10 Perfect Rock Songs That Divided Rock Bands

From Riffs to Rifts.

Freddie Mercury
PA/PA Archive

Any great rock song should be a labor of love for a band to create. Even though the work to get there might be difficult, it's usually all worth it once you have something that you can be proud of out in the world. It's just a shame when not every one of your bandmates feels the same way.

Whereas you might have created one of the most catchy riffs that has ever been known to man, you're never safe from the criticism of your fellow bandmates, and these musicians haven't minced words about not liking these songs. This isn't just a case of getting tired of playing it over the years. From the moment that most of these songs were brought to the table, these guys absolutely hated playing them, which had to sting once they were essentially forced to on the road night after night.

It also tends to hurt when the one thing that you couldn't give your all to is something that people are praising night after night and are demanding to hear on blast. While you always have to compromise in a band, sometimes you have to be careful what you wish for. Because in the worst cases, you can find yourself hating what made you famous in the first place.

10. Beth - KISS

Nobody can really pinpoint the moment where the power ballad started to become a thing. Some say it was the moment that artists like the Beatles made their sappier fodder, and others claim that people like Zeppelin and Aerosmith had their moments where they brought things down a notch. If you're catering strictly to the rock audience, showing you have a soft side couldn't get much better than KISS's Beth.

The only problem was...the band was pissed to even go through with it. Even though they thought that Peter Criss' original demo was fine the way it is, producer Bob Ezrin's idea to make the song a full orchestral arrangement went about as well as you think it would for a band that was known to don demonic face paint every time they took to the stage.

Once they were actually able to get the song together, Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons still weren't convinced of its potential, deciding to just release it as a B-side to Detroit Rock City. As the record started to take off though, something about this one song about the Catman missing his girl back home had just enough strange charm to it to become one of the biggest songs of the band's entire career. It may not have been balls to the wall rock, but you can imagine that those royalty checks didn't hurt either.

 
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