songs that became hits in demo form

I just learned that Bob Seger's "Old Time Rock and Roll" was essentially a demo with new vocals, and I got to thinking about other songs that became hits as demos. I think Buddy Holly's "That'll Be the Day" is an example. Tommy James' "Crimson and Clover" was a rough mix that some radio guys copied and released on their own. The guy from Quiet Riot claims his vocals on "Cum on Feel the Noize" were just rough guide vocals that he intended to replace. I think a lot of the music in "Boys of Summer" was straight up Mike Campbell's demo, which Don Henley liked better than anything they tried to replace it with. There must be more ...

all of "nebraska"?

maybe not "hits" but classics

clearly the greatest example of this happening

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlW7T0SUH0E

story is that the [incoherent mumbling] parts were supposed to be filled in with actual lyrics later but someone liked the way it sounded so just released it as is

"Pumped Up Kicks," right?

oh shit, yeah, Nebraska!

I always thought "I Can't Go for That" by Hall & Oates sounded like a demo. Something about the rhythm box and the way the vocals are recorded ...

whoa now I want a box of mike Campbell demos

Demo tapes which became commercial releases AS IS

Ah, there's a thread. I have been stuck without a computer for a week, so limited by my phone.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wdo-ZiHqbls

whoa, didn't know that one

Good timing, last night's "Music to Spazz By" on WFMU was a "Demos to Spazz By" special, 3 hours of demo versions. https://www.wfmu.org/playlists/shows/97134

Also, this is a Herb Alpert reminiscence that's in Burt Bacharach's memoir.

Burt wrote the arrangement for "This Guy's in Love with You" and he was in the studio when we cut it at Gold Star Recording. In the studio, I'm the opposite of Burt. He is a perfectionist who likes everything to sound exactly the way he hears it in his hear. I close my eyes and I'm from the feel-it school. Obviously, Burt feels it as well but I take a different approach. If it feels right, I stop.

So we had the track and I wanted to see whether my voice would sound good on it. A bunch of the singers and Burt and a couple of musicians were in the control room while was doing a demo of the vocal. I did one take and went back into the control room and they all looked at me and said, "Don't touch it." I said, "What do you mean, don't touch it? That's just the demo." Burt said, "Don't touch it, man. It sounds great." I touched up a couple of things here and there but that was the take.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFU-FJzPE80

wow! amazing.

Little Eva: "The Locomotion"

Was intended as a demo for a group, but was instead released as-is.

Iirc, "Chasing Pavements" was recorded by Adele as a publishing demos, but the single may have been rerecorded.

Might be somewhat outside the artist’s control in this case but I think Jai Paul takes the crown for actually having the “(Demo)” included in the title of his best-known song
https://youtu.be/RWQMg56ZVZY