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The back-to-basics process of making 'Get Back,' recorded in 1969 for a corresponding Beatles documentary, resulted in 85 hours of material, which producer Glyn Johns then managed to pull a rough track list from.
She added that she was inspired by bands like Hole and Green Day at the time, and adopted an alter-ego. "I was playing with the style of the breezy-grunge, punk-light white female singers who were popular at the time. You know the ones who seemed to be so carefree with their feelings and their image." But ultimately when she wanted to release it, “that idea was kind of stomped and squashed.”
The Beach Boys' unfinished album was supposed to follow their 11th album 'Pet Sounds.' The 12-track LP would have drawn from over 50 hours of interchangeable sound fragments, similar to their 1966 single 'Good Vibrations,' but after a year of recording it was shelved.
Mariah Carey first mentioned the existence of a secret alt-rock album in her 2020 memoir. A version of it was titled 'Someone's Ugly Daughter' and quietly released in 1995 under the band name Chick, with Carey singing backup vocals, despite having recorded lead vocals originally. In an interview with podcast 'Rolling Stone Music Now,' Carey said the recordings of the album with her lead vocals have been “unearthed,” hinting at a new release. She said the original project was an outlet for herself during a time where she felt constrained. “That was my freedom, making that record,” she said.
But the Beatles' new manager, Allen Klein, didn't like such an unpolished product and handed it over to producer Phil Spector, who took orchestral overdubs too far, resulting in a product in which Paul McCartney later revealed he didn't have a say. The album was released as 'Let It Be.'
They released a downscaled version, 'Smiley Smile,' but over the next four decades some of the original 'Smile' tracks were officially released, and the project became viewed as the most "legendary" unreleased album in popular music history.
In 1970, Hendrix spoke about his new project, which sought to stretch the bounds of conventional rock, and recorded a 16-song suite with his acoustic guitar onto some cassettes, which he then gave to drummer Mitch Mitchell with the title 'Black Gold,' so that Mitchell could work out parts for a studio recording. But Hendrix died before it could take full form.
The union wasn't working, costs began to mount, and eventually the project was shelved—though not before reportedly recording 10 tracks, some of which were penned by famed Motown songwriting team Holland-Dozier-Holland. "I made one copy onto cassette. That's all there is,” Beck said.
The tapes were forgotten for two decades until Mitchell found them in his home in 1992. Six songs had been completed in studio and issued on posthumous albums, but nine others were unique to the tape. Hendrix's estate reportedly promised to deliver 'Black Gold' at some point.
Before forming Kiss, the pair were members of Wicked Lester and recorded an album in 1972 funded by Epic Records that was an 11-track aimless amalgamation of styles, which the label then rejected. The pair decided to move on, and eventually formed Kiss.
The Wicked Lester tapes lay dormant until 1976, when the label wanted to capitalize on Kiss' popularity. Embarrassed by their old material, the band bought the tapes back for US$137,500, and locked them away, with only two reworked songs ('She' and 'Love Her All I Can') making their way into the light.
They still tried one final time in January 1975, inviting Grateful Dead drummer Bill Kreutzmann to the studio, but Young walked out when Nash and Stills started bickering, and the album was abandoned.
Reuniting three years after a disastrous 1970 tour, the band flew to Maui to create 'Human Highway,' but things went south in the recording studio and they shelved it for a year. They reunited again in November 1974 to try and record the project but "[it was] a hopeless cause," said Crosby, adding that they were burnt out and not nice.
Producer Tony Visconti assembled the tracks under the slang term 'The Gouster,' which was poised for release until Bowie called and said he and John Lennon recorded a song called 'Fame,' and did a version of 'Across the Universe.' The track list shifted and shifted again until the album was released as 'Young Americans.'
Neil Young's personal life in 1974 was suffering as he was parting ways with both his wife and band Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, but he started to compose songs for a new record. "It was intense, like trying to make a record in the middle of 42nd Street, or Vietnam," says producer Elliot Mazer. The songs were that of a heartbroken man, but they were brilliant and label executives were prepared for a hugely successful release. But then Young changed his mind.
Addicted to substances and his estranged wife, Janis Hunter, and annoyed by the way his fans flocked to younger stars, Marvin Gaye was determined to make a “straight-ahead make-out party album” in 1979. 'Love Man' featured many songs trying to get his wife back, but the lead single wasn't a hit, and with a US$4.5 million back tax bill he decided to go on tour. But even that didn't last, and he found himself so stuck that he tried to overdose.
He'd gotten friends together, including the Band's Rick Danko, to get an opinion on the album, but as it ended a mix of the unreleased 'Tonight's the Night' came on and Danko said he liked it better. Young chose to release that grittier album instead. "[Homegrown] might be more what people would rather hear from me now, but it was just a very down album," he told Rolling Stone at the time. "It was a little too personal. … It scared me.”
Bowie became obsessed with R&B particularly after touring America, and decided to book time at Philadelphia's famed Sigma Sound. There he assembled a dream team of musicians, including a young Luther Vandross, who after several weeks produced enough songs for an album, including 'It's Gonna Be Me,' 'After Today,' 'Who Can I Be Now,' 'Shilling the Rubes,' and 'Young Americans.'
Luckily he survived, and tried to get his life back on track with a new project, 'In Our Lifetime.' "No matter how much money Motown would give me to release 'Love Man,' I couldn't do it," he told Ritz. He never revisited the album, and passed away in 1984.
