Just as on screen, some hit songs were passed on and made famous by others. Rap/pop group TLC turned up their noses at “… Baby One More Time,” and Britney Spears because a household name as a result. “How Will I Know” was written for Janet Jackson, who passed on it before Whitney Houston ran it up the charts.
Country music is no exception. Martina McBride was offered “Wild One,” a song she didn’t want, and it went No. 1 for Faith Hill. “I haven’t regretted anything. I’ve passed on songs that have gone on, but it’s kind of like, when you look at a rack of gorgeous dresses. You can try them, but they don’t really fit or make you look great. They look great on someone else,” she told USA Today. “Songs are not right for some people and right for some other people.”
When Sara Evans heard “Jesus Take the Wheel,” she reportedly called it stupid. The song was then offered to Rascal Flatts, who thought it was more suited for a woman, and Carrie Underwood made it her breakthrough hit.
Jason Aldean recently appeared at a SiriusXM Town Hall event, telling a story of one that got away from him. “When we were looking for songs for this ‘Night Train’ album, my producer and I were flying out to Las Vegas and he was playing me some songs that he had found. I was really in the mindset of trying to find like up tempos and these big, rockin’ sort of songs … and he’s playing me these songs and I heard this one song that I dug, but it wasn’t really what I was looking for at the time and just kind of tossed it aside like, ‘eh, it’s OK,’ but it’s a song that goes … ‘Girl, you make my speakers go boom boom, dancin’ on ….’ You know?” The song, “Drunk on You” because a No. 1 smash for Luke Bryan.
Conversely, Jason benefited from another singer saying “not for me.” “ ‘Big Green Tractor’ was pitched to Jake Owen, he passed on it, we got it and had a four-week No. 1 with it. I think certain songs like that fall into the right hands for a reason. That song was a big song for Luke and may not have even ever been a single for us, so it landed where it was supposed to.”
When Blake Shelton heard the song, “The House That Built Me” he was all about it, until wife Miranda Lambert wanted it. He promptly turned it over. I guess he figured after Miranda had hits titled “Kerosene” and “Gunpowder and Lead” it would be in his best interest to find something else.
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