Every chart topper seems to arrive out of nowhere, a fresh voice suddenly filling the radio. Reality tends to be messier and more interesting. A surprising number of today’s most recognizable singers spent years in back rooms and studio sessions, handing their best material to other people because nobody had yet said yes to them as performers.
Some of the biggest hits of the last several decades were originally written with someone else’s voice in mind, only for the songwriter to eventually step forward and claim the spotlight themselves. Here are seven musicians whose early careers were built quietly, one borrowed hit at a time, before their own names ever showed up on a marquee.
1. Carole King
Long before “Tapestry” made her a household name, Carole King was a teenage songwriter grinding through the Brill Building system in New York. Working with her then husband Gerry Goffin, she landed her first major success while still a teenager. At just 17, she wrote her first number one hit “Will You Love Me Tomorrow” with her then husband Gerry Goffin for The Shirelles. The song became something of a milestone in pop history, since it was the first single by a girl group to top the Hot 100.
King kept writing for other people through most of the 1960s, and not every song landed with its intended artist right away. “The Loco-Motion” was originally written for the R&B singer Dee Dee Sharp, who turned down the song, before it became an instant hit for Little Eva in 1962. It would take until 1971, with the release of “Tapestry,” for King to finally step forward as a performer in her own right, and by then she already had one of the deepest songwriting catalogs in pop music behind her.
2. Bruno Mars
Before “Just the Way You Are” turned him into a solo star, Bruno Mars was mostly known inside the industry as one half of a production team called the Smeezingtons. He and his partner Philip Lawrence built a reputation writing hooks and full songs for other acts, often without their own names attached to the finished product. Before becoming a successful solo artist, Hernandez was an acknowledged music producer, writing songs for Alexandra Burke, Travie McCoy, Adam Levine, Brandy, Sean Kingston, and Flo Rida.
His breakthrough as a recognizable voice came almost by accident, through guest vocals on other people’s records. The song was originally produced during the summer of 2009, when the Smeezingtons, comprising Bruno Mars and Philip Lawrence, were booked for a week of writing sessions for Lupe Fiasco, B.o.B and Travie McCoy. Those sessions produced “Nothin’ on You” for B.o.B and “Billionaire” for Travie McCoy, and it was Mars singing on both choruses that finally introduced his voice to a wide audience, just months before his own debut album arrived.
3. Kesha
Before “TiK ToK” made her a pop sensation, Kesha spent a stretch of her early career writing and singing for other artists without much recognition. At the insistence of producers Dr. Luke and Max Martin, she quit high school to pursue music but spent her first few years in the business writing songs for others. Her actual introduction to mainstream listeners came through someone else’s single entirely.
In 2009, producers needed a female vocal hook for a Flo Rida track, and Kesha got the call. The tune features vocals from a then-unknown singer-songwriter named Kesha Sebert, who later in 2009 would release her debut single “TiK ToK” and become a superstar. “Right Round” shot to number one and became a massive seller, yet Kesha herself chose not to appear in the music video, reportedly wanting to build a public identity that was entirely her own before her solo career even began.
4. Sia
Sia Furler had already released independent solo records years earlier, but the global pop stardom she’s known for today did not arrive until the mid 2010s. In the years leading up to that breakthrough, she worked largely behind the scenes, writing songs tailored for other performers’ voices and image. Her pen turned up on some of the biggest dance and pop records of the early 2010s, often without her name being widely recognized by casual listeners.
That period of ghostwriting included contributing to tracks later recorded by major pop and dance acts, work that quietly built her reputation among producers even as her own name stayed out of the spotlight. It was only after she stepped forward as the voice behind “Chandelier” in 2014 that audiences connected the dots and realized how much of the previous decade’s pop radio had already passed through her hands.
5. Meghan Trainor
Before “All About That Bass” turned her into an overnight sensation, Meghan Trainor was building a quieter career as a Nashville songwriter. At 18, Trainor signed a songwriting deal with Big Yellow Dog Music, penning tracks for Rascal Flatts and Disney star Sabrina Carpenter. She wrote for a range of acts during that stretch, finding steady work even though nobody was yet interested in her as a recording artist herself.
One of her country placements turned into a genuine hit for someone else first. “I Like the Sound of That” became Rascal Flatts’ 13th number one hit on country radio, and their first in three years. Trainor’s own breakthrough came only after she teamed up with producer Kevin Kadish in 2013, and the song they wrote together, “All About That Bass,” became her debut single the following year.
6. Julia Michaels
Julia Michaels spent years as one of pop’s most in demand ghostwriters before anyone knew her face or voice. Michaels first started out in the industry as a songwriter, sans the “singer,” penning hits for the likes of Fifth Harmony, Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez. Her writing credits piled up quickly across some of the decade’s biggest pop releases.
Her most defining early credit came from a session she almost didn’t expect to land. The Los Angeles based songwriter, who was just 21, co-wrote Justin Bieber’s hit “Sorry,” and Selena Gomez’s hit “Good For You.” It was only after years of writing hits for other artists that Michaels released “Issues” in 2017, her own debut single, which finally put her name and voice in front of the audiences who had already been singing her words for years.
7. Dolly Parton
Long before she became one of country music’s most recognizable stars, Dolly Parton spent her earliest professional years writing songs and pitching them to established acts in Nashville. She signed a publishing deal in the mid 1960s that put her material in front of established country performers looking for their next single. One of those songs found its way to singer Bill Phillips, who recorded it and took it into the country charts, giving Parton her first real proof that she could write a hit for someone else’s voice.
That early songwriting success helped Parton land her own recording contract and, soon after, a spot performing alongside Porter Wagoner on his popular television show. From there her solo career slowly took shape, built on a catalog of original songs she had already been writing for years before audiences ever thought of her as a star in her own right. The habit of writing constantly, whether for herself or for someone else, stayed with her for the rest of her career.
