10 Classic Albums That Were Originally Considered Failures

There's no set formula as to what makes a classic album. No matter which decade you find yourself in, making a classic comes down to having a creative spark while being at the right place at the right time. Even if time is kind to some of your greatest work, no artist is safe from their fair share of critics.

Although almost all of these records have become called legendary in their respective fields, the original rollout was not as amazing as many might expect. But what exactly constitutes a failure? There's no real way to gauge how bad an album is necessarily, but the hatred can come from all sorts of places. If it was a new creative venture for the band, there could be fans and critics who are quick to call the band out for failing to live up to their other classics.

At the same time, these albums have even gotten thrown through the mud by the artists themselves, who think that they aren't half as good as what they could have been. These albums may have had a rough ride achieving their legendary status, but when all the smoke clears, good songs can transcend any critique.

The Who had pretty much pigeonholed themselves after their mammoth rock opera Tommy. For as much as Pete Townshend wanted to expand the palette of rock music, the album's narrative was so bombastic that most people expected the band to recreate that magic over and over again. In the end, Townshend's determination for perfecting the rock narrative made him backtrack on one of the greatest albums in rock history.

As a followup to the band's rock opus, Who's Next is absolutely spellbinding, with songs like Won't Get Fooled Again and The Song Is Over having more kickass than any lesser bands have in their entire discography. On the other hand, Townshend stands by the fact that the album is not nearly as good as it could have been.

Instead of the strong lineup of classics on display here, the album was originally planned to be a sequel of sorts to Tommy, with Townshend creating a new character and scenario for what would be called Lifehouse. Once the plans fell through though, Townshend ended up abandoning the concept and went with the few complete songs the band had already assembled as their next album. Who's Next marks a key turning point in the world of rock, but in Townshend's mind, it will always be the one great concept that came up short.