5 Nearly Perfect Classic Rock Songs From The '70s That Almost Didn't Get Released

In the annals of classic rock history, there have been several stories about how beloved songs nearly didn't come to be. With the many steps it takes for a song to become a reality, it's no wonder that in some cases it took near miracles for them to come to fruition. From writing the song to recording it to dealing with record company execs, there's a whole range of issues that can crop up.

In the case of Aerosmith, "Walk This Way" nearly died during the writing process. For others, like Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and Bruce Springsteen, it was the recording sessions that almost did the song in. In the case of Thin Lizzy's "The Boys Are Back in Town," the band's inability to see just how great the song was nearly led to it getting cut from the album. And for Heart, it was a brutal fight with the band's record company.

The songs in this list share more than the various problems that nearly killed them before they reached listeners' ears. They're all masterful in their own ways but have those magic ingredients that make for a killer classic rock song: driving energy, soaring guitar work, an infectious rhythm, and meaningful lyrics. Thankfully, these artists got past the many hurdles thrown in their way to turn their visions into realities that we can still enjoy decades on.

With its unforgettable funk-rock drum intro, Joe Perry's punchy electric guitar, and Steven Tyler's unique staccato vocal style, "Walk This Way" is one of Aerosmith's most loved songs. It was a Billboard Hot 100 Top 10 hit in 1977 and remains a staple of classic rock radio 50 years on. In its second incarnation a decade later in tandem with hip-hop artists Run-D.M.C., it became a crossover hit that helped define music history by ushering in rap to a wider audience. But back in 1975 when the band was recording the album "Toys in the Attic," the song was little more than an idea without lyrics or direction.

"Walk This Way" started out with Perry's classic guitar riff that he'd come up with back in December 1974, inspired by New Orleans funk greats the Meters. And while Tyler had worked out a basic melody, it sat unfinished until the next year during the "Toys in the Attic" recording sessions. During a break from recording, the band went to see Mel Brooks' comedy "Young Frankenstein." A scene from the film in which Marty Feldman tells Gene Wilder to "walk this way," with Wilder imitating Feldman's gait, provided the song with a title. Tyler was instantly inspired. He sat down and wrote the lyrics, and the song soon came together. We have Mel Brooks to thank for providing the impetus for "Walk This Way" to go from a vague idea to a nearly perfect classic rock song.

Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run" combines incisive storytelling about the urge to break free from a dead-end world with an anthemic musical urgency that is irresistible. Musically multilayered, with a wide variety of instrumentation from eclectic piano to glockenspiel, the dense sound works in lockstep as a roaring, cascading gut punch to match Springsteen's vocals. The single reached No. 23 on the Billboard Hot 100, helping to push the album of the same name to No. 3 on the Billboard 200. Beyond that, it remains a universally lauded cultural milestone. Still, Springsteen wasn't initially happy with "Born to Run."  

Even before the song got to the recording stage, Springsteen labored over "Born to Run." During the writing process he added and then rejected ideas both musical and lyrical. In the studio, he became monomaniacal about translating what he heard in his head onto vinyl. Known for his rigorous attention to detail bordering on obsession, Springsteen took six months to record the song. At one point, after the entire album was done, he considered starting again from scratch. Producer Jimmy Iovine recalled on a 2017 episode of "The Bill Simmons Podcast" that when Springsteen first heard the master, he threw it in a motel pool and told Iovine, "We're doing this over again." Thankfully, the master was saved, and the song and album came out.

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' "Refugee," with its minor-key electric guitar intro by Mike Campbell, Petty's raw vocals, and Benmont Tench's driving electric organ, is a near-perfect dark and gritty rock tune and one of the sickest album openers of all time. The song, off their third album, "Damn the Torpedoes," made it to No. 15 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1980, where it hung on for 14 weeks. The video got heavy rotation on MTV when the channel launched the following year. Rolling Stone magazine later declared that, with the song, "American rock seemed born again."

Campbell created the unforgettable guitar parts for "Refugee" while playing around with a new four-track recorder he'd gotten. After Campbell handed the early recording to Petty, the lyrics and melody came easily for the singer. But in the studio, the band spent many hours and around 100 takes trying to get it right. "We chased the perfect take with a level of obsession that I have never repeated, not like that," Petty recalled in the 2007 book "Runnin' Down a Dream." At one point during the sessions, drummer Stan Lynch was fired and then rehired.

Beyond that, Petty was embroiled in a legal battle with MCA Records over royalties and had to hide the tapes after the company threatened to confiscate them. In the end, "Refugee" was released and helped take the band to the next level.

With its funk-influenced rhythm, shimmering guitar, and Ann Wilson's gorgeous vocals that go from a near whisper to a soaring upper register, "Heartless" showcases the elements that made Heart so formidable. "Heartless," the first single off their third album, "Magazine," went to No. 24 on the Billboard's Hot 100 in the summer of 1978. It was the band's third-highest-charting hit at the time. But it almost didn't come to be due to a nasty legal battle between Heart and their former label. This song about betrayal, heartbreak, and the evil that some men wield in the guise of love could have been written about Mushroom Records.

Amidst a fight over royalties owed to the band, among other issues with the label, the band was trying to put together "Magazine," but things didn't go to plan. "Mushroom went to court to stop us from finishing 'Magazine,'" Ann Wilson recalled in the 2008 book "Heart: In the Studio." The band jumped ship for CBS Records, and Mushroom rushed its own version of "Magazine" out without Heart's input, using the music and rough vocals the band had previously recorded. Heart again went to court, and in the end they were given a week to finish their version of the album with an armed security guard present to make sure they didn't erase their original recordings. With all the legal wrangling, it was a miracle "Heartless" saw the light of day.

Thin Lizzy's "The Boys Are Back in Town" is a rock 'n' roll gem and one of those tunes that every boomer dad knows by heart. This showstopper features the heavily textured, intertwining twin-guitar sound of Scott Gorham and Brian Robertson, and Phil Lynott's conversational singing style that goes from soulful to gritty. "The Boys Are Back in Town" was an international hit for this Irish band when they released it in 1976, going to No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was Thin Lizzy's highest-charting hit in the U.S., but it nearly didn't make it onto the band's seventh album, "Jailbreak."

Originally titled "GI Joe," the song wasn't fully developed when the band was choosing what to include on the album. They had already decided it wasn't good enough to make the cut when one of their managers, Chris O'Donnell, heard it and asked them to work on it more. Even after the band fully developed the song and included it on the album, they didn't realize they had a hit on their hands. It was a grassroots effort led by two DJs in the U.S. who began playing the song that got Thin Lizzy's American label to release it as a single. This helped give "The Boys Are Back in Town" its due as a nearly perfect classic rock song, like the others in this list that almost didn't come to be.