28 Harmonious Facts About Pop Musicians and Their Backstories

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28 Harmonious Facts About Pop Musicians and Their Backstories
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We talk a lot about the embarrassing early roles of A-list actors, but we seem to think that musicians just come fully formed or something. Sure, some of them hit it big right away, but others have some pretty mortifying beginnings as well. Just ask Alanis Morissette.

Someone must have seen a little glimmer of something in them, because they took a chance and it paid off huge! Here are some lesser-known tidbits and backstories of some of the biggest musicians ever.

Sugar Ray

CRACKED SUGAR RAY Their obscure 1995 album Lemonade And Brownies was funk-rap or nu-metal like Limp Bizkit. They completely switched to pop rock and released Floored in 1997, with hits Fly, Every Morning, and When It's Over.

Fleetwood Mac

CRACKED FLEETWOOD MAC They recorded 8 pretty run-of-the-mill blues rock albums before they brought in Stevie Nicks and Lindsay Buckingham, and recorded Rumours in 1977. The album was a complete shift in sound, and has sold 45 million copies to date.

The Cure

CRACKED THE CURE Originally Easy Cure in 1976, they struggled to find commercial success as skinny prep-school lookalikes. In the early '80s they adopted a gothic look of big black hair, pale complexions and striking red lipstick that became as famous as the music itself.

Shania Twain

CRACKED SHANIA TWAIN She had no creative input on her 1993 self-titled country album. 1995's The Woman In Me crossed over into pop and her attitude and fashion in the videos became iconic. Her next 2 albums got more and more pop, and all 3 went diamond.

Smash Mouth

CRACKED SMASH MOUTH Formed in 1994, they were heavily in the ska punk scene. That was all toned down for a pop-focused commercial sound on their hits like Walkin' On The Sun and All Star. They gelled up the hair for that Californian rocker vibe, too.

Lana Del Rey

CRACKED LANA DEL REY Born Elizabeth Woolridge Grant, she sang the same type of music, but wasn't becoming successful. A total repackaging of her name, hair, and clothes matched the sound, and she blew up as Lana Del Ray.

Ariana Grande

CRACKED ARIANA GRANDE As Cat on Nickelodeon's Victorious, her sweet disposition made her the classic Nick star. She evolved into her own signature R&B/pop star look, sang about more mature themes, and is almost unrecognizable now.

The RZA

CRACKED WUTANG THE RZA Before forming the Wu-Tang Clan, he was a solo artist on Tommy Boy Records, and released Ooh I Love You Rakeem in 1991. The bright clothes, tux, braids, and overall ladies man vibe was manufactured for him, and it completely flopped.

Alanis Morissette

CRACKED ALANIS MORISSETTE Before being known for alternative pseudo-grunge rock with 1995's Jagged Little Pill, she was a dance-pop artist like Paula Abdul, and even opened for Vanilla Ice in 1991.

The Eagles

The Eagles and Steely Dan both paid homage to each other in their songs. In Everything You Did by Steely Dan, there is this lyric: turn up the Eagles, the neighbors are listening. The Eagles repaid the band in Hotel California with the lyric: they stab it with their steely knives. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW

Buddy Holly

Authorities adopted a policy of notifying a victim's family before their name was released after Buddy Holly's death. Buddy Holly's wife found out about his death while watching TV and suffered a miscarriage the next day due to psychological trau- ma. His mother also heard the news on the radio and collapsed. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW

Miley Cyrus

Miley Cyrus' first paid job was to... ...go on stage after her dad's show and pick up all the thrown bras and underwear. Не paid her $10 for that. MILEYMONET CRACKED COM

Brie Larson

28 Harmonious Facts About Pop Musicians and Their Backstories

Nicki Minaj

CRACKED.COM Nicki Minaj worked as a waitress in RED LOBSTER and later got fired when she tried to follow a couple who stole her pen.

Max Martin

CRACKED.COM Max Martin first wrote ...Baby One More Time under a different title - Hit Me Baby One More Time. After it was rejected by TLC because they thought the lyrics alluded to domestic violence, ATY SEXYO Martin tweaked it a bit, and it became Britney Spears' breakout song.

Richard Wright

Richard Wright composed The Violent Sequence for Michelangelo Antonioni's GRACKED.COM film Zabriskie Point. When the director rejected the song, Wright reworked it as Us And Them on Pink Floyd's The Dark Side Of The Moon album.

Tom Waits

The album Orphans is a collection of random songs that Tom Waits couldn't make work on his other albums. A lot of songs that fell behind the stove while making dinner -TOM WAITS TOM WAITS orphans Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards The album earned a 92% score on Metacritic and was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2004. GRACKED.COM

LFO

TWO-HIT WONDERS LFO had an another Billboard Top 10 song called Girl on TV. The music video featured Jennifer Love Hewitt, who Rich Cronin supposedl

Sia

Every song but one on Sia's album This is Acting was originally written by Sia for another artist, and rejected by them. SiA THiS i3 A<TiNG The album

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