While audiences will always want to see a band play the hits, it’s easy to understand why performing songs you wrote decades ago might prove tiring. But for many artists, their refusal to fall back on past glories comes from a deeper place than simply feeling bored of their back catalogue.
Here are 15 huge hits that bands stopped playing, and the often surprising reasons behind each of them.
15 hit songs that bands refuse to play live
1. The Rolling Stones, 'Brown Sugar' (1971)
If you were set the unenviable task of choosing a single song to explain The Rolling Stones to an alien, ‘Brown Sugar’ would be right up there. The 1971 single starts the band’s classic album Sticky Fingers in style, with Keith Richards’ slashing riff, swaggering drumming from Charlie Watts and Mick Jagger’s lascivious vocals.
It immediately became one of the band’s signature tunes and a setlist staple, but over the years, Jagger’s lyrics drew criticism for their depiction of slavery, objectification of Black women and drug references. "I never would write that song now," Jagger told Rolling Stone in 1995.
"I would probably censor myself. I'd think, “Oh God, I can’t. I’ve got to stop.” God knows what I’m on about on that song. It’s such a mishmash. All the nasty subjects in one go."
The band eventually bowed to pressure and stopped playing the song in 2019. When asked by the LA Times about the decision, Richards "You picked up on that, huh? I don’t know. I’m trying to figure out with the sisters quite where the beef is. Didn’t they understand this was a song about the horrors of slavery? But they’re trying to bury it. At the moment I don’t want to get into conflicts with all of this."
But Richards suggested it wasn’t gone for good, adding, that he’s "hoping that we’ll be able to resurrect the babe in her glory somewhere along the track."
2. Beastie Boys, '(You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party!)' (1986)
The first major hit for New York hip-hop trio Beastie Boys would soon come back to haunt them. ‘Fight For Your Right (To Party!)’ saw Ad Rock, MCA and Mike D sneering brattishly about the authority figures cramping their style – parents and teachers, basically – against a hulking rock riff. It was brash, snotty and irresistible to party-loving teenagers all over the world.
Unfortunately, the band fast outgrew their cartoonish image, especially when their live shows began to attract a fratboy crowd who they didn’t feel any connection to. "The only thing that upsets me is that we might have reinforced certain values of some people in our audience when our own values were actually totally different," Mike D wrote in the sleevenotes to their 1999 compilation Sounds Of Science.
"There were tons of guys singing along to ‘Fight for Your Right’ who were oblivious to the fact it was a total goof on them." When the trio returned with the forward-thinking, sample heavy brilliance of Paul’s Boutique, they were a changed band and their biggest hit was rarely played at their shows. By the mid-’90s, they’d almost dropped it entirely.
3. R.E.M., 'Shiny Happy People' (1991)
The first two singles from R.E.M,’s seventh album, the globe-conquering Out Of Time were polar opposites. The sophisticated alt-rock of ‘Losing My Religion’ found Michael Stipe poetically exploring the frustration of unrequited love from a queer perspective, while ‘Shiny Happy People’ was a playful slice of sunny, ’60s-influenced jangle pop that saw Stipe duetting with The B-52s’ Kate Pierson.
Stipe later told Mojo how the song came about, "The guys threw me the stupidest song that sounded so buoyant and weird, and I was like, OK, I accept the challenge. So it was bubblegum music made for kids. Don’t hate it. But I don’t want to sing it."
The song was a worldwide hit, giving R.E.M. their first Top 10 single in the UK, but after just two live performances in 1991, they never played it again. In 2011, Stipe told The Quietus, ‘It’s just a little bit embarrassing that it became as big a hit as it did!’
Fun video, though...
4. AC/DC, 'It's A Long Way To The Top (If You Wanna Rock'n'Roll)' (1975)
Few songs capture the gruelling, hard-touring, hard-living reality of life as a rock’n’roll band quite like AC/DC’s 1975 stormer ‘It’s A Long Way To The Top (If You Wanna Rock’n’Roll)’. Bon Scott sings of "Gettin’ robbed, gettin’ had, gettin' stoned, gettin’ took," before adding "I tell you folks, it’s harder than it looks."