Front man Joe Strummer and guitarist Mick Jones were already butting heads over their sound in 1981, with Strummer preferring a more gritty rock and Jones preferring to explore more musical influences. Jones, as producer, proposed a double album under the title of 'The Rat Patrol From Fort Bragg,' which clocked in at 80 minutes and had influences from surf rock to funk, new wave to Afrobeat, but the response from his bandmates was not what he'd hoped.
The intimate songs were given heavily orchestrated treatment, but the Boss felt the band overpowered the lyrics which “wanted silence,” he told Uncut. So he went back to the delicate quality of recording from his home and scrapped the studio recordings for the so-called 'Electric Nebraska.' Decades later drummer Max Weinberg confirmed to Rolling Stone that "The E Street Band actually did record all of Nebraska, and it was killing." He added, “There is a full-band Nebraska album – all of those songs are in the can somewhere."
Nirvana's debut album 'Bleach,' issued by indie label Sub Pop Records, brought them more fame than their fellow grunge pioneers. In 1990, the trio recorded eight new songs for a Sub Pop follow-up that Kurt Cobain wanted to name 'Sheep,' but it suddenly fell through because Cobain and Krist Novoselic decided to fire their drummer Chad Channing, and Sub Pop thought they were too big for their indie status.
So, instead of releasing an album, the band used the recorded tracks from 'Sheep' as a demo to get a major contract. The resulting album from this mess was, of course, the groundbreaking 'Nevermind,' which featured many rerecorded songs from the 'Sheep' sessions, including 'Lithium,' 'Polly,' and 'In Bloom.' Some of the original sessions were later released on deluxe releases of 'Nevermind' in 2011.
They reportedly viewed it as self-indulgent and rambling, and their manager hated it as well. Strummer decided to hire producer Glyn Johns to work it into a commercial single disc, axing five songs entirely, trimming five songs by more than two minutes each, and stripping away the heavy production. At 46 minutes, the Clash released 'Combat Rock' instead in 1982.
Springsteen started recording acoustic guitar and vocal demos at home for 'Nebraska' in 1982. He ended up with 15 tracks that were slower and darker than his previous work, but reflected the struggles he was experiencing at the time with his family and stardom. Then he took the tracks to an NYC studio to flesh them out with the E Street Band, where things didn't go as planned.
Instead, he started working on a solo concept album, 'Camille,' where he manipulated his voice to play the titular character, but scrapped that project, too. He eventually combined material from the two projects into a triple-disc album that was to be titled 'Crystal Ball,' but which his label rejected as too cumbersome. Prince finally pared it down to a double album, 'Sign O' the Times,' which is considered one of his best.
At a peak in his career in 1986, Prince was working on an album with the Revolution titled 'Dream Factory,' but he seemed to get carried away with the album and band arrangements on his tour. A rift formed particularly between him and Revolution members Wendy Melvoin (pictured) and Lisa Coleman, and the album was shelved.
'Lifehouse' is an unfinished sci-fi rock opera that The Who intended to be a follow-up to 'Tommy.' It was abandoned in favor of the traditional rock album 'Who's Next,' but singles would appear on various later albums, as well as Pete Townshend's solo albums.
The Stones' manager in the mid-'60s pushed them to make an album composed of their own songs, which they did in 1965, coming up with at least nine tracks, among which were later hits 'Mother's Little Helper' and '19th Nervous Breakdown.' Decca Records objected vehemently to the title, however, citing religious backlash.
After achieving worldwide success with their instruments, for some reason Pink Floyd decided to abandon them and make an album using objects like hand mixers, light bulbs, wood saws, hammers, brooms and other home appliances to make music. The process turned out to be excruciating and unsatisfying, and they stopped the project with just two semi-complete tracks, 'The Hard Way' and 'Wine Glasses.'
Sources: (NPR) (PopMatters) (Stereogum) (Rolling Stone)
See more: Star singers who hate their own songs
A long-awaited collaboration between these two forces finally happened in 1969, when Dylan was in Cash's hometown recording his ninth album, 'Nashville Skyline'. On February 17 and 18, the pair recorded more than a dozen duets together, revisiting their respective legacies, but only one cover (an update of the Bob Dylan track 'Girl From the North Country') made the finished album. The rest stayed in the vaults until select tracks from the sessions leaked out into the bootleg world over the years.
The British rocker had big dreams to meld his sound with Motown, but the Funk Brothers weren't happy when he brought his own drummer to Detroit's Hitsville U.S.A. studio. "What the hell was I doing taking a rock drummer … into Motown?" he wondered in later years.
Whether they’re called unreleased, lost, or shelved, there are many albums that never saw the light of day and live on solely in pop culture lore. We’re drawn to them because they offer a peek into the music industry, often swathed in dramatic tales of some of the greatest artists pushing back against commercial-focused record execs, or band members who couldn’t harmonize their creative vision, or songs that went missing after the artist died. The albums left in the dark often seem to appear the shiniest.
Intrigued? Click through to see some of music history’s most legendary unreleased albums.
Unreleased albums of the music world
Lesser-known albums with mythic status
MUSIC Music history
Whether they’re called unreleased, lost, or shelved, there are many albums that never saw the light of day and live on solely in pop culture lore. We’re drawn to them because they offer a peek into the music industry, often swathed in dramatic tales of some of the greatest artists pushing back against commercial-focused record execs, or band members who couldn’t harmonize their creative vision, or songs that went missing after the artist died. The albums left in the dark often seem to appear the shiniest.
Intrigued? Click through to see some of music history’s most legendary unreleased albums.