Songs she was offered but rejected

[Christopher]

Originally Posted by sleepless child

Regarding the Bruce song, I read it in one of the Dreams fanzines that were popular back in the late 80's, early 90's. I'll look through my stash to see which issue it was and the exact quote.

It was also reported in Rolling Stone during spring/summer of 1984, that Bruce had submitted the song "Don't Lose Heart" for Stevie's forthcoming release. They also mentioned it wasn't confirmed whether the song would be used at press time, or something like that. I should dig out the old RS.
So whether or not Stevie remembers - which would not be surprising, considering RAL was among the craziest & druggiest eras of Stevies career - The Bruce Springsteen song was at least more than a passing thought, likely put in place via Jimmy Iovine & his close relationship with Bruce.

[michelej1]

Originally Posted by Christopher

It was also reported in Rolling Stone during spring/summer of 1984, that Bruce had submitted the song "Don't Lose Heart" for Stevie's forthcoming release. They also mentioned it wasn't confirmed whether the song would be used at press time, or something like that.

Here's an old thread of people discussing the song on The Ledge.

http://ledge.fleetwoodmac.net/showthread.php?t=14859

[michelej1]

I was reading about Roger Daltry and it discussed "Let Me Down Easy." Jim Vallance said, "Adams and I originally wrote "Let Me Down Easy" for Stevie Nicks, but I don't know if she ever heard the song? Regardless, I thought Roger did a superb job."

[nightbird28]

I kind of wish Stevie would do a cover album and go back and pick all the songs that she passed on that later became hits. I think I would love to hear her interpretations of these songs.

[Sanne2]

Bumping this old thread because this week I learned that Bono from U2 wrote a song for Stevie (I guess it was intended for The Wild Heart). I was digging through the online archives of a Dutch newspaper when I came across this interview with Bono, from March 1983: http://leiden.courant.nu/issue/LLC/1...sort=relevance
Translation of the interesting bits:
Stevie Nicks (from Fleetwood Mac) called us a while ago and asked us if we wanted to write a song for her. We send her a composition but she wasn't satisfied. I think it was too good for her. We wrote that song in Holland during a soundcheck, it was done is just 5 minutes. Maybe that sounds crazy but I have a tape to prove it. We send Stevie a copy of that tape but I guess it wasn't wat she was looking for, it's a beautiful love song and that's not what she wanted.

[Phil]

Originally posted by michelej1:

I was reading about Roger Daltry and it discussed "Let Me Down Easy." Jim Vallance said, "Adams and I originally wrote "Let Me Down Easy" for Stevie Nicks, but I don't know if she ever heard the song? Regardless, I thought Roger did a superb job."

Roger Daltrey's and Bryan Adams' released versions (on the Reckless 30th Anniversary reissue) sound very much in the vein of the Rock A Little mid-80's pop/rock period. Check out Bryan Adams' acoustic version on Youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgfpdZXJphw

[lilyfee]

We found out during the MSG show that Stevie once recorded a cover of It's Raining Men. Not exactly a song she rejected but as long as we're talking about covers, I really hope this sees the light of day someday.

[bombaysaffires]

Originally Posted by GarboSpeaks!

SN doing Owner Of A Lonely Heart w/ Waddy tearing up the guitar solo...I can see it.

[BombaySapphire3]

Originally Posted by bombaysaffires

No worries they never offered her that song. it was "Love Will Find a Way"

[24karatstevie]

I always like to think about what Stevie's versions of these songs could have sounded like. Call Me or These Dreams (both some of my favorite songs) could have took a different direction if Stevie had sang them.

[ahafan02]

Originally Posted by Fannymac

Re: Springsteen.....I remember this as well.....and she DID change the title to "BABY, Don't You Lose Heart!"

Re: YES.....they also offered her "Owner Of A Lonely Heart" and she turned it down.

Re: "Call Me".....it ws offered to someone else like Pat Benatar or Martha Davis after Stevie turned it down....that's when Debbie convinced Georgio to let her rewrite it with him!

There's also Warren Zevon's "Reconsider Me", which is such a great song. I really think Stevie could have done a killer version of this song if A) she had put her heart and soul into it, and B) Jimmy hadn't pushed it on her at a point when they were either just breaking up or just not really getting along (can't remember what it was at that point....I THINK they had already broken up.....or were breaking up!)

