10 Legendary Rock Albums That Were Originally Very Different

There's an old wise tale from classic rockers that everything hinges on the third album. Overcoming the sophomore slump means that you're worth having around for more than just one hit, but the third one is a little more tricky, as you try to make something that puts you one notch above all the other trendy artists that you came up with. Bruce Springsteen had the songs to make that happen...the only thing holding him back was the production he was working with.

Going through the daily sessions for Born to Run, The Boss was burning himself out way too much, working for 12 hours at a time at the studio and going home completely exhausted, all while working the E Street Band down to the bone. Even for an album that was just 8 tracks, Bruce kept striving for perfection in the takes, trying to make something that was somewhere between a Phil Spector production and the rootsy songs that lit a fire under him when he was a kid. After running out of money though, there was a good chance that everything could have been scrapped.

As the sessions got more and more grueling, Bruce initially thought it might be a better idea to just put out a live album of material instead, before the title track started to get some airplay from a demo version of the song and absolutely exploded. Bruce now knew that that rock and roll dream was suddenly possible, and the future of rock and roll music was about to be rewritten by him.