Occasionally, you can hear a hit song and just tell it was written out of spite because a record label wanted a mainstream single. Here are three examples of hit rock songs where that’s precisely what happened.
“pork and Beans” by Weezer
Weezer released “Pork and Beans” on their 2008 self-titled album, known as The Red Album. It would go on to become a hugely popular hit, despite the fact that it was presented to the band’s label out of spite. The execs at Geffen Records wanted a more commercial single, which didn’t go over well with Rivers Cuomo. “I came out of [the meeting] pretty angry,” he told Rolling Stone at the time. “But ironically, it inspired me to write another song.”
The main riff of “Pork and Beans” came from something Cuomo had written a decade prior. Upon its release, it quickly rose to No. 1 on the Billboard Modern Rock Track chart, the third Weezer song to do so. Despite its frustrating origins, “Pork and Beans” is one of Weezer’s most beloved rock songs.
“One Step Closer” by Linkin Park
“One Step Closer” was released in 2000 as the first single from Linkin Park’s debut album, Hybrid Theory. Contrary to the other hit rock songs here, it didn’t come out of frustration with a record label, but with the band’s producer, Don Gilmore. Throughout the process of writing and recording “One Step Closer”, Gilmore was constantly pushing the band to change things about the song.
Gilmore’s intrusive production style fed into the frustration that came out in the lyrics and in Chester Bennington’s vocals. Specifically, it’s obvious in the bridge, where Bennington screams “Shut up when I’m talking to you!” In 2008, Bennington told Kerrang!, “I remember walking into the control room, handing Don [Gilmore] the lyrics, and he grabbed them, passed them in front of his face without even looking, handed them back to me, and told me to do it again. I lost my f**king mind, thinking, ‘This guy’s a f**king maniac!’”
He added, “But that kind of inspired the lyrics … it all came from that frustration. So I guess in the end he inspired me the way he wanted to.”
“Complete Control” by The Clash
The Clash released “Complete Control” in September 1977 as a direct response to CBS Records. Earlier that year, the label released the song “Remote Control” without the band’s consent. Not only was it an airing of grievances against the label, but also against their manager, Bernie Rhodes. Specifically, the title was a reference to a meeting with Rhodes where he said he wanted “complete control” of the band.
This critical punk rock song featured lyrics like “They said we’d be artistically free / When we signed that bit of paper / They meant ‘Let’s make a lots of money / And worry about it later’”. While the song was generally favored, it also drew criticism from others who felt that the band was being naive. Still, it earned more praise for representing punk autonomy instead of an outdated cynical view.
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