Cancelled! Singles that were scrapped at the last minute

Ever wonder about the hits that could have been? We look at singles that were scrapped at the last minute…
cancelled-single-releases.jpg

When an album comes out, most of us like to play pundit and guess which tracks will become singles, or have our own favourites for wider release. Usually, this is set in stone before the album's release, with potential candidates already identified, but sometimes, just sometimes, plans change and a once-surefire single is either dropped completely or brushed aside for another track. We look at a few phantom singles...

Beyoncé

Blow was primed to be the 'pop' lead single from Bey's surprise self-titled album. But when radio stations in the US got twitchy about the song's subject matter – that's not actually a bag of Skittles Bey is offering up, btw – it was jettisoned in favour of the much more wholesome XO.

Beyoncé also teamed up with Alicia Keys on Put It In A Love Song, from Alicia's The Element of Freedom album, and appeared on stage with her to sing it and the pair shot a video in Rio - clips of which have since been stitched together by fans. It was canned at the last minute for reasons which still aren't clear today.

MORE: See where all Beyoncé's non-cancelled singles charted

Florence + the Machine

Dog Days Are Over missed the Top 40 on original release, but its time wasn't over yet. Hurricane Drunk was lined up as a single from Lungs, and a video was made, but at the last minute it was decided to re-release Dog Days are Over, when its appearance in an advert renewed interest in the track and the album as a result.

MORE: See all Florence + the Machine's UK hit singles and albums in the archive

Kanye 

Sometimes a song is a perfectly brilliant single choice but misses its chance because of time constraints. Kanye's Spaceship was all ready to go as the sixth (!) single from College Dropout, complete with video, but everyone was anxious to get going on Kanye's next album Late Registration that it was pulled.

MORE: See all Kanye's Top 100 singles and albums

Britney

The R Kelly-penned Outrageous was cancelled when Britney injured herself during the video. She may not have minded too much – she was rumoured not to be very keen on it. Breathe On Me, which Britney definitely did love, was slated to be In The Zone's fifth single but as a result of the injury, the campaign was cut short.

MORE: All the singles that Britney Spears didn't cancel can be found in her archives

MORE: 13 music videos that famously got scrapped

Sugababes

When Mutya left, new member Amelle re-recorded some of the band's tracks from fourth album Taller In More Ways. One of those tracks was Gotta Be You, which was all set to be the next single – until it was ditched in favour of ballad Follow Me Home, which charted in the lower reaches of the Top 40.

The group's last ever 'single', Freedom, was also cancelled despite heavy TV promo (it was used to promote the Nokia N8, lol) and releasing a music video. Instead, it was given away for free on Amazon as a "thank you to fans". We should think so too, after all the stress they put us under with those lineup changes.  

MORE: If you're ready for them, boy, you'd better push this link and see where all Sugababes' singles charted

Madonna

Madonna has loads of these potential missed gems. She wanted Candy Shop to lead her Hard Candy album, but when the star held a listening party the response to 4 Minutes was so overwhelming, she had to go with it. There was also a bit of a hoo-ha round Amazing, from her 2000 Music album. Madonna wanted Impressive Instant instead, and when the record label didn't agree, a fifth single was cancelled altogether.

At Live Aid, Madge performed new song Love Makes The World Go Round, hinting it would be the first single from third album True Blue. It never was – Live To Tell was instead. When Madonna released her collection of ballads Something To Remember in 1995, Marvin Gaye cover I Want You had a video made, remixes done and promo copies all set to go. In the end it was decided the Evita-esque You'll See was a better bet – it went to Number 5 in the UK.

MORE: Relive all Madonna's UK hits, including 13 Number 1s, in her archive

Christina Aguilera

Christina too has many (many) a cancelled single to her name. For example, the Alicia Keys-featuring Impossible was favourite to be fifth single from Stripped, with Christina herself the most keen to see it released, but the record label went to The Voice Within instead. We'll never know how Impossible would've done, but The Voice Within became the fifth consecutive Top 10 single from that album.

Nicki Minaj-featuring WoHoo, from sixth album Bionic, went to radio as its second single and she performed it at the MTV Awards in 2010. It was scrapped as a single in the UK, however, when it underperformed in the US.

MORE: Christina Aguilera's entire back catalogue of hits is in her Official Chart archive

Pet Shop Boys

The duo's song London was the third spin-off from their 2002 Release album in Europe, but it was pulled in the UK apparently because the record label didn't want to be seen as promoting violence in the Capital ("We were in London, Let's do it, Let's break the law"). 

Meanwhile, It Always Comes As A Surprise was suggested as the fifth single from their 1996 Bilingual album, but was scrapped after they failed to come up with a suitable radio edit (the original version is six minutes long).

Lady Gaga

Beautiful Dirty Rich was slated to be the second single from Gaga's debut The Fame, and a video was filmed. When Just Dance proved to be an even bigger smash than expected, a more similar sounding song was needed – step forward the million-selling Poker Face.

Poker Face's original promo artwork apparently features pics taken during the Beautiful Dirty Rich shoot; it was changed once the Poker face video was filmed. Dance in the Dark was lined up as a single twice off Fame Monster. Gaga preferred Alejandro for the third single and by the time it came to a fourth, it was felt the era was kind of over.

