Hit songs that were originally meant for someone else...

funky said:
Holiday - was originally intended for Phyllis Hyman (“Move Closer”) but she turned it down.
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"Move Closer" is by Phyllis Nelson. I don't know about Nelson or Hyman, but I've often read that "Holiday" was offered to Mary Wilson of The Supremes.

"Phony Lullaby" is inferior to "Sweet Dreams My LA Ex." It's no surprise that Britney Spear's camp passed.

 
So was it true that Rachel Stevens' recorded Some Girls written by Richard X when it was supposed to be offered to GERU first, she got angry about it and locked herself in Richard's car?

Annie later recorded Me Plus One mentioning this incident.
 
One of my fave stories concerning this topic :disco:

Charli XCX wrote and recorded a demo of Same Old Love with a guest spot by Iggy Azealia, the song was then given to Rihanna (she tweeted about it) and was intended for ANTI but ultimately went to Selena Gomez removing all traces of Iggy but featuring Charli heavily on backing vocals.

Iggy decided to recycle her guest verse from Same Old Love on a Katy Perry demo song called Black Widow (written and produced by Stargate) that was supposed to be included in Prism, however, her team thought it was too sonically similar to Dark Horse, and since the latter had producer Dr. Luke involved they got rid of Black Widow.

Eventually, Iggy kept Black Widow but had to find someone to replace Katy Perry's vocals, now we all know Rita Ora got her mittens on it.







 
syl said:
"Move Closer" is by Phyllis Nelson. I don't know about Nelson or Hyman, but I've often read that "Holiday" was offered to Mary Wilson of The Supremes.
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Oops you’re so right! I think it did say Hyman, but my mind moved to Nelson because she was big that era and I don’t know the other singer...
 
Pipo said:
One of my fave stories concerning this topic :disco:

Charli XCX wrote and recorded a demo of Same Old Love with a guest spot by Iggy Azealia, the song was then given to Rihanna (she tweeted about it) and was intended for ANTI but ultimately went to Selena Gomez removing all traces of Iggy but featuring Charli heavily on backing vocals.

Iggy decided to recycle her guest verse from Same Old Love on a Katy Perry demo song called Black Widow (written and produced by Stargate) that was supposed to be included in Prism, however, her team thought it was too sonically similar to Dark Horse, and since the latter had producer Dr. Luke involved they got rid of Black Widow.

Eventually, Iggy kept Black Widow but had to find someone to replace Katy Perry's vocals, now we all know Rita Ora got her mittens on it.
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What a tangled web of crap pop stars and rubbish songs!
 
I'm glad that Britney got Slave from Janet and Toxic from Kylie. I don't think either would have brought the urgency that Britney brought to those songs.
 
funky said:
Oops you’re so right! I think it did say Hyman, but my mind moved to Nelson because she was big that era and I don’t know the other singer...
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Not even You Know How to Love Me?

Holiday definitely wouldn't have suited Phyllis, or Mary really.
 
Apparently Deeper Shade of Blue was meant for Tina Cousins.
 
Belinda Carlisle demoed Celine's Falling Into You.

I Close My Eyes and Count to Ten was originally intended for Kiki Dee but Dusty Springfield pulled rank and secured it. Later, Elton John wanted to record a duet with her, but she kept on turning him down. He obviously ended up doing Don't Go Breaking My Heart with Kiki shortly thereafter, whether it was written with Dusty in mind I am not convinced.
 
FetchFugly said:
Not even You Know How to Love Me?

Holiday definitely wouldn't have suited Phyllis, or Mary really.
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oh yes there we go. Great song. Lisa Stansfield does a nice cover of that actually, but off topic, I actually DID know that was a cover...
 
FetchFugly said:
Belinda Carlisle demoed Celine's Falling Into You.

I Close My Eyes and Count to Ten was originally intended for Kiki Dee but Dusty Springfield pulled rank and secured it. Later, Elton John wanted to record a duet with her, but she kept on turning him down. He obviously ended up doing Don't Go Breaking My Heart with Kiki shortly thereafter, whether it was written with Dusty in mindt I am not convinced.
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Brenda Lee said in her Women In Rock interview that "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" was intended for her and Elton but her label said no.

There are a few Dusty stories from that era that seem a little far fetched: Not only "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" but also the Bond theme "Nobody Does it Better." Dusty sang backing vocals for Elton around that period and she'd departed ABC records... would she have turned down a surefire hit that could have earned her a contract with Elton's own label? Has Elton actually said that it was so?
 
I had to turn it off before the first chorus kicked in, it doesn't suit her voice at all.
 
syl said:
Brenda Lee said in her Women In Rock interview that "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" was intended for her and Elton but her label said no.

There are a few Dusty stories from that era that seem a little far fetched: Not only "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" but also the Bond theme "Nobody Does it Better." Dusty sang backing vocals for Elton around that period and she'd departed ABC records... would she have turned down a surefire hit that could have earned her a contract with Elton's own label? Has Elton actually said that it was so?
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I would guess that the idea of a duet was mooted, but not necessarily Don't Go Breaking My Heart. Dusty was apparently in a bad patch adrift in California so likely wasn't in the form for a big comeback. It does sound like she was often inclined to turn things down; that was her initial response when she was approached to work with the Pet Shop Boys too.

Nobody Does It Better does seem quite unlikely.
 
syl said:
"That girl is singing off key on the record." - Whitney Houston

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how on earth did she get a solo album deal on the back of that? :D she would have recorded Heaven Is A Place On Earth a mere months later!
 
Pet Shop Boys wrote ‘Heart’ with Madonna in mind but decided against even trying to offer it to her instead thinking they’d give it to Hazell Dean but then at the last minute kept it for themselves instead of sending it to Hazell.

 
In another lifetime we’d all be scoffing about the fact that Massive Attack (well
one of them anyway) considered Madonna for the classic “Protection” instead of Queen Tracey Thorn, given nobody could have made that song any better... but then of course a year later Madonna went into the studio with them and produced “I Want You” and promptly gave a fuck you to any doubters of her ability to bring class and sophistication to an amazing trip hop record and actually not ruin a Marvin Gaye standard. So there’s that.
 
funky said:
In another lifetime we’d all be scoffing about the fact that Massive Attack (well
one of them anyway) considered Madonna for the classic “Protection” instead of Queen Tracey Thorn, given nobody could have made that song any better... but then of course a year later Madonna went into the studio with them and produced “I Want You” and promptly gave a fuck you to any doubters of her ability to bring class and sophistication to an amazing trip hop record and actually not ruin a Marvin Gaye standard. So there’s that.
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Madonna was considered for 'Teardrop', not 'Protection.'
 
funky said:
Stop ruining my story.
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In7Q-o.gif
 
Not exactly chart HITS but I always found it quite baffling how TWO songs from singer-songwriter Katherine Perry made onto a Kelly Clarkson album. This was pre-I Kissed A Girl when she was going nowhere.







 
Before Ariana Grande moved onto mumblecore territory releasing 2 minutes snippets called "songs", she was offered this BOP. Guess Zara's team worked harder (and all for nothing FFS).

 
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