10 Rock Songs That Were Written By Accident

Any working musician will tell you how important it is to practice in your downtime. Even when you have a good chunk of musical knowledge under your belt, there’s no limit on where you can go, and you need to make sure to keep your chops up so you’re prepared for anything. That means turning to different genres of music, and Procol Harum got one of their biggest hits out of failing to practice properly.

Looking to brush up on some of his classical pieces, Gary Brooker began combing through his classical pieces on the piano before eventually stumbling on Bach’s Air on a G String. After trying to study it for a while, he admits that he got it completely wrong, only to find out that he liked what he was playing a little bit better than the classical piece that he was working on, Choosing to carry on in his own way, what fell out of it was Whiter Shade of Pale, which turned into the biggest hit that the band ever had, merging the different sides of music by blending the sophistication of classical music with the more simplified songwriting of what was happening in rock at the time.

This was only the beginning of rock’s reinvention though, with more acts taking cues from the world of classical music as the years went on, from the baroque pop era of music to modern virtuoso guitarists citing classical artists just as much as mainstream acts. If anything, this song’s existence should just be a lesson for aspiring songwriters. Even if you screw up, it could lead to something brilliant if you just follow your muse.