MORE: View Lady Gaga's entire collection of Top 100 hits

Girls Aloud

First album cut Some Kind of Miracle was bumped twice – first for ballad Life Got Cold and then for a cover of Jump which would be the lead track of the reissue of their debut album Sound of the Underground. A follow-up You Freak Me Out, also featured and was even performed on TV, yet its single status was suppressed when the band moved on to album two.

The band also recorded a cover of Chris Isaak's sultry ballad Wicked Game and announced it as the lead single from third album Chemistry. Nobody is sure what happened – the reaction from all corners of the fandom was pretty much one of horror – but this was swiftly abandoned and Long Hot Summer turned up instead.

MORE: See all Girls Aloud's UK hit singles and albums

Will Young

Back on Will's hit second album Friday's Child, Love is a Matter of Distance was slated to be the fourth single, with Will even performing it on TV. It mysteriously disappeared from release schedules and never materialised, and the Friday's Child campaign was over.

MORE: All Will Young's UK hit singles and albums at your fingertips in his archive

Scissor Sisters

A video was shot and released for Shady Love, from their Magic Hour album in 2012. The saucy, catchy track featured the guest talents of Azealia Banks, who was very much on the ascent, but the band backtracked and went with the Calvin Harris-produced Only The Horses instead, landing at Number 12 – their last Top 40 hit in the UK.

MORE: See all the Scissor Sisters' chart hits in their archive

Miley Cyrus 

SMS (Bangerz) was tipped to the the third single from Miley's Bangerz album, and even made it onto the all-important "featuring…" sticker on the album's cover. Miley herself was really pumped for it to be a single, especially the idea of filming a video with featured artist Britney Spears. Sadly the double-twerking Cyrus-Spears extravaganza remained only a fantasy: Adore You turned out to be more popular digitally when the album was released, and it took SMS's place.

MORE: Come in like a wrecking ball and view all Miley Cyrus's hits in her archive

Atomic Kitten

After their rendition of Eternal Flame became their second Number 1 on the Official Chart in 2001, You Are was thought to be the song that would break Atomic Kitten internationally. Penned by the hugely successful songwriter Wayne Hector, the track was originally meant to be accompanied by a video set in New York, though that was scrapped following the then-recent attack on the World Trade Centre.

In what was probably a case of poorly coordinated promo, the single received a lukewarm reception in charts across Europe, and by the time they reached the UK, where it was aimed at the busy Official Christmas Number 1 week, it was cancelled, charting at Number 91 on import sales. 

Rachel Stevens

Nothing Good About This Goodbye was lined up to be the fourth single from Rachel's second solo album Come And Get It. A single mix was prepared, released promotionally and performed on TV, but when the album underperformed the campaign was halted.

Westlife

The uncharacteristically uptempo When You're Looking Like That had a video ready to go and was performed on TV but its release never happened in the UK – it ended up as a b-side to Queen Of My Heart. Maybe Westlife's loyal fans weren't quite ready for a move away from romantic "I love you" ballads toward "Phwoar you look hot" pop bangers. Shame.

Carly Rae Jepsen 

Call Me Maybe's follow-up was supposed to be the much less sweet and innocent Curiosity, and a video – which was rumoured to be, um, a lot more grown up than Carly's previous work – was filmed. But things can change, and it was decided Good Time, the collaboration with Owl City, was a better fit instead.

Holly Valance 

When Holly Valance's second album, State Of Mind, stalled at Number 60 on the Official Albums Chart in 2004, the record's second single, Desire, was cancelled along with her music career after she apparently told a German magazine that her music "annoys her"

Leona Lewis

Leona's career post-debut album has been plagued with dodgy single releases. For the second single from her third album Glassheart in 2012, Leona had announced Fireflies as the follow-up to her Top 10 hit Trouble, believing it would be a good fit in the run up to Christmas. A lyric video was released, but then, when she switched on the Christmas lights on London's famous Oxford Street, she introduced Lovebird as her new single instead and performed it live for the first time. Hmm.

Listen to our playlist of cancelled singles below:

This playlist is also available on Deezer.

What have we missed? Leave your comments below:

Related artists

Join the conversation by joining the Official Charts community and dropping comment.

Already registered?

Log in

No account?

Register

avatar

Aqua

0

Alien by Britney Spears was supposed to be the third single off britney jean but perfume flopped so & Radar despite being the 4th single off circus (which should've been out from under) was supposed to be the 4th of blackout

S

ScienceGuy

0

Prodigy were going to release Mindfields as the follow up to Firestarter and got Monkey Mafia to produce a remix before going to a song with more in common with Firestarter - Breathe. As it got to number one it was probably the right choice.

avatar

Dneaeade

0

I really loved Britney's "Breathe On Me" on the "In The Zone" album. I was so sure it was going to be a single at the time. Oh well, I'm still very happy to know that Britney liked it too.

Madonna's "Love Makes The World Go Round" and "Impressive Instant" would have been a nice singles too.

