10 Amazing Rock Songs By Pop Artists

One of the beauties of the music business is that you never know where your favorite song will come from. As much as we might have some artists who's music we can hang our collective hats on, there are always those few songs that seem to come out of nowhere and leave us with our mouths on the floor. What's even weirder is when it comes from artists that aren't even associated with rock at all.

As far back as the '60s, some of the best rock songs of all time have come from bands that didn't really fit into the rock and roll mold to begin with. Either because of their past work or something else, these artists are normally never associated with the rock world, looking to fit a lot better with pop, R&B, or their other respective genres.

For whatever reason though, the stars aligned and we were given some of the greatest rock songs of each respective era out of these people. Very few people can pull off a musical chameleon act like this, but who knows? Maybe in a previous life, these artists may have found their true calling as some of the biggest names in rock. Either way, it's nice to at least see things coming together like this once.

Anyone who remembers the '90s knows that almost everyone liked to clown on Hanson. Outside of their tween age fanbase, the fact that these 3 brothers managed to sound like the most wholesome band this side of the Partridge Family did nothing to endear them to the alternative crowd or anything. Around the turn of the century though, something strange started to happen: Hanson grew the hell up.

While something like Penny and Me is far from Megadeth or anything, there's a lot more sharp songwriting tricks at play here than what you got out of MMMBop back in the day. Over the years, they seem to have traded in their cutesy image for some great power pop bangers, including this one, which sounds like something that would have fit on AM Radio in the '70s but works just as well as an early '00s pop rock song.

Since the rise of poptimism that was also happening around the same time, this is kind of great power pop that we would usually look for from bands like the Fratellis or Fountains of Wayne from back in the day. This is all Hanson though, and it manages to beat out some of the more respected acts like Lifehouse any day of the week. Hanson are still the same band we got to know back in the day, the songs just feel more lived in at this point.