Popular songs are written by singers for other singers all the time. Ed Sheeran‘s penned a few One Direction tracks; Kesha‘s behind a lot more tunes than one might think. But this is different; these are hit songs that were written (by other singers or regular ol’ producers & lyricists) with other singers in mind, but for one reason or another went to others:
1. SONG: “Break Free”
ORIGINALLY INTENDED FOR: Austin Mahone
RELEASED BY: Ariana Grande feat. Zedd
Austin himself revealed to
Tiger Beat, “Actually, Ariana’s new song that just came out was supposed to be mine like a year ago. “Break Free,” like, they sent it to me and I was supposed to record it, but I never did.”
2. SONG: “Skyscraper”
ORIGINALLY INTENDED FOR: Jordin Sparks
RELEASED BY: Demi Lovato
Shortly after Demi debuted the track, Jordin released a video saying
she had the song before; she even recorded her own demo before it went to D.Lo.
3. SONG: “Tell Me A Lie”
ORIGINALLY INTENDED FOR: Kelly Clarkson
RELEASED BY: One Direction
Kelly spilled, “‘Tell Me A Lie’ is the cut I’ve got on 1D’s album as I like the story of them, how they came together as a group. While I wrote the song for me, it didn’t fit in the current album as I never want an album to sound like one thought.”
4. SONG: “Telephone”
ORIGINALLY INTENDED FOR: Britney Spears
RELEASED BY: Lady Gaga feat. Beyonce
Supposedly, LG wrote the song with Britney in mind. Britney then recorded a demo of the track, but rejected it. The recording did, however, make its way onto the Internet in May 2010.
5. SONG: “Rock Your Body”
ORIGINALLY INTENDED FOR: Michael Jackson
RELEASED BY: Justin Timberlake
According to Huffington Post, “Rock Your Body” was initially given to MJ for his tenth (& final) studio album,
Invincible, along with several other songs by The Neptunes. But MJ didn’t want any of the tracks, so all the material was passed onto Timberlake for his debut solo album,
Justified.
6. SONG: “Boom Clap”
ORIGINALLY INTENDED FOR: Hilary Duff
RELEASED BY: Charli XCX
Charli dished, “I’ve had that song for about a year, I wrote it with Patrick Berger. My number one project as a songwriter is to write for Hilary Duff, so when I heard about this, I was like, ‘F**k! Are you serious?! This is my ‘in!’ I’m going to make a Hilary Duff album!’ So we sent over “Boom Clap,” but they came back and were like, ‘This isn’t cool enough for Hilary.’ I was, like, crushed. I thought I was a cool writer, but maybe I’m not. Hilary didn’t want my song. What a life-ruiner.”
7. SONG: “My Humps”
ORIGINALLY INTENDED FOR: The Pussycat Dolls
RELEASED BY: The Black Eyed Peas
will.i.am said he originally wrote the tune for The Dolls, but changed his mind and decided to have them record “Beep” instead. He then took “My Humps” for his own music group.
8. SONG: “Milkshake”
ORIGINALLY INTENDED FOR: Britney Spears
RELEASED BY: Kelis
The Neptunes wrote “Milkshake” and supposedly suggested it for Brit. Not sure what occurred after that, but it was ultimately used as the lead single off Kelis’ third album,
Tasty.
9. SONG: “DJ Got Us Fallin’ in Love Again”
ORIGINALLY INTENDED FOR: Rihanna
RELEASED BY: Usher
There were about 200 songs allegedly written for Rihanna’s
Loud album. Of course, not everything could make the cut, so this one ended up going to Usher.
10. SONG: “Happy”
ORIGINALLY INTENDED FOR: Cee Lo Green
RELEASED BY: Pharrell Williams
Pharrell admitted, “[Cee Lo Green] wanted to do it… and he did do it. He sounded amazing on it. He burns my version! But… how do I say this diplomatically? The powers that be, at the time, did not see it fit for him. Some folks on his team just felt that the priority should be on [Cee Lo’s] album at the time [2012’s
Cee Lo’s Magic Moment], so they elected not to do that song.”
Source:
Teen.com
