SoulAlive said:

I don't believe that "The Pleasure Principle" was offered to Prince.Back in the 80s,Prince only recorded songs that HE wrote.Plus,Monte wasn't on good terms with Prince at that point.

Yes, Monte was close with Jam & Lewis back then.

SoulAlive said:

"Open Your Heart" was offered to the Temptations (!) but it recorded by Madonna.I think that the original version had totally different lyrics.

Donna Delory also was going to record it before she did as well. The music of La Isla Bonita was offered to Michael Jackson.

johnart said:

robertlove said:

Never knew "How will i know" was written for janet. Glad she didin't record that song, i really hate it

Really? I'm on the opposite end. I'm glad she didn't record it cause you kinda need a voice to sing it.

Ouch!!

Harlepolis said:

trueiopian said:

'Bad' (1987) by Michael Jackson, turned down as a duet by Prince, solely recorded by Michael Jackson

Prince offered him "Would U Love To Love Me" in return, but MJ declined it. Woulda been intersting.

"All That I Can Say" by Lauryn Hill, intended for Whitney Houston, sung instead by Mary J.

"Oops(Oh My)" by Missy & Timbaland, intended for Aaliyah, sung instead by Tweet.

"This Will Be" by Marvin Yancy, intended for Aretha Franklin, sung by Natalie Cole(which gave her a grammy).

"Do You Know Where You're Going To(Mahogany theme)" by Michael Massar, intended for Thelma Houston, sung by Diana Ross.

"Sugar Walls" by Prince, intended for Chaka Khan, sung by Sheena Easton.

"Untill You Come Back To Me" written and originally recorded/shelved by Stevie Wonder, intended for Gladys Knight, sung by Aretha Franklin.

Interesting...great Info

SoulAlive said:

I don't believe that "The Pleasure Principle" was offered to Prince.Back in the 80s,Prince only recorded songs that HE wrote.Plus,Monte wasn't on good terms with Prince at that point.

OOP! I guess Clay Cane lied.

'Halo' (2008) intended for Leona Lewis, recorded by Beyonce.

'Since u Been Gone' (2004) intended for P!NK then to Hilary Duff, recorded by Kelly Clarkson

'Gold Digger' (2004) intended for Shawnna, recorded by Kanye West

'Heartbreak Hotel' (1998) intended for TLC, recorded by Whitney Houston, Kelly Price and Faith Evans

great thread. some of these are interesting.

here's mine:

Hyperactive-Thomas Dolby(According to his blog, he kept this song for himself)

Artist who it was intentionally written for- Michael Jackson

"At the tender age of three,

i was hooked to a machine

just to keep my mouth from sprouting junk (HA!)

Must've played me for a fool,

'cause they chucked me out of school

'cause the teacher knew i had the funk"

i got another one to add :

Craig Mack- Flava In Ya Ear(the remix is a hip-hop classic)

Easy Mo Bee produced the beat, which was turned down by Q-Tip & Big Daddy Kane

my favorite line is from Biggie on the remix:

"ya shouldna been a cop,fuck hip-hop

with that freestyle,ya bound to get shot"

ernestsewell said:

I believe "Rock Your Body" was originally given to MJ, but he turned it down, and Justin got it instead - OR Justin was offered "You Rock My World", turned it down and MJ got it. I think the first scenario is the true one though.

Let's not forget "Shockadelica" with the Jesse/Prince snit fit.

Prince also took back "Kiss", and "Take Me With U" for himself.

[Edited 6/26/10 10:25am]

"Rock Your Body" as well as "Senorita", were both written for MJ and he passed on both.

Both, "You make it so hard to say, no and "Look what you've done to me" written by Boz Scaggs, were originally intended for Michael Jackson. In fact, he did record them but those recordings have yet to see the light of day.

Jackson Brown's - "Your a friend of Mine", was originally written for Bruce and Clarence Clemmons to sing. Bruce had sched issues.

Tina's I Don't Want To Fight was written for Sade who then suggested it to her friend.

I have never heard of How Will I Know being offered to Janet. However, I Wanna Dance With Somebody was offered to Janet who passed on it.

Til Tuesday wrote Voices Carry for Cyndi Lauper who passed on it so they decided to record it on their own.

I Drove All Night was written for Roy Orbison who indeed recorded it at the same time Lauper did.

sosgemini said:

Til Tuesday wrote Voices Carry for Cyndi Lauper who passed on it so they decided to record it on their own.

This thread is amazing. I never heard of most of these 70s or 80s hits being passed around.

trueiopian said:

'Gold Digger' (2004) intended for Shawnna, recorded by Kanye West

I can't imagine how that would have turned out with the content the way it is, or even if she was supposed to write to the Ray Charles sample.

