10 Rock Songs That Were Written For Somebody Else

We should really count ourselves lucky that Prince was as prolific as he was back in the '80s. From having different projects going on at the same time to eventually releasing a triple albums' worth of material against the wishes of his label, the Purple One wanted to do every single genre that he could get his hands on at every hour of the day. Sometimes he even had perfect pop songs that he figured he'd save for someone else.

Listening back to the Originals these days is almost surreal, hearing songs like Nothing Compares 2 U and The Glamorous Life being given the full treatment, completely removed from Sinead O'Connor and Sheila E's voice. Mr. Nelson could definitely contort his voice when he wanted to, but Manic Monday may have been one of the biggest hits that slipped through his hands, handing it over to the Bangles and becoming one of their first huge smashes, taking the sounds of old '60s pop and updating it for the '80s generation.

That's just a drop in the bucket of what Prince was capable of though, having his hands in songs by Morris Day and the Time and letting Cyndi Lauper cover his song When You Were Mine and turning it into her own smash hit. Prince may have already been a music legend before the decade was out, but in terms of writing timeless songs, there was more than enough magic to go around in the '80s.