10 Musicians Who Turned Down Iconic Songs

Any '80s kid tends to have those first few bars of Don't You Forget About Me implanted on their brain. From the moment that Simple Minds were played in the Breakfast Club, this song became the theme song for a generation, where all of the jocks, freaks, and geeks could all come together and find some sort of common ground, if only for one day in detention. So since this seems so hopeful at the end of the movie, what exactly happened to the punk version that they we were originally going to have?

When they were pitching ideas of who should be singing the main hook of the song, the original choice of vocalist was Billy Idol, who was white hot at the time off of songs like White Wedding and Dancing With Myself. While this does capture a similar sentiment that you would get in some of Billy Idol's ballads like Eyes Without A Face, Simple Minds's version just feels better, as Jim Kerr puts a bit more bombast in his voice to add to the heightened drama of the tune.

Since Billy Idol was already a glorified cartoon character done up for MTV, hearing his version actually seems counter to what the movie was going for, making the final ending feel almost a little bit spooky and almost sarcastic coming out of a guy known for punk rock and going against the grain. The minute that you hear those synths and guitars and vocals of Simple Minds though, it makes you want to pump your fist in the air just like Judd Nelson did at the end of the movie.