ViintageJunkiie said:

Deborah Cox- Nobody Supposed to be Here - Intended for Patti Labelle

Mary J Blige - Rainy Dayz - Intended for TLC

Jennifer Lopez - Play - Intended for Christina Milian (Milian did write the track and do backing vocals)

Rihanna - S.O.S - Intended for Christina Milian

Britney Spears - Boys - Intended for Janet

Britney Spears - Slave 4 U - Intended for Janet

Rihanna - Disturbia - Intended for Chris Brown (he wrote it and does backing vocals)

Just to name a few

I believe Boys was actually intended for MJ, not Janet. Of course the original title was Girls and some of lyrics were different.

dall08fan said:

ViintageJunkiie said:

Deborah Cox- Nobody Supposed to be Here - Intended for Patti Labelle

Mary J Blige - Rainy Dayz - Intended for TLC

Jennifer Lopez - Play - Intended for Christina Milian (Milian did write the track and do backing vocals)

Rihanna - S.O.S - Intended for Christina Milian

Britney Spears - Boys - Intended for Janet

Britney Spears - Slave 4 U - Intended for Janet

Rihanna - Disturbia - Intended for Chris Brown (he wrote it and does backing vocals)

Just to name a few

I believe Boys was actually intended for MJ, not Janet. Of course the original title was Girls and some of lyrics were different.

Eh no the song was intended for Janet Jackson, not MJ.

sosgemini said:

I have never heard of How Will I Know being offered to Janet. However, I Wanna Dance With Somebody was offered to Janet who passed on it

I've never heard of this

ViintageJunkiie said:

Rihanna - S.O.S - Intended for Christina Milian

Rihanna - Disturbia - Intended for Chris Brown (he wrote it and does backing vocals)

Did Rihanna get any of her hits FIRST?

I remember reading that "Umbrella" was passed around like a dirty whore (I know Mary J Blige passed on it) before the song finally landed in Rihanna's lap.

she is the queen of making smashes out of sloppy seconds

[Edited 6/27/10 9:52am]

-

[Edited 6/27/10 9:53am]

trueiopian said:

'Gold Digger' (2004) intended for Shawnna, recorded by Kanye West

midiscover said:

trueiopian said:

'Gold Digger' (2004) intended for Shawnna, recorded by Kanye West

I'm sayin! Did the hook become first person?

"Do You Love Me" was originally a Temptations offering but the group was doing a gospel showcase in Detroit so the Contours, who also hadn't had a hit, was offered the song and it hit #2 in mid-1962.

"Where Did Our Love Go" was originally handled to the Marvelettes but the Marvelettes HATED the song and they advised labelmates not to take the offer, including their ultimate rivals at the time, the Supremes. The Supremes however felt, because they only had one charted success and a lot of flops, that they had no choice but they didn't like how the song sounded either. They recorded it anyway, Motown put it out, and within three months it hit #1 in the late summer of 1964, changed EVERYTHING for them.

"What Becomes of the Brokenhearted" was originally intended to be released by the Supremes. They had recorded it but I think they didn't wanna put it out or Berry Gordy refused to release it (it was a Quality Control decision). So Jimmy Ruffin was given the song and his version became a hit in 1966.

"I'm a Sucker for Your Love" was originally intended for Diana for her "image/career makeover" by Rick James until a fight with Motown over how much work he could put in with Diana led to him choosing Teena Marie for the song including some other songs Rick had intended for Diana that were immediately switched up for Teena.

Martha and the Vandellas' "Ready for Love" was an intended Supremes song but the Supremes turned it down. So simply Holland-Dozier-Holland gave the song to Martha and the girls. Ironically the Vandellas were the first group HDH worked with prior to working with the Supremes and the Four Tops.

Renaldo Benson initially wanted "What's Going On" (which was still unfinished when he started writing it) for his group the Four Tops but due to them worrying that the song would alienate their crossover audiences the other members flatly refused to record it. Then when Marvin helped to finish up the song, he wanted to give the song to the Originals. According to Benson, it was he who convinced Marvin to record it himself.

"One Bad Apple" was originally a Jackson 5 intended single, according to Mike Curb but Motown didn't do much outside production with non-Motown crew members so Curb gave it to the Osmonds, who of course took it to number-one. I have to say it was a good decision even though Motown was infamous for cutting "the same song". Ironically enough, as it was already mentioned here, "Ben" was giving to Donny Osmond who was unable to record it, so Michael Jackson took the song and IT went #1.

"Upside Down" was originally intended for Aretha Franklin but power struggle between Franklin and Chic ended with Chic passing the song to Aretha's hometown rival, Diana Ross.

Leon Ware intended to record and release "I Want You" as his own single when he started working on the album (as a solo artist) in 1975. Leon was good friends with Marvin at the time and when Marvin heard the songs he felt that he could sing 'em. This was also the same sentiments from Berry Gordy. Leon agreed to give Marvin a cut of royalties and allow him to be a collaborator. "I Want You" and many of its songs led to Marvin's third conceptual album and the title track became a number-one R&B/top 15 pop smash in mid-1976.

