Making music is not for the weak. From disappointments to rejections to emotions you can’t push down, being an artist comes with its own set of heartbreaks. The three songs below pushed their songwriters to the edge, making it heartbreaking to record them. Revisit these troublesome hits below.
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“I Don’t Want To Know” (Stevie Nicks)
There are many opinions in bands. While there are some inherently good things about sharing the spotlight with others, it can also be heartbreaking when your opinion is the one that’s ignored. Stevie Nicks experienced this famously while making Rumours.
No Fleetwood Mac member completely got their way while making that album. It was a challenging situation for everyone. But one of the most famous rifts during the recording sessions came when Nicks was notified that one of her tracks, “Silver Springs,” was being cut from the final product. As consolation, the band let her keep in “I Don’t Want to Know,” which was notably softer on Lindsey Buckingham than the previous effort. It wasn’t the emotional release Nicks was looking for on Rumours. Losing “Silver Springs” on the original version of the record was a stab right to the heart.
“Here Today” (Paul McCartney)
How do you even begin to sum up what being in the biggest band in the world with someone is like, especially while grieving? Paul McCartney found the answer with his heartbreaking song, “Here Today.”
“Here Today” recounts McCartney’s hometown days with John Lennon. Though the pair had exchanged insults in the years following the Beatles’ breakup, there was clearly a lot of love there. McCartney bottled that up and put it into this heartwrenching ballad. But as for me / I still remember how it was before / And I am holding back the tears no more, he sings in this track. Given the emotions behind the piece, this couldn’t have been an easy one for McCartney to get through.
“Love Is Blindness” (U2)
Making music is a job you can’t really leave all your troubles at home for. In fact, it requires you to carry them along, inject them into your songwriting, and relive them for as long as it takes to get the final product.
This became a heartbreaking process for U2‘s The Edge while recording “Love Is Blindness.” While going through a divorce, the guitarist poured all his emotions into the instrumentation of this song. It’s a deeply affecting performance that just about broke him behind the scenes.
[RELATED: U2’s Last Top 40 Single Wasn’t That Big of a Hit (And the Band Didn’t Think So Either)]
Featured Image by Michael Putland/Getty Images
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