10 Musicians Who Turned Down Iconic Songs

Towards the end of the '70s, David Bowie was getting to the point where he was almost too big to fail. Moving away from his traditional glam rock roots on Young Americans, the next few records were the start of a new character, with the Thin White Duke becoming the dark alter ego for Bowie as he went through his krautrock era in Berlin. Before he had moved out to Germany though, Station to Station had its feet trailing back into the rock and roll of old for Golden Years.

While this record might be the most ambitious Bowie ever got with his vocals, Golden Years has him in a very strange register, laying deep into the bass notes and keeping things rolling without settling into his signature croon at all. That's because what Bowie had in mind was to give this to Elvis to sing, thinking that the swaggering beat would have fit perfectly with the King of Rock and Roll. Bowie wouldn't get to have the final say in it, with Elvis turning it down and eventually passing away before he could even go back on his decision.

For one of the deep cuts of his career, this look still suits Bowie fine, almost playing up the kind of menace that came from this era by making sure you're hanging on every word that comes out of his mouth towards the end of the song. Even though most rockstars would have been gutted to be turned down by the King, Bowie just used it as an excuse to stretch himself that much further, and still managed to get a hit out of it.