10 Legendary Songs That Almost Weren't Released

It's a small miracle to get even the simplest songs to the people. No matter how much the music industry relies on being in the right place in the right time, the greatest songs of all time have to have real thought and care put into them before they're even ready for the primetime. Then again, you occasionally get some random chaos happening at the 11th hour.

Regardless of how great the song may seem today, all of these tracks were in danger of even getting released at all. From the massive headache that went into the production of the song to the endless amount of editing, these songs definitely had an uphill battle before even being put onto vinyl.

Even when they were in their final form, songs can often find themselves dead in the water when the label doesn't want to promote it, instead looking to serve the bottom line rather than something new.

On the rarest occasion, you'll even find the artists themselves trying to downplay their own work, not even wanting their songs to get put down as the massive singles.

Despite not being given the time of day, these songs went from a random filler song to some of the most iconic compositions in rock history.

Ever since breaking onto the rock scene with Boy back in the early '80s, U2 seemed to be inching closer and closer to the Joshua Tree. Across just one album, every single aspect of the band was firing on all cylinders, from Bono's voice reaching peak form to the Edge dialing in the perfect delay effects to make every song come alive. When it comes to making a first impression though, Where the Streets Have No Name was nearly disregarded entirely.

Working on the project with famed producer Brian Eno, most of the production hit a wall when no one could figure out how to start the opening arpeggio figure. After trying it with different drum accents that never saw the light of day, the Edge found it incredibly hard to keep time in between the massive amount of overlapping notes.

It eventually got to the point where Eno had every single part of the arrangement written on a chalkboard in the studio, which he came very close to erasing entirely out of pure frustration for not getting it right. Once they hit upon the regular 6/4 rhythm of the tune though, everything started to fall into place. Seeing how much love and care was put into this one song alone, it's no wonder that U2 wanted it as the definitive statement to open up their magnum opus.