Flop Songs That Derailed Singers' Entire Solo Careers

Music is a powerful force. Even one bad song, or at least a poorly chosen and executed single, can throw off course forever the trajectory of a superstar rock or pop singer. Fame and success can be quite fickle, and even a musician with a lengthy career, tons of hits, millions of records sold, and seemingly tons of public goodwill can lose it all virtually overnight — such is the career-destroying power of one truly awful single. Failing to connect with the public or attempting something perceived to be too far out of one's wheelhouse can be shockingly detrimental to a solo act's prospects.

A flop song can derail a rock band's career, and it can also undo a solid solo artist's life's work. Here are five examples from the last few decades where a singer instantly saw their career come undone, perhaps never to be reconciled, after they chose to record and release a song that the public thoroughly rejected, if not downright hated.

For the '80s and well into the '90s, Bryan Adams was a harmless, guitar-driven, no-frills pop-rocker. His music wasn't innovative, but it was catchy and fun, and people really enjoyed his throwback classic rockers like "Summer of '69," "Somebody," and "It's Only Love." Adams also dabbled in ballads, and the love themes he recorded for movies performed spectacularly well, like the chart-topping "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You," "Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman?," and "All for Love," one of the worst No. 1 hits of the 1990s. 

In 1996, Adams' rocking but uncharacteristically raunchy "The Only Thing That Looks Good on Me Is You" became Adams' first single to miss the Top 40 since he started scoring hits in the early '80s. The musician got the message: The world wanted him only for ballads now. His next big singles included the tender "Let's Make a Night to Remember" and "I Finally Found Someone," a sappy duet with soft-pop icon Barbra Streisand for her film "The Mirror Has Two Faces." "I Finally Found Someone" snuck into the Top 10 and went all the way to No. 2 on the adult contemporary chart. And that's where Adams would ride out his career, virtually disappearing from the pop and rock arenas where he'd once been so popular and prolific.

It turns out that fans didn't want Chubby Checker to change a thing. For most of the 1960s, Checker was a consistent pop presence, with one hit song after another urging listeners to partake in a fad dance. It was a good niche: Checker's monumental "The Twist" made it to No. 1 in 1960 and again in 1962, and he scored more Top 20 smashes with similar songs "Let's Twist Again," "Slow Twistin'," "Limbo Rock," "Let's Limbo Some More," and "Pony Time."

In 1969, Checker attempted to prove that he could do more than one thing, and he recorded a joyous, energetic, soul-style cover of the Beatles' "Back in the U.S.S.R." Despite sounding like the kind of thing that Motown Records would majorly score with at the time, it was a dud, peaking at No. 82. 

Checker went back to making more records in the vein of "The Twist," even re-releasing his '60s songs. He made a brief appearance at No. 91 on the pop chart in 1982 with another exploratory single, the new wave oddity "Running," while the comeback he was after wouldn't manifest until 1988, and when he once more stayed in his lane. His rap remake of "The Twist" with the Fat Boys made it up to No. 16. 

Billy Idol, who combined a quintessential punk look and attitude with only mildly punk-leaning radio-ready hard rock, pretty much created an '80s sub-genre unto himself with hits like "Rebel Yell" and "White Wedding." But shortly after "Cradle of Love" reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1990, Idol's music became yesterday's news after the arrival of downbeat and down-tuned grunge rock. Rather than chase trends to stay relevant, Idol looked to the distant future.

In 1993, Idol released his album "Cyberpunk," which married heavy guitars with synthetic, futuristic sounds. Idol recorded the whole thing in a home studio with a Macintosh computer and early digital recording tools and software. Idol promoted the album and career reboot with TV appearances and the single "Shock to the System." Far removed from Idol's older material, the loud, dissonant, and anarchic song was inspired by the 1992 Los Angeles riots. 

"Shock to the System" missed the Hot 100. It was such a misfire for Idol, who's lived a sad and often troubling life, that he didn't make another studio album for 12 years.

Billy Squier could've been the new Robert Plant, as he inherited the Led Zeppelin frontman's stage swagger and hefty pipes. He put his talents to use on some definitive early '80s arena rock bangers, including "The Stroke," "Lonely Is the Night," and "Everybody Wants You." In the short term, 1984's explosively synth-rock "Rock Me Tonite" was one of Squier's biggest successes — it reached No. 15 on the pop chart and No. 1 on the rock chart. 

In the long run, the music video for "Rock Me Tonite" undid Squier. Depicted in previous videos as a macho rock guy, "Rock Me Tonite" showed Squier dressed in a pink tank top and writhing, jumping, marching, and dancing awkwardly around an apartment set. Squier claimed that choreographer/director Kenny Ortega reneged on a previously worked-out concept in favor of a heavily dance-based one. "When I saw the video, my jaw dropped. It was diabolical," Squier said in "I Want My MTV." "The video misrepresents who I am as an artist." 

Squier tried to get it pulled from TV, but the damage was done. "I couldn't take the music serious anymore," Rudolf Schenker of Scorpions said in "I Want My MTV," while Steve Lukather of Toto proclaimed, "That video killed his career." After riding out a tour, Squier retreated from the public eye for a spell. He returned in 1986 with the album "Enough Is Enough," but none of its singles hit the Top 40.