----

@Harlepolis (Harley), YEAH I remembered that lol "Nobody's Supposed to Be Here" was given to Patti but Deborah Cox recorded it. However to be honest, Patti's label hardly promoted Patti to pop audiences so I don't know how the songs she turned down (with the obvious exception to "I Feel Good All Over") would've been hits with her doing it. I could see "I Feel Good All Over" doing wonders for Patti though.

"Holiday" was given to the RIGHT person. I couldn't see Phyllis (who hated doing dance music anyways), Mary Wilson (COME ON ) or Patti doing it the way Madonna did it. No way.

I'm glad TLC turned down "...Baby One More Time". It sounded too teeny-bopper ish even for a group who had teen fans as TLC did. It wouldn't have sound right so they gave it to the right person (Britney).

"Nightline" was intended for Michael, but was left off as Michael and Quincy and 'em began working on "Thriller". It ended up being put out as an album track by the Pointer Sisters. Their version wasn't released either but it became a favorite for their fans.

"Joy" was initially intended for Michael. I think he recorded a version but it wasn't released. So Teddy Riley, who co-composed it with MJ, gave it to his group Blackstreet (Levi Little was the vocalist for that song).

The Bee Gees was originally going to do "If I Can't Have You" but I think the president of RSO wanted them to give the song to someone else so they gave it to Yvonne Elliman.

IdentityCrisis said:

Milkshake was originally intended for Britney Spears, but after turning it down, The Neptunes gave it to their resident songstress, Kelis.

That makes sense. After Kelis' first two albums, I knew she couldn't have been Neptunes' muse to such an airhead anthem.

Neptunes wrote Kelis much better material before so it's ironic it was the novelty song that got over with the public.

And I realize Kelis was "pop" all along.

[Edited 6/27/10 10:13am]

Here's a little something about Bell Biv DeVoe and their smash hit, "Poison"

JabarR74 said:

Here's a little something about Bell Biv DeVoe and their smash hit, "Poison"

amazing. I thought the track was custom-made for Bell Biv DeVoe. Even though it was after New Jack Swing had been around, I thought Spydaman & Dr Freeze fusion of r&b with hard hip hop beats on "Poison" sounded fresher than that. I imagine it was the New Jack Swing angle that made them think of Al first though.

wow really great info in this thread! thanks my fellow orgers for sharing all these pieces of trivia

I thought of some more:

-1982 "All This Love". El DeBarge wrote this with the hope that Marvin Gaye would record it. Gaye left Motown soon after though, so El decided that he and his siblings would record it instead. The song ended up being a top 5 r&b and top 20 hot 100 hit.

-between 1983-1985 (not sure of the exact date) "You Give Good Love". This was originally offered to Roberta Flack, but the producer Kashif thought Whitney Houston would be a better fit for the song, and it became her first smash single, reaching #3 on the hot 100 and #1 on the r&b charts.

-1985 "Into the Groove". Madonna wrote this song originally for an aspiring singer, Chyne, who was a protegee of Madonna's friend/former boyfriend Mark Kamins. Kamins was the guy who got Madonna her original record deal at Sire Records. Anyway, Kamins also asked Madonna to record a demo. After doing so, Madonna decided she wanted to record the song herself for her movie Desperately Seeking Susan, and went behind Kamins back to re-record a different and finished version of the song. This lead to her having a falling out with Kamins, who thought she only used him to get a record deal and then left him behind. We all know Madonna is cold but damn

-1993 "Hero". Epic Records was making the soundtrack to the movie Hero, and wanted Mariah Carey to sing a song for it but at the time Tommy Mottola didn't allow her to do soundtracks. So they asked her to write a song for it, and she came up with "Hero". While writing it, she was told Gloria Estefan would sing the song. Mariah wrote "Hero" with Gloria in mind, and didn't want to sing it herself because she thought it would make her sound too old When Mottola heard the song, he decided it was going to be a hit and that Mariah should keep it instead of giving it to Gloria and Epic Records. "Hero" ended up becoming another #1 hit off her album Music Box, and "Heart of A Hero" by Luther Vandross ended up being the title track for the movie. Poor Gloria didn't get on the soundtrack

mimi2 said:

-1982 "All This Love". El DeBarge wrote this with the hope that Marvin Gaye would record it. Gaye left Motown soon after though, so El decided that he and his siblings would record it instead. The song ended up being a top 5 r&b and top 20 hot 100 hit.

Wow, all this time I thought 1982's Midnight Love WAS a Motown release. I never heard the story about Marvin signing with Columbia.

I didn't know those Madonna and Mariah stories! Great additions to this thread