Every hit song seems inevitable once it’s climbing the charts, as if it was always destined to be there. The truth is messier. Some of the most beloved tracks in music history spent years being turned down, shelved, or handed off to artists who didn’t want them either.
Behind the polished singles that fill wedding playlists and karaoke nights, there’s often a trail of rejection letters, skeptical executives, and songwriters who moved on to other projects long before the world caught up. These seven songs prove that a “no” from the industry doesn’t always stick.
Nothing Compares 2 U
Prince wrote this ballad in a single studio session in 1984, but he didn’t think it fit his own catalog at the time. He figured the song wouldn’t work as a solo release and instead passed it onto The Family, a band he’d formed and wrote songs for without supplying vocals. The track appeared on the group’s only album in 1985 and went nowhere.
Released on The Family’s only album in 1985, the song was passed over and the project floundered. Five years later, Sinéad O’Connor’s manager suggested she cover the obscure track for her second record. The single was released in January of 1990 and shot up the charts all over Europe and the UK, eventually becoming one of the defining ballads of the era.
Torn
Long before Natalie Imbruglia made it a global hit in 1997, “Torn” had already failed twice. Songwriters Anne Preven and Scott Cutler wrote this song with Phil Thornalley in 1991, and it was first recorded by Danish singer Lis Sørensen as “Braendt,” with Danish lyrics. A Norwegian version followed a few years later, and neither made much noise outside their home markets.
Preven and Cutler formed a band called Ednaswap and released the first English version on their 1995 debut album, but Ednaswap got little attention. The song only found its audience when producer Phil Thornalley began working on Imbruglia’s debut record. “Torn” found its way to Natalie Imbruglia when the song’s co-writer ended up working on her first album, and this time the arrangement clicked with listeners everywhere.
Alone
Heart’s soaring 1987 power ballad started life as a modest album track by a duo few people remember. “Alone” was written by Tom Kelly and Billy Steinberg and was first released by i-Ten in 1983. It didn’t chart, and the song sat quietly for a few years, even turning up briefly on a short-lived CBS sitcom soundtrack.
Kelly himself later suggested the tune when Heart was searching for a power ballad, and the pair even rewrote the opening line for the new version. The song reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on July 11, 1987, becoming Heart’s second and final chart topper. Ann Wilson’s vocal performance turned a forgotten demo into one of the defining rock ballads of the decade.
Take On Me
Few hits had to fight this hard to exist. A-ha’s biggest hit was actually a reworked idea, and “Take On Me” had failed three times before finding success. The first version, produced by Tony Mansfield, barely sold any copies after its 1984 release.
Warner Bros. gave the band one more chance with producer Alan Tarney, and even that second attempt struggled at first. The label’s U.S. arm had faith in the tune and invested in a cutting edge second video, one that would become one of the most iconic clips of the era. That pencil sketch animation, paired with the reworked track, finally sent the song to the top of the charts in 1985.
Hallelujah
It’s hard to imagine now, but the song many consider Leonard Cohen’s masterpiece was once considered unreleasable in the United States. Columbia did not think the album was commercially viable and decided not to release Various Positions in the US, with executive Walter Yetnikoff reportedly telling Cohen they knew he was great but didn’t know if he was any good. The rejection stung deeply and the album only came out through an independent label.
It took a few years for the song to emerge as a classic, with Bob Dylan among the first to recognize its brilliance, playing it at a couple of shows in 1988. John Cale’s piano rendition on a tribute album eventually inspired Jeff Buckley’s 1994 cover, the version most people know today. What started as a rejected side track on a shelved album became one of the most performed songs in modern music.
Bohemian Rhapsody
Queen’s sprawling six minute epic almost never made it to radio in its full form. Record executives at EMI were reportedly uneasy about releasing something so long and structurally unusual as a single, worried that stations simply wouldn’t play it. The band pushed back, convinced the song needed to be heard exactly as they’d written it, without cuts.
The turning point came when DJ Kenny Everett got hold of an early copy and played portions of it repeatedly on his radio show, stirring up listener demand before the label had even committed to a release. That grassroots buzz forced the issue, and “Bohemian Rhapsody” went out as a single in 1975 despite the initial hesitation. It topped the UK charts for nine weeks and has remained a fixture of classic rock radio ever since.
Livin’ on a Prayer
Sometimes the rejection comes from inside the band. Jon Bon Jovi reportedly disliked “Livin’ on a Prayer” when Richie Sambora and songwriter Desmond Child first brought it to him, and he seriously considered leaving it off the Slippery When Wet album entirely. It took persistence from his bandmates and producer to convince him the song had potential.
Once Bon Jovi relented, the band reworked the arrangement and gave it the talk box guitar hook that would become instantly recognizable. Released in 1986, the song became the band’s signature anthem and one of the defining rock singles of the decade. It remains a staple of stadium shows and classic rock playlists decades later, a reminder that even the artist’s own doubts don’t always predict what an audience will love.
What connects these seven songs isn’t luck so much as timing and persistence. A demo that flops in one context can become a phenomenon in another, once the right voice, video, or moment finally lines up. The industry’s early verdicts, it turns out, are rarely the final word.
