Did you know there were country songs that artists passed on that became hits for other artists? It actually happens all the time. A lot of times songwriters don’t write songs with a certain artist in mind. Songs get pitched to artists all the time, sometimes they get cut and sometimes they pass and another artist will do the song instead.
Here are a few times that happened. For example, can you imagine anyone but Carrie Underwood singing “Jesus Take The Wheel”? It was almost cut by Sara Evans first, but she passed on it. That song became one of the biggest hits of Carrie’s career, and it almost didn’t happen! How about “Chicken Fried”, can you think of anyone other than the Zac Brown Band singing that song? It was almost recorded by Alan Jackson. I wouldn’t mind just hearing what that would’ve sounded like though.
Here’s another one, Chris Stapleton wrote “Drink A Beer” and he actually pitched it to Dierks Bentley. Well surprisingly, Dierks passed and the song went to Luke Bryan, and became a huge hit for him. Here’s another one, “Big Green Tractor”, it almost didn’t go to Jason Aldean. That song was one of Jason’s first big hits. Well it was almost a Jake Owen song. I find these things fascinating.
Sometimes I’d just like to hear what the other versions would’ve sounded like. Would they have been better, would they have been worse? I guess we’ll never know. “The Boot” has more songs that artists passed on that became hits for others here.
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