8 Rock Bands Who Didn't Write Their Biggest Hits

It might be hard to imagine today what the post-grunge and nu-metal bands of the late 90s and early 00s had in common with Micheal Jackson, but think of the timeline.

He was no doubt a household name for the suburban rockers well before they pulled on the camo shorts and started cultivating the goatees. As kids, their suburban upbringing was likely soundtracked by the gigantic Thriller and Bad singles.

So in some way, it makes sense that Alien Ant Farm mined the King of Pop's catalogue for a hit, and it seriously paid off when they covered Smooth Criminal for their second album Anthology in 2001.

Their guitar-heavy version, with its sunny suburban music video, highlighted the song's ominous lyrical content and climbed up all the way to number 23 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts.

The band initially started messing around with the song at live shows during warm ups and soundchecks with fans responding positively to the noodling. They eventually gave in to fans' requests for a full version and giving the people what they wanted scored them a gigantic hit single.