But I wasn't very found off Lady Gaga's Beatiful Dirty Rich". I'm glad "Poker Face" was chosen instead.
But I liked "Dance In The Dark" very much. And even though I liked "Alejandro" too, I wish DITD would have been a single too. A fan of Gaga even made a very impressive and great music video on it with a fake Gaga, dancers and the whole shabang that you can see on Youtube. Gaga should definitely hire the guy who made this music video 'cos it was as great as Gaga's best ones.

avatar

Nela Micandro

0

You Are by Atomic Kitten was originally meant for Westlife too but passed on to the girl group. Thank God https://www.musicroom.com/product-detail/product519206/variant519206/westlife-you-are/

avatar

etin

0

Mariah carey - I'll be loving u long time was #8 in airplay chart but cancelled. "obsessed" didnt have a chance to release..
When take that did massive return, east 17 reformed in 2006,
eternal- how many tears/ I cried real tears scrapped too
spice girls- tell me why
b'witched- where will you go?

avatar

Ireneusz Chmielewski

-1

Ed Sheeran's fifth single from his latest album was supposed to be "Supermarket Flowers" which he performed at the Brit Awards ceremony, but later on it was replaced by "Happier".

AG

Andrew Green

0

Madness had two scrapped singles - Victoria Gardens was dropped in favour of the admittedly far superior One Better Day, whilst I'll Compete was slated as a single from their last studio album, Mad Not Mad, but was shelved.

A

Andrew077

1

There was supposed to have been 7" and cd formats for the Stereophonics single "Innocent" but those formats were cancelled and the song only charted as a download at No.54 in 2009. Had those formats been released, it may have charted higher. All Saints suffered a similar fate two years earlier with their "Chick Fit" single, it was supposed to be released on two formats but was cancelled due to disagreements between group and label, and the fact that the album it was from had undersold meant that they were about to be dropped, and so the song only got a promotional download only single instead.

A

Andrew077

0

"You're So Pretty - We're So Pretty" by The Charlatans would have been the 3rd single off their Wonderland album, it even appeared in a Carlsberg ad in 2001 too, but the single was cancelled. However a remix of the song was released in 2006, charting at No.56

A

Andrew077

0

"Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before" by The Smiths was planned as the 2nd single from their 1987 "Strangeways Here We Come" album. It had a video showing Morrissey and a number of lookalike fans cycling through Manchester. But the song was pulled from release due to the lyric about "mass murder" in the wake of the Hungerford Massacre and so the single only got an international release. The band's label opted for "I Started Something I Couldn't Finish" as the 2nd single instead, and the video for the former song also became the video for the latter, strangely enough.

avatar

Sunshine Gal

0

wow, i've never heard of the some of the uk female groups! with madonna's '4 minutes' it had a very high jump on the hot 100 chart, from #68-3 where it hit it's final peak.

avatar

Anna Nekrylova

1

Yeah, but it scared many of her European fans to a point of no return. She came to Timbaland to have more success on US radio and came back from him without even half of her European success. He wasn't doing his jobe and even said there was a song "Latte" about coffee. It's "Lala Pala Tute" that's from Gypsy song she sang with Gogol Bordello during Live Earth 2007. She's no Janet Jackson. Thank G-d Hard Candy wasn't that bad after all. Good album for running. I'm still listening to it. And sometimes even think bad about Guy Ritchie looking at the cover where she's touching her left cheek with her fingers. Wearing boxing belt.

avatar

Sunshine Gal

1

4 minutes scared many of her european fans?? i don't see why, it's a great dance song! and i think it's one of her all time best.

avatar

Anna Nekrylova

1

Duets as singles promote singles, not albums. This album was her greates flop compared to the previous one. Even now her sales drop every album, but they don't drop that much in percentage to the previous album. Just look at France's numbers. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/12d94541ca283b1687923fd26f20dc80612290ffba58d54d0ea0a79056f5d479.png

avatar

Sunshine Gal

0

interesting...so 'true blue' is her top selling album of all time in france? over here in the states it'd be a tie between 'like a virgin' and 'the immaculate collection'. both are @ 10x plat. diamond status. she still has the top selling greatest hits album of all time by a female artist.

avatar

mildredfarts

0

i really like that Beyonce track..that should've been a massive hit.great video too.

avatar

kIsS tHe PaNdA

3

Curiosity by Carly had already been a Tug of War single. Glad they ditched the re-release.

avatar

Mattie Kim

1

And there was no "SINGLE MIX" that was created for "Nothing Good About this Goodbye". The promotional album sampler contained a slight different version (the intro was just different).

avatar

Mar Sea

0

That song is my favourite from that album. It should have been a single.

avatar

Mattie Kim

1

FREEDOM! SUGABABES!!

MR

Misha Riveros

5

Westlife's "When You're Looking Like That" was heavily played on the radios all over Argentina. actually, they recorded a Spanish version, "Con lo Bien Que Te Ves" lol
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R04eIEbuRPE

avatar

Nicola Boden

1

It was all over music TV here, I didn't realise it never saw release

avatar

Mar Sea

0

i was about to say that! That song sounded a lot on the radios in Argentina.