{"id":690377,"date":"2026-06-07T20:28:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-07T20:28:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/690377\/"},"modified":"2026-06-07T20:28:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-07T20:28:09","slug":"3-incredible-songs-that-were-initially-rejected-by-other-artists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/690377\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Incredible Songs That Were Initially Rejected by Other Artists"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sometimes an artist has a vision<\/a>. Sometimes they\u2019re in their recording studio with an idea. They\u2019re writing lyrics, producing melodies and rhythms, and they want to send this new sonic composition to a performer who would knock it out of the park. <\/p>\n

But the only problem is that the performer decides to pass. It\u2019s a tale as old as time. What then does the songwriter do? Do they let the song die and rot? No, they try option B. That\u2019s just what we wanted to highlight here. These are three incredible songs that were initially rejected by other artists.<\/p>\n

\u201cUmbrella\u201d by Rihanna featuring Jay-Z from \u2018Good Girl Gone Bad\u2019 (2007)<\/p>\n

This 2007 track was a smash success. It hit No. 1 in 19 countries and garnered a Grammy Award for Rihanna for Best Rap\/Sung Collaboration. But it almost never saw the light of day. The track, which was composed by several songwriters, was originally intended for pop star Britney Spears, who was working on her LP, Blackout, at the time. But the \u201cOops!\u2026I Did It Again\u201d singer passed, and the work went to a new pop star in town. Rihanna, who included it on her third LP, made it her own and brought in Jay-Z to spit a verse. The result? Well, you already know.<\/p>\n

\u201cTelephone\u201d by Lady Gaga featuring Beyonc\u00e9 from \u2018The Fame Monster\u2019 (2009)<\/p>\n

Speaking of Britney Spears, it seemed she had her choice of great tracks in the aughts. Along with \u201cUmbrella\u201d, she was offered \u201cTelephone\u201d. But Spears passed again. Hearing that the track was up for grabs, Lady Gaga pounced on it and brought it another famous face to round the work out\u2014Beyonc\u00e9. The result was a No. 3 song on the Billboard Hot 100 and a nomination for the Grammy Award for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals. Not a bad consolation prize!<\/p>\n

\u201cRock Your Body\u201d by Justin Timberlake from \u2018Justified\u2019 (2002)<\/p>\n

While Britney Spears wasn\u2019t offered this track, her former beau Justin Timberlake was. But not at first. Originally written by Pharrell Williams and his band The Neptunes, the music was intended for Michael Jackson and his final LP, Invincible. But Jackson passed on it, and in swooped Timberlake with his fancy feet and familiar falsetto voice. The result was a No. 5 song on the Billboard Hot 100 for all involved.<\/p>\n

Photo by Jemal Countess\/Getty Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sometimes an artist has a vision. Sometimes they\u2019re in their recording studio with an idea. They\u2019re writing lyrics,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":690378,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[88,216,17172,2156],"class_list":["post-690377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-pop-music","tag-rock-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/690377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=690377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/690377\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/690378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=690377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=690377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=690377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}