I think we really need not spread misinformation. The above is incorrect. He did not offer it to Benatar or Davis. You are thinking of Giorgio's "Take My Breath Away" which Martha Davis (and possibly Benatar) was asked to record it before Berlin (Terri Nunn). Martha's awkward version of that song was released on The Motels/Martha Davis' "Anthologyland". "Tied Up" was cowritten by Farrar for ONJ who recorded the original in late '81 for inclusion on her '82 Greatest Hits Volume 2 LP. Iovine was desperate to find Nicks a hit for RAL and thought this song would be suited for her voice. The song itself is decent but nothing about it screams major hit (ONJ's version only made it to #38). "Call Me" was sent to Nicks in '79 (right after she signed with Modern Records). It was a bare instrumental demo Moroder was hoping Nicks could finish the melody and write lyrics to it. Her new recording contract prevented her from working with other labels so nothing came of it (this is well documented). The demo didn't have "awkward" lyrics...it had NO lyrics at all and Stevie never did anything with the demo. As stated the demo had the working title of "Man Machine". He then asked Debbie to write a melody and lyrics, which she did in two hours and she called it "Call Me". As for the Yes song "Owner of a Broken Heart"..no it was not given to Stevie to record. "Love Will Find a Way" was offered to her in 1986. When she rejected it they wrote lyrics to it and recorded it themselves. "Owner" was originally recorded as an instrumental demo by YES member Trevor Rabin who was going to release it as a single as a solo artist, which never happened. He instead shelved the song until Trevor Horn (who produced 90125, the album from which it is featured on) heard the demo and told them it would be a hit for them. The band re-worked the demo and added lyrics. As far as Bruce Springsteen there really wasn't any verifiable proof one way or another. If it's true Stevie said she didn't, I don't think she would lie about it because what would be the point? It wouldn't make sense.

As a side note...Benatar only worked with Giorgio once, on the god awful "Here's My Heart" from his 1983 scoring of "Metropolis". She hated it and did not get along with him at all. I met her during her 2001 Summer Vacation tour and asked her about it. She said she hated it and Moroder was "a jerk". She said the record company snuck it onto her compilation "Synchronistic Wanderings" at the last minute after she told them she didn't want it on the comp (notice she writes notes about every song on there in the booklet except "Here's My Heart").

[pryderi]

Thank you for this.

[SisterNightroad]

How we made Prince's Purple Rain
‘We recorded it in a jampacked Minneapolis club. It was sweaty and smoky and vibey as hell’

Lisa Coleman, keyboards
Being in Prince’s band was like getting in a sports car with a racing driver. Even though you felt a bit scared – why is he going so fast? – he could handle it, and it brought so much joy. I first met him in 1979. He was looking for a girl keyboard player and I happened to be one. One of my best friends got a job at Prince’s management agency. She called me about him, and I didn’t know who he was. I made a tape of myself playing a couple of songs and I flew to Minneapolis and he picked me up at the airport. We were both very shy, so it didn’t go well at first – but we ended up hitting it off.

The audition was pretty immediate. It was eight or nine at night when we got to his place. He told me there was a piano down the stairs, and I took that as a hint he wanted to hear me play. He came down a few minutes later and picked up a guitar. I was checking him out just as much as he was checking me out. He had a poster on his wall of Kris Kristofferson and Barbra Streisand in A Star Is Born. I thought that was kind of young. Me being from LA and my father being a musician meant I was around the music business, but it was a different feeling with Prince. He had the vibe of living music – his house smelled like a recording studio.

It took a handful of years for us to work up to being that completely fabulous Purple Rain band, so tight and good. I think we lived up to the flamboyant image because we worked so hard. When Wendy Melvoin joined to play guitar, it made a big difference. I was happy because she was my girlfriend, and Prince was so excited – she was like a new kitten to him, the way that he was precious about her. You could feel a new beginning. I think he chose each of us for very simple reasons, not because we were virtuosos – although we were very good. There was another quality he needed to have around him: a blend of loyalty, a spirit of young hunger and a musical quality he didn’t have. Every one of us had something he didn’t have, even though he had it all.

Purple Rain was one of the songs we were working on before we decided what the film was going to be. At first he wasn’t sure Purple Rain was actually a Prince song. It was kind of a country number and he gave it to Stevie Nicks, but she felt intimidated by it. So one day he decided to fool around with it at rehearsal. Wendy started hitting these big chords and that rejigged his idea of the song. He was excited to hear it voiced differently. It took it out of that country feeling. Then we all started playing it a bit harder and taking it more seriously. We played it for six hours straight and by the end of that day we had it mostly written and arranged.

In 1983, we performed at a benefit show at the First Avenue club in Minneapolis. This is where the song was recorded live, though at the time we didn’t know that was the plan. Prince was really excited and kept pumping us up: “We’re making history tonight.” It all makes sense now: if you’re going to record something, make sure you’re as badass as you can be. Don’t **** around.

