'70s Flop Songs That Turned Into Smash Hits

Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley's theatrical hard rock outfit KISS was one of the most instantly recognizable bands of the 1970s, whose popularity has remained undimmed in the decades since. But the truth is, the band had a difficult start, with their act failing to find an audience around the time of their debut album in 1974. It took intensive touring to make the band a household name, with their single "Rock and Roll All Nite," which was first released in 1975, peaking at only No. 68 on the Billboard Hot 100.

But things were about to change for KISS and the song, which has since become their signature and an evergreen staple of their live shows. In the fall of 1975, KISS released "Alive!," their seminal live album that flew into the top 10 of the Billboard 200, and breathed fresh life into the band's discography that until then had received comparatively little interest from the listening public. When "Rock and Roll All Nite" was rereleased as a 7" live version in early 1976, it peaked at No. 12, becoming the first of six KISS singles to crack the top 20.

But "Rock and Roll All Nite" isn't the only 1970s classic that went under-appreciated on its first release. Here are several others from some of the biggest names of the era.

The 1970s were a time of great change in popular music, with the dawning of bloated prog-rock pierced by the short, sharp blast of the punk explosion of the middle of the decade, while the charts reflected the litany of popular genres of the era, from disco to heavy metal to the first vestiges of hip-hop. And among the groups attempting to find an audience among this changing landscape was Cheap Trick, a now-classic rock band that had a major influence on rock groups that would emerge the decade after, but who nevertheless took several years to find a mass audience.

Formed in 1973 by guitarist Rick Nielsen and bassist Tom Petersson in Rockford, Illinois, Cheap Trick built a reputation as a dynamic live act amid constant touring, and released several studio albums following their being signed to Epic in 1976. They became hugely popular in Japan; however, they remained a relatively low-profile band in the U.S.

That was until the release of their live album "At Budokan," a record that highlighted their live performance chops, the enthusiasm of their sizeable Japanese fanbase, and the harder edge that their songs gained when performed live as opposed to their comparatively subdued studio versions. Their classic "I Want You To Want Me" was one of these. Having failed to chart as the lead single of their 1977 album "In Color," the live single went stratospheric, entering the Billboard Hot 100 top 10.

Few figures are so definitively tied to the rock music scene of the early 1970s like the British vocalist Rod Stewart, who honed his craft in the 1960s as part of outfits including the Jeff Beck Group and The Faces before striking out as a solo star in his own right while maintaining his involvement in the latter group. Much of his success came as a result of the song "Maggie May," which became one of rock radio's most-played songs of the 1970s.

But the truth is that the song could easily have been forgotten, and indeed it is to the DJs that played the song that Stewart might arguably be said to owe his breakthrough. Recorded in 1970, its 1971 release was as a B-side to the single "Reason to Believe." Though promoting the A-side resulted in a minor hit, "Maggie May" proved irresistible to DJs and the public, who bought it in droves and made it a No. 1 hit on both sides of the Atlantic in the fall of 1971, months after the single's release. It also helped Stewart's debut solo album, "Every Picture Tells a Story," hit the top spot in the U.S. and U.K. "Maggie May" was Stewart's breakthrough and remains arguably the best-known and best-loved hit of his six-decade career.

1970 was a tough year for Paul McCartney, who was left reeling from the breakup of the Beatles and a subsequent public spat with his former songwriting partner, John Lennon. Towards the end of the 1960s, Lennon had become distant from his bandmates following his marriage to Yoko Ono and the pair's growing heroin addiction. Though Lennon had secretly announced his departure from the band in September 1969, it was McCartney, promoting his self-titled debut solo album, who made the split public, and who received the greatest amount of backlash in the press for seemingly being the driving force behind the break-up.

Amid the chaos, "McCartney" was a checkered success. Though it hit the top of the charts in the U.S. and went to No. 2 in the U.K., amid the public shock of the Beatles' break-up, the critical response was generally hostile. At the time, many considered the album, which McCartney recorded almost entirely alone during a period of depression, to be patchy and seemingly unfinished, though modern reviewers have been more positive in their assessments.

However, one redeeming feature of the album is "Maybe I'm Amazed," a love ballad directed at McCartney's wife, Linda, which praises her for the support she gave him during this difficult period in his life. Though it was not chosen for release as a single and was instead hidden away as an album deep cut, the song became a huge hit after the live version from 1976's "Wings Over America" was released as a single, hitting No. 10 in the U.S. and No. 28 in the U.K. in early 1977. It has remained a staple of McCartney's live shows throughout his career.

"Layla" is today held up as one of classic rock's greatest love songs. Penned by former Cream guitarist Eric Clapton, it was an ardent expression of his growing, frustrated love for Patty Boyd — the wife of his close friend, George Harrison. However, rather than being a self-pitying ballad, "Layla" is an instantly danceable rocker, with a delicious opening riff that's utterly infectious.

The title track of the 1970 Derek and the Dominos album "Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs," the song failed to crack the top 50 on its release in a shorter form as a 7" in the U.S. in 1971, and didn't chart at all in the U.K. However, buzz around the song was growing, and its earworm quality made it a jukebox favorite. Re-released in 1972 in its longer, more epic glory, it climbed all the way to No. 10 on the Billboard Hot 100. In the U.K., the single remained truncated, but nevertheless made it to No. 7 on the British singles chart.