History WhatCouldHaveBeen / Music

* Britney Spears was going to do a Jazz/Rock song writer record called Original Doll in 2005 before it was cancelled by the record company. Fans still feel they are owed that!

*** On the subject of Cliff Burton, one must wonder how far into the ProgressiveMetal direction he was leading {{Metallica}} in would they have traveled had he not died in a literal BusCrash.
*** Before ''[[GunsNRoses Appetite For Destruction]]'' was released Slash spent a lot of time hanging out with Mustaine. They smoked crack and wrote music and Slash joining Megadeth was a serious possibility for a brief period of time.
*** After Burton's death, [[{{Primus}} Les Claypool]] auditioned to play bass with Metallica. James Hetfield would later say he didn't get the job because "he was too good" and "should do his own thing".
*** Whilst not being tragic a loss to the history ''musically'', it recently came up in interviews that {{Hulk Hogan}} attempted to audition for the part. Even ''more'' surreal is the fact he later tried to do the same with ''{{The Rolling Stones}}''

** Don't forget that while they were taking ''In the Court of the Crimson King'' on tour, Robert Fripp actually offered to resign from the group to settle the creative bustups they were having. But Michael Giles and Ian [=McDonald=] rejected this offer and resigned themselves. Also, Greg Lake actually quit to join ELP before recording started on ''In the Wake of Poseidon'', and appeared on the album as a session vocalist only. So, if Giles or [=McDonald=] had accepted Fripp's resignation, Anderson, Ferry or Elton could have ended up ''running'' King Crimson.

* [[SmashingPumpkins Billy Corgan]] was once working on backing music for a Shaquille O'Neal rap album (At his own publisher's suggestion). Around the same time, David Lynch wanted a new Smashing Pumpkins song for LostHighway, but didn't like their original contribution, "Tear". So Corgan took the electronic instrumental he intended to submit to the Shaq album, built it into a more-electronic-than-usual Smashing Pumpkins song, and the resulting song "Eye" appeared in LostHighway instead. Would ''Adore'' still be a NewSoundAlbum if "Tear" was released on the LostHighway soundtrack and fared less well on the radio than "Eye" did? Perhaps more importantly, what on earth would "Eye" sound like with Shaq rapping over it?

* PinkFloyd originally planned their followup to ''Dark Side of the Moon'' to be something called ''Household Objects'' where they would play things like saucers and pieces of string as instruments. They abandoned it after only a few recordings, with the only surviving recording being the recording of tuned wine glasses that appears at the beginning of "Shine On You Crazy Diamond". ''Another'' possible follow up to ''Dark Side'' was the soundtrack to the afformentioned Alejandro Jodorowsky-helmed ''{{Dune}}'' film that never saw the light of day.

* [Freddie Mercury had a lot of those: in mid-70's, there'd been plans for a singing trio called Nose, Teeth and Hair including Elton John, himself and Rod Stewart, but it never happened (he once jokingly stated they could never agree on the order of the words). He'd also been scheduled to appear on ''Thriller'' and to sing with Michael on ''State of Shock'' (there's even a demo of the latter) as well as doing the title track of the ''Victory'' album (which remains unreleased). Michael was supposed to guest on Freddie's solo song ''There Must Be More to Life Than This'' (again, there's a surviving demo).
** Speaking of {{Queen}}: ''Another One Bites the Dust'' was supposed to be about cowboys (there's also a legend that John wrote it for MJ, but it's a lie), ''Prophet's Song'' was supposed to be a guitar extravaganza, not a vocal one, ''Procession'' was to include timpani and orchestral cymbals, etc.

* Hendrix, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, anyone? By 1970, when Keith Emerson and Greg Lake were looking to complete their lineup, Jimi Hendrix was tired of the whole Experience thing and looking for something different. He started discussions with them after they tried to headhunt his drummer (they later recruited Carl Palmer from Atomic Rooster). We can only speculate where things might have lead if Jimi hadn't died soon afterward.

* After Greg Lake left KingCrimson, among those auditioning as the band's new lead singer were several (then-) unknowns: Yes singer Jon Anderson, future RoxyMusic singer Bryan Ferry and a session pianist and struggling songwriter known professionally as EltonJohn. The part was eventually given to singer-songwriter Gordon Haskell, but