10 Classic Rock Songs That Were Written For Someone Else

When you're a budding songwriter, you're going to take whatever gig you can ask for to make ends meet. Just like most struggling artists in the '60s, even people like Brian Wilson and Paul McCartney were finding themselves in writing sessions for different artists. And for all of his weirdness, David Bowie was no different, except he got the last laugh on his suitor.

As Bowie was shopping around demos of songs, he was also getting different backing tracks that he was commissioned to write lyrics over, one of which was called Even a Fool Learns to Love. While his original demo got rejected (and, according to him, deservedly so), he did get a little bit salty when he heard the same song playing over the radio, with Frank Sinatra turning it into his signature smash My Way.

This is a cutthroat business though, and Bowie didn't want to be outdone. Once he got his signature space-y persona down on albums like Space Oddity, Hunky Dory took a jab right back at Sinatra on Life on Mars, which takes the basis of My Way and tweaks it to suit Bowie's transformation into Ziggy Stardust. You can call it stealing if you wanted to, but can you really be sued for something like this if you end up stealing from yourself?