10 Artists That Went Too Far For Classic Songs

Every artist is going to want to put their heart and soul into making a classic song. Even if you don’t think the song has the right spark going into the making of the record, there’s always potential to make it something much better when you actually get in the studio and tinker with it a little more until you have the sound that you want. It takes blood, sweat, and tears, but it also can go a little haywire in some places as well.

For all of the great music that appears on this list, some of these artists had to go outside the usual effort to get what they wanted, from weird ways of playing the guitar to some pretty questionable means of getting the final take. In the process of making these songs, some of the artists in question even ended up getting seriously injured to get what they needed, either because of the raw strain they were putting on themselves or the intensity that they’re playing.

Some of these songs even have one or two nasty bits sprinkled in the lyrics, which could either spell disaster for the rest of the band or would break up any other group depending on how much backstabbing was going on. None of them resulted in a breakup though, with most of these bands grinning through their teeth and getting through the more hectic parts of the recording process. So we now have some great songs…but at what cost?

As Def Leppard got their first taste of superstardom with Pyromania, there were countless people in the industry saying that they should enjoy the ride while it lasted. Even though Photograph and Rock of Ages were huge singles, this is the kind of blockbuster album that bands can only dream of, and there's a slim chance that you're ever going to get it again. And while Hysteria did manage to top what that album did, Animal was a single almost 3 years in the making.

Being one of the first standout tracks for the record, the band had trouble getting everything together once Mutt Lange said he wouldn't be available to produce the rest of the record. As preproduction went on with the song though, the band had to deal with one setback after another, hiring Jim Steinman and then having to fire him after not liking what he had made, all while spending millions of dollars just to get out of the deals they were stuck in.

By the time that they took a break for Christmas though, Rick Allen's car crash that cost him an arm made Mutt come back into the fold properly, setting aside time to steer the band in the right direction and making a song that felt like AC/DC by way of Queen. While Pour Some Sugar On Me was the song that eventually set the world on fire, the raw time and money that went into this one track cost more than some people's homes are worth.