5 Top 10 Hits Written By Someone Other Than The Artist Who Made Them Famous

In the music business, it's fairly common to see artists give songs away to other musicians, and in plenty of cases, we've seen those songs become Top 10 hits. For some music icons, their best-known tracks are actually covers. In certain instances, we even see the tunes get so big that it becomes common knowledge who the original writer was, like in the case of Prince writing Sinéad O'Connor's "Nothing Compares 2 U" or Kris Kristofferson writing Janis Joplin's "Me and Bobby McGee." In those cases, the songs had already been recorded by the writers, but Joplin and O'Connor's performances were what made them resonate with audiences and climb to the top of the Billboard charts. 

The same can be said of some of the tracks on this list that were written by well-known artists but made famous by someone else's rendition. In other instances, the songs were written but not yet recorded by anyone. Because it's not rare for artists to share their songs, we tried to choose a variety of styles and eras. A young Prince wrote Chaka Khan's comeback song, and we threw in a Bob Marley jam turned hit rock song. We have an '80s hit written by a guitar legend that went to Tina Turner, a No. 1 Madonna from 1990, and a heartfelt hit begrudgingly given to Christina Aguilera in the early aughts. Because in music, sharing songs never seems to go out of style — even as the styles evolve. 

If you know the lyrics to the Tina Turner song "Private Dancer," you probably wouldn't immediately jump to the assumption that Dire Straights' Mark Knopfler wrote it. Just listen to the chorus: "I'm your private dancer / A dancer for money / I'll do what you want me to do / I'm your private dancer / A dancer for money / And any old music will do." In the book, "Classic Albums: Interviews from the Radio One Series," Turner explained that Knopfler had written and recorded the song for Dire Straits, but then he decided it would be better for a woman to sing, and he put it aside.

In the mid-80s, Turner was working on what would be her comeback album after ending her marriage to long-time musical collaborator Ike Turner and releasing a couple of flop solo albums. A mutual friend knew of Knopfler's shelved song and suggested it for Turner. She was interested. "I took it because it was an unusual song," Turner explained. "I'd never sung a song like it." She said Knopfler's version was "arty" but she "put the old soulful touch on it." She even ended up naming her 1984 album after the song. In March 1985, the track "Private Dancer" went to No. 7 on the Bilboard Hot 100.

When singer-songwriter and 4 Non Blonde's member Linda Perry wrote the song "Beautiful," she didn't plan to give it away. Perry had one big hit with the group — "What's Up?" — and had put out two solo records in the late '90s. But in subsequent years, she's had more success writing songs for other people, including Alicia Keys, Pink, and Christina Aguilera. In a Rolling Stone interview clip on TikTok, Perry said she had written "Beautiful" at a time when she was feeling particularly "insecure" and "vulnerable" and realized others must feel that way sometimes too. She played the track for Aguilera as an ice breaker when the "Genie in a Bottle" singer was working on her sophomore album and visited her while looking for songs. Aguilera connected to it immediately, asking for a demo, but Perry scoffed, saying she was thinking, "You're like a hot young chick. What the f*** do you have any clue what this song is about?" 

Aguilera left to work on the song, then came back to sing it for Perry, and before she started singing, she whispered to her friend, "Don't look at me." Perry insisted on keeping that part in the beginning of the song and said, "I knew right there ... the song is about her. She is extremely insecure. She knows everything about what this song is." "Beautiful" became an anthem for loving yourself just as you are, and it peaked at No. 2 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart in February 2003. 

When Eric Clapton covered Bob Marley's "I Shot the Sheriff," neither one of them was very happy with the result, but American fans seemed to have felt differently because Clapton's version went to the top of the charts and became his only No. 1 hit ever in the U.S.

Clapton explained in his autobiography, "Clapton," that he'd never heard of Bob Marley and the Wailers when his bandmate George Terry played him their 1973 album "Burnin'," but he was "mesmerized" upon hearing it. Terry thought they should cover "I Shot the Sheriff," but Clapton was hesitant, saying, "It was hard-core reggae and I wasn't sure we could do it justice." Yet, they recorded it, though Clapton admitted, "I wasn't that enamored with it." The track was released as a single ahead of its inclusion on Clapton's "461 Ocean Boulevard" in 1974, and it went to the top of the charts two months later. 

Clapton said Marley was initially happy with the cover, and its success led a wider audience to explore Marley's music. But according to the biography "Bob Marley," by Stephen Davis, he was also pretty upset that Clapton's version was getting a lot more airplay in Jamaica than Marley's new single, "Knotty Dread," and he reportedly confronted a DJ about it, who called the police saying he'd been threatened. Fortunately, no sheriffs or deputies were actually shot over the altercation. 

In November 1984, Chaka Khan had her biggest hit in 10 years with a song penned by Prince. "I Feel for You" went to No. 3 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart and No. 1 in the U.K., boosting her career and bringing her back to the spotlight after her solid run of radio hits in the '70s had all but dissolved in the early '80s. The song was a departure from what she had been doing, working on songs that infused funk, jazz, and rock, whereas "I Feel For You" incorporated rap, which was new for Khan. She wasn't fully comfortable with that aspect, but she said she made a "conscious effort to be more commercial," according to Smash Hits (via Flickr). 

Prince wrote the song around five years before Khan recorded it, when he was around 20 years old. It was the eighth track on his second album, titled "Prince," but it wasn't a hit for him — however, he didn't have Stevie Wonder playing harmonica or Grandmaster Flash alum Melle Mel rapping a Chaka-themed earworm on his version. In the hands of a legendary singer like Khan and producer Arif Mardin, the song earned Prince a songwriting Grammy in 1985. "I Feel for You" also won Khan the Grammy for best female R&B vocal performance. 

Lenny Kravitz and Madonna both have careers built, in part, on sex appeal, so the fact that Kravitz wrote Madonna's steamy "Justify My Love" tracks pretty well. She recorded it for her 1990 compilation album "The Immaculate Collection" but released the song as the album's first single in November 1990. "Justify My Love" was one of two original songs on the record, which was basically a greatest hits album. The song came out along with a music video that was quickly banned for explicit sexual content — because, Madonna. Of course, a thing like that only makes people more interested, and the song ended up at No. 1 by January 1991. But according to Kravitz, he knew he had a No. 1 song and told Madonna as much. 

On "The Howard Stern Show," Kravitz said, "I wrote the song, and I knew it wasn't for me." He was coming off of his "Let Love Rule" tour, and they'd seen each other around the circuit a bit. So, he called Madonna to offer her a demo of "Justify My Love," telling her, "I have a No. 1 song for you." She listened to it twice and was ready to record it. While Kravitz took all the credit for the song on the Howard Stern Show, Ingrid Chavez, an artist with ties to Prince, wrote the lyrics used in the original demo and later sued for a songwriting credit.