It was Wendy’s first show. To have that be her anointing was a lot to live up to. But he was so supportive of her. He took her under his wing. He helped her relax and not be too nervous. We were unsure what was going to happen, but we hit the stage with such conviction that it didn’t really matter. The crowd were with us. It was hot, it was August, it was jampacked in the club. It was sweaty and smoky and vibey as hell.

Afterwards, I went into the studio in Los Angeles with Prince to work on it [the live recording had string overdubs added, and was edited from 13 minutes to 8 minutes 41 seconds]. I did the string arrangement – we didn’t hire session players, it was me calling my brother: “Can you get a couple of friends and come do some strings?” Prince made the decision to lose the third verse, making it more concise. He was completely right. The third verse didn’t really match the other two – it was a different spirit and it didn’t belong in the song.

Bobby Z, drums
In 1978, I was at Moon Sound Studios in Minneapolis, working with a different band. Prince was in Studio A making his first tape. It was dynamite, gunpowder. I heard it walking across the hallway one morning. I went in and I saw the afro.

I was working for his manager as a delivery driver, and my job became driving Prince. We spent seven months basically alone together. We were bonded as friends, which eventually made getting the job of drummer harder. I was very grateful that he hired me and very grateful that he took me for the whole ride.

There were people in the Revolution who weren’t committed to staying forever, and you can’t build a band like that, but by summer 1983 we had a special chemistry. He was always kind of a solo artist, but the fact that the Revolution were able to give him the colours on a palette made me proud.

Purple Rain was brought in at the end of a rehearsal. We had just gone through the set twice and he said: “I want to try something before we go home. It’s mellow.” For me it was natural: I could give it the big rock beat and be John Bonham. But when it starts, it’s really a country song.

The soundtrack recording began in 1983, when he used a mobile recording truck to capture Purple Rain, I Would Die 4 U, Baby I’m a Star and the workings of a couple of others. Documenting what we did was commonplace, and he used it as a tool to improve. We would watch videos as part of our rehearsals, and it caused a dramatic improvement. When you see yourself look stupid, you fix yourself a lot better. All he had to do was show it to you.

That day at First Avenue, it was 90 degrees – a humid wet August, cigarette smoke everywhere. It was a battle to get through, and it was kind of forging metal in hot conditions. But he got the performances out of people who were just for one minute to his level, and it was a beautiful thing.

We ended up losing the third verse. To edit it the way he did was genius. He was an incredible editor, and this was back in the days when we were splicing tape. Another feather in his hat. Because Prince was such a great musician, he was able to find pieces of music in his head, and then with Scotch tape put them together into something completely different – there were some real gutsy moves back then. He had a vision in his head for everything from fashion to the sound of the snare drum to the catering truck. He knew everything.

Purple Rain Deluxe (Expanded Edition) is out now on Warner Bros Records.



https://www.theguardian.com/music/20...rain-interview

[SisterNightroad]

Legendary Producer Giorgio Moroder Talks DJ'ing Advice From David Guetta and His Love For The Weeknd

“Take My Breath Away,” recorded by Berlin for Top Gun, won both the Golden Globe and Oscar for Best Original Song in 1986. Is that your favorite song you’ve ever done?

Yes. “Flashdance” is the other one. “Take My Breath Away” has a great sound (hums the opening notes). The melody is good. It reminds me a little bit of a romantic Italian traditional [song.]. Thank God the way Terri [Nunn] sang it was like a modern singer. If I had recorded it with a typical Italian guy, it would have been very dramatic, crying. She did a good job.

Didn’t several other singers took a crack at it before Terri?

Several. [The Motels’] Martha [Davis] did one. It came out nice, but [producers] Jerry [Bruckheimer] and Don [Simpson] didn’t think it was right. We gave it to Stevie Nicks. I don’t think she said she doesn’t like it, [but] she passed. There was a male British singer, Paul Young, and then I think we had somebody else.


http://www.billboard.com/articles/ne...-guetta-weeknd

[StreetAngel86]

Originally Posted by GarboSpeaks!

I also thought there was a Dave Koz song FOR Stevie. Seems I'm missing a few people. I had no idea about YES though. SN doing Owner Of A Lonely Heart w/ Waddy tearing up the guitar solo...I can see it.

i utterly LOVE this song
the fact that Stevie could nail it ... oh my
she needs to do a poll
top 12 cover songs she should do
we put forth our submissions
the top 30 or whatever compete in battle rounds