I Won't Sing It...Singers Who Turned Down Hit Songs

Bobby Darin DID record "Daydream", which appeared on the "If I Were a Carpenter" LP. "Younger Girl" was also recorded for the same LP, but was left off (and sadly destroyed in the Atlantic warehouse fire of 1978). The only one of the three Bobby didn't do was "Magic".

 

I can't recall the details, but I believe "Take Good Care Of My Baby" was intended for Dion. Whether he rejected it or something else happened I don't know

Speaking of Bobby Vee, he was supposed to be the singer of -- believe it or not -- Pomus and Shuman's "Little Sister". Again, I don't know if he turned it down, or perhaps his handlers decided it was a tad too racy.

 

Actually Anne wanted to record the song but the producers of the "Something To Talk About" album (David Foster & Jack White) didn't want to do it according to her memoir so she titled the album after it in tribute.

 

Elvis Presley loved Dolly Parton's 1974 #1 country hit "I Will Always Love You" and wanted to record it, but she refused to surrender half the publishing rights to one of Elvis' companies. Though frequently in his waning years Elvis ignored the publishing situation to record songs he liked, "I Will Always Love You" was not one of them.

 

Doesn't he also say that he wanted to cut a Faron Young song, but Young would not share the publishing rights?

Which means Elvis was in on the shakedowns from the start, and it wasn't just Col Tom pulling stuff w/o his knowledge

 

Invincible was actually a successful record, mostly internationally but yeah Pharrell wrote a lot of Justin's first hits with MJ in mind and it's very easy to hear that.

Natalie Cole's first successes came from material Aretha Franklin had passed on, infact her writers had written many of those songs specifically with Aretha in mind. It must have stung when Natalie not only had a hit record but also ended Aretha's consecutive Grammy streak for best R&B female vocal performance.

Diana Ross passed on recording Thelma Houston's 'Dont Leave Me This Way' back in '77, for her Baby It's Me record. The record was a huge #1 hit but bares a striking resemblance to 'Love Hangover', which Diana had taken to #1 the previous year.

Janet Jackson turned down Whitney Houston's 'How Will I Know' in '85 while making her Breakthrough record Control.

Both Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey turned down 'Saved The Best For Last' which became a huge hit record for Vanessa Williams in '92.

Britney Spears turned down Rihanna's 'Umbrella', which she could've used considering what was transpiring in her life in '07, Rihanna of course took it straight to #1 around the world.

Just recently Rihanna passed on 'Lean On' when offered to her by Diplo, the song was a massive WW hit in 2015.

Patti LaBelle passed on Stephanie Mills' 'I Feel Good All Over', which was a #1 R&B hit in 1987.

Not really about a hit in particular but Prince fired Janet's writers/producers Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis from his team and in just a couple years they would go on to sell millions of record with Janet, who by the late 80's and early 90's was scoring more hits and selling more records than Prince.

 

Mary Wilson of The Supremes rejected "Holiday" when Jellybean offered it to her thinking it was too repetitive and girlish. He then gave to Madonna and the rest is history...

 

No question about it. When he was the hottest singer on the planet, Elvis was instructed to keep to those songs that had been cleared through his publishing companies, and it wasn't a problem, because he got some great material. But as he received more and more crap songs from his publishing houses, and as more composers became savvier about their rights, Elvis was known to go around the Colonel and his people to record what he liked regardless.

 

Faith Hill & Bette Midler passed on "Bless The Broken Road" before Rascal Flatts finally scored a huge crossover hit with it.

Before Kenny Rogers teamed up with Kim Carnes & James Ingram for his hit, "What About Me," he originally approached Lionel Richie & Olivia Newton John to be his partners on it.

 

Tom Jones turned down The Long And Winding Road!

 

I think Helen Shapiro turned down Lennon and McCartney's "Misery" before the Beatles recorded it for their debut album.

 

haven't heard the idol version, but can easily hear it in my head- the song sounds like it was written for him to sing.

cheers,
rob

 

Prince turned down doing the song bad with MJ because of the your butt is mine lyric

 

Sia gave her own hit 'Diamonds' away to Rihanna but finally learned her lesson when she kept 'Chandelier' for herself.

 

So you're saying Micky Dolenz is lying?

 

George Jones recorded a whole album of songs he turned down.

Hits I Missed...And One I Didn't - Wikipedia

 

Z

 

No, he wouldn't appear in the video because of this line - and probably other reasons. He was never going to record a MJ song.

 

I'm with Billy!

 

Sonny Bono turned down two number one songs for Cher claiming that he didn't want to offend their fans.

1. The Night The Lights Went Out in Georgia. This went to Vicki Lawrence
2. Angie Baby. This went to Helen Reddy.

 

I read that Peter Wolf of J. Geils band turned down Don't Do My Like That from Tom Petty and it went on to become one of Petty's biggest hits.

 

Not lying, simply mistaken...

Plus, at the time they were supposed to have turned down "Sugar, Sugar", they were still dealing with Don Kirshner and his people, and The Monkees themselves had little to no say in what they were recording then... If the studio "powers that be" or whatever producer(s) they would have been working with at the time would have wanted Micky or David to cut "Sugar, Sugar", it more than likely would have been done.

 

That song was Is it So Strange which Elvis DID record.

 

Not a bad album, but rerecording "He Stopped Loving Her Today" was kind of pointless... It was probably done to draw attention to the album...

 

Britney recorded but didn't release Lady Gaga's Telephone.