It’s a suitably heads-down, heavy riffin’ performance, with the inspired twist of a bagpipe solo, and became a staple of the Australian hard rock legends’ unmissable live shows. It became Scott’s signature tune and when the singer died in February 1980 of ‘extreme alcohol poisoning’ the band felt they had no choice but to retire the song as a mark of respect.
5. Eric Clapton, 'Tears In Heaven' (1992)
Blues guitarist Eric Clapton’s biggest hit single in the US was inspired by the tragic death of his four-year-old son, Conor, who fell through a window of the 53rd-floor New York apartment where he lived with his mother. Attempting to make sense of the heartbreaking accident, Clapton wrote a clutch of songs about his son, including ‘Tears In Heaven’.
"I wrote this one to ask the question I had been asking myself ever since my grandfather had died," Clapton wrote in his 2007 memoir. "Will we really meet again? It’s difficult to talk about these songs in depth; that’s why they’re songs. Their birth and development is what kept me alive through the darkest period of my life."
Clapton’s stripped back and emotional performance of the song on his 1992 MTV Unplugged set made it an international hit, but – quite understandably – he found the song emotionally exhausting to perform.
In 2004, he announced that he’d no longer play ‘Tears In Heaven’ live, telling the Associated Press, "I didn’t feel the loss anymore, which is so much a part of performing those songs. I really have to connect with the feelings that were there when I wrote them. They’re kind of gone, and I really don’t want them to come back, particularly. My life is a different life now." Clapton has since reintroduced it to his live show.
6. Led Zeppelin, 'Stairway To Heaven' (1971)
Led Zeppelin’s ‘Stairway To Heaven’ is one of their most beloved songs, a mystical, Tolkien-inspired eight-minute epic which grandly meanders through multiple sections and time signatures, showing off the band’s virtuosity.
But while generations of rock fans see it as vindication of the band’s genius, singer (and lyricist) Robert Plant has a complicated relationship with the song. "If you absolutely hated ‘Stairway to Heaven’, nobody can blame you for that because it was so… pompous," Plant told Q magazine in 1988.
The same year, he told the Los Angeles Times, "I’d break out in hives if I had to sing it every show. I wrote those lyrics and found that song to be of some importance and consequence in 1971, but 17 years later, I don’t know. It’s just not for me. No more ‘Stairway To Heaven’ for me."
Despite the song being a guaranteed showstopper, Plant has remained true to his word, only playing the song twice since making the statements – first at Led Zeppelin’s 2007 reunion at London’s O2 Arena and in 2007, at a concert to raise money for the charity Cancer Platform.
7. My Chemical Romance, 'Drowning Lessons' (2002)
According to fans of emo-glam rockers My Chemical Romance, the band rarely play ‘Drowning Lessons’, from their much-loved 2002 debut album I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love as they believe the song is cursed.
Though writer Gerard Way has never disclosed his take on the song, ‘Drowning Lessons’ appears to be about a Groundhog Day-style scenario, in which a person forced to relive a traumatic event over and over again. The song was a regular in the band’s sets in 2004, but the band soon began to believe that it held a strange power.
"Various stuff would go wrong, everything from starting the song at different times, to amps and drums breaking," Way explained in a Reddit Q&A in 2004. "It was also too personal for me to want to sing it live." They haven’t played it since.
8. Judas Priest, 'Better By You, Better Than Me' (1978)
8. Judas Priest, 'Better By You, Better Than Me' (1978)
In 1978, rockers Judas Priest’s heavy, bluesy cover of Spooky Tooth’s ‘Better By Me, Better By You’ was released as a single but failed to make the charts in either the US or UK, seemingly destined to be a footnote in the band’s story.
But 12 years later, the track became notorious, when the parents of two young men from Reno, Nevada – 18-year-old Ray Belknap and 20-year-old James Vance – alleged that the band had placed subliminal messages in the song that encouraged their sons to enter into a suicide pact.
According to the parents, ‘Better By You, Better Than Me’ featured Rob Halford singing ‘Do it’ backwards – enough to make the two men, who’d been listening to the Priest on repeat while becoming increasingly intoxicated – take turns using a 12-gauge shotgun to attempt suicide; Belknap went first and succeeded, Vance survived the gunshot wound with a heavily disfigured face but died three years later from a methadone overdose.
