It’s always funny to read about the pop production processes that go into creating a hit track, and realizing that for the most part record labels have no idea what they’re doing. As a friend working for a major label once put it, “we just wait to see what sells and then try to copy it.” In this cycle of carbon-copying, though, it’s no surprise that great music gets sacrificed for the hottest new thing, which is what basically happened to all the entries in Cracked’s listicle of 5 Hit Songs That Were Nearly Never Released. The story behind Prince’s “Kiss” is a perfect case in point, as the song was rejected three times (once by Prince himself) before it got released (and became a #1 hit).