sound of rain and Bowie mulling over his own mortality. Brilliant to some, unlistenable to others.
3. Genesis
This prog-rock outfit is a bit of an underrated example of pop stars with less-than-ideal first songs. Genesis is famous for a reason; the genius of both Phil Collins and Peter Gabriel can’t be matched. They became famous for numerous songs, “Invisible Touch” from 1986 being one of their most well-known. However, the band’s first album was initially met with mixed reactions… for good reason.
Released in 1969, From Genesis To Revelation was put out into the universe when the first lineup of Genesis was still quite young. Jonathan King was the one to give them their first record deal, and he wanted them to create a concept album based on the Bible. It was cut in just three days, and the result was a record that the band members (and listeners) hated.
“Absolutely pathetic,” Genesis keyboardist Tony Banks said of the record. “But it did give us something to hang everything around.”
“I completely freaked out,” said Genesis guitarist Anthony Phillips. “But there was no ‘undo’ button.”
The album, along with its singles, was a commercial flop that gained quite a few negative reviews.
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