The two families sued the band for a combined $6.2 million. "When the band and I first heard that this was what we were charged with, we could not believe it," Halford wrote in his 2020 memoir Confess.
"It was so far-fetched that we were baffled: Why the hell would we ever do that? Surely nobody in the world could take this rubbish seriously?" The case was eventually dismissed, but cost the band an estimated $250,000 in legal costs and resulted in them dropping the song from setlists.
9. Pink Floyd, 'Echoes' (1971)
The epic psych-prog adventure ‘Echoes’, the closing track on 1971’s Meddle, is one of Pink Floyd’s most beloved songs and was a key part of their live set until the mid-’70s. Yet, guitarist David Gilmour has revealed that he has no plans to play the 23-minute epic again following the death of keyboardist Richard Wright in 2008 (Gilmour and Wright wrote the music, Roger Waters the words).
"I wouldn’t do that without Rick," Gilmour told Rolling Stone in 2016. "There’s something that’s specifically so individual about the way that Rick and I play in that, that you can’t get someone to learn it and do it just like that. That’s not what music’s about."
10. Radiohead, 'High And Dry' (1995)
If pressed to name a Radiohead hit that the band refuse to play anymore, most non-hardcore fans would probably guess ‘Creep’. But while they’ve spent long periods without playing their 1992 breakthrough single live, there is always an outside chance that it might make an appearance. ‘High And Dry’ though, that’s a different story.
Singer Thom Yorke wrote ‘High And Dry’ back in his university days and in 1993, Radiohead tried recording it for their debut album, Pablo Honey, but it fell flat. "We thought it was rubbish," Yorke told Billboard, "it was too Rod Stewart or something."
It ended up being released on their second album, The Bends – from Yorke’s passionate, totally committed performance, you’d never know he had a problem with it But clearly he did, as he told Pitchfork in 2006, "I had my arm twisted on ‘High and Dry’… It’s not bad, you know. It’s not bad... it's very bad [Laughs]."
Meanwhile, guitarist Jonny Greenwood was slightly more generous, claiming, "It reminded me of that song ‘Mull Of Kintyre’. That really horrible kind of single, but in a nice way. It was one of those songs that people hopefully would be playing as soon as they learned guitar or something."
The Bends was an international best seller, with ‘High And Dry’ reaching No 78 in the US when it was released in February 1995. But the last time Radiohead played it was in January 1998. Something tells us that’s not changing any time soon.
11. Foo Fighters, 'Big Me' (1995)
US grunge-pop heroes Foo Fighters brought this one on themselves. The video for their 1995 single ‘Big Me’ saw the band sending up US TV adverts for the minty chew, Mentos.
Just as Ringo Starr was pelted with Jelly Babies at early US Beatles shows when the drummer spoke of his love for the sweets, the Foos fans took the band’s video as their cue to greet the opening chords of ‘Big Me’ with an onslaught of mints.
"We did stop playing that song for a while because, honestly, it’s like being stoned," said singer Dave Grohl in 2006. "Those little things are like pebbles. They hurt… I wish they were like marshmallows or something."
‘Big Me’ was taken out of retirement following a 2005 co-headline tour with Weezer, when Rivers Cuomo asked Grohl if his band could play the song in their set. Grohl claims that seeing Weezer play his song made him realise how much he missed it – saying that he wanted to see if his touring partners would be treated to a minty fresh hailstorm before deciding whether he’d revisit it.
12. Sinéad O'Connor, 'Nothing Compares 2 U' (1990)
In 2015, the great Sinead O’Connor announced that she’d no longer be performing ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’, the Prince cover which brought her global success when released in 1990. A 2014 interview with The Guardian underlined how O’Connor felt about the song "Well, it’s brilliant," she said.
"I certainly understand that about ‘Nothing Compares 2 U. Everyone remembers where they were and what was going on in their life at the time they heard it – whether they loved someone or didn’t love someone."
Typically for the principled singer, her reason for putting the song to one side was down to integrity. "OK, the time has come for me to cease singing ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’," she wrote in a 2015 social media post.
"The first principle of the manner in which I’m trained as a singer (bel canto) is we never sing a song we don’t emotionally identify with. I don’t want audiences to be disappointed coming along to a show and then not hearing it, so I am letting you know here that you won’t.
"If I were to sing it just to please people, I wouldn’t be doing my job right, because my job is to be emotionally available. I’d be lying. You’d be getting a lie. My job is to give you honesty. I’m trained in honesty. I can’t act. It just isn’t in my training. I have ceased singing other songs over the years for the same reason."
By 2020, O’Connor felt able to perform the song and brought it back for her final tour, playing it at her last-ever gig, at the Rio Theatre, Santa Cruz, California on 12 February 2020.
13. Frank Sinatra, 'Strangers In The Night' (1966)
Written by Charles Singleton and Eddie Snyder, and composed by Bert Kampert, ‘Strangers In The Night’ was one of Frank Sinatra’s biggest hits and – aside from ‘My Way’, the song he is most associated with. His version was a US No 1 and his loyal fans never tired of hearing him sing it. Which was a problem, because Sinatra always hated it.
And though he never retired the song completely from his live sets, he made his distaste for it crystal clear. At a 1975 show in Jerusalem, Sinatra introduced it by saying, "I just cannot stand this song, but what the hell."
Nearly two decades later, his feelings hadn’t mellowed – at a 1993 show in Connecticut he told the audience, "This is a song that I absolutely detested the first time I heard it. And strangely enough I keep saying to myself 'Why are you still singing this song?'" So while it doesn’t quite fit our remit of songs that artists stopped playing, it certainly deserves a mention!
14. Bobby McFerrin, 'Don't Worry, Be Happy' (1988)
As the ’80s progressed, vocalist Bobby McFerrin was steadily building an audience for his unique approach to jazz – using his multi-tracked vocals to imitate every instrument. He played with Herbie Hancock and, in 1984 and 1985 was voted Best Male Vocalist by the prestigious DownBeat magazine.
But everything changed in 1988, when a slogan he saw on a poster inspired ‘Don’t Worry, Be Happy’, a joyful song recorded in just three hours. McFerrin had seen the Steve Martin comedy The Three Amigos the previous evening, explaining some of the zany accents he uses in the track.
A San Diego radio station picked up on the song and – helped along by its use in the Tom Cruise vehicle Cocktail and a video starring Robin Williams – it went on to become the first (and only to date) a cappella single to top the US chart.
The following year, McFerrin won Grammys for Best Male Vocal, Song Of The Year and Album Of The Year, but the track was tainted for the singer when Republican candidate George Bush Sr used it during his election campaign – McFerrin was a democrat and spoke out against Bush for using his song. Around this point, McFerrin stopped performing the song entirely.
"I’m grateful the song means so much to so many people, and I’m grateful that it helped me reach some people who otherwise probably would not have come out to hear an improvising singer do solo concerts!," McFerrin told GigCity in 2014.
"But it’s a multi-tracked studio recording, seven tracks. I couldn’t do that version live. And by the time it became a hit I’d already sung it so many times I was ready to move on. There are other things I want to sing for people, and with them."
15. Prince, '1999' (1982)
One evening in the early ’80s, Prince and his band the Revolution were killing time on tour by watching the HBO documentary The Man Who Saw Tomorrow – a film about Nostradamus’ bleak predictions for the coming decades.
While his bandmate spiralled into end-of-days dread, Prince was inspired to write ‘1999’, a song which revelled in the idea of one final, extremely funky, blow-out when confronted with the extinction of the planet. ‘1999’ was a massive hit and soon became a cornerstone of his live set.
But 17 years later, with the millennium fast approaching, Prince announced that he would retire the song at the close of Rave Un2 The Year 2000, a pay-per-view concert that would air on 31 December.
"This is going to be the last time we play it," he said during an appearance on CBS’ The Early Show. "We’re going to retire it after this, and there won’t be no need to play it in the 00s."
For seven years, he was true to his word, but the song was brought back for his legendary appearance at the 2007 Super Bowl half-time show and soon became a crucial part of his live sets once more.
All photos Getty Images
Top image Prince on 9th December 1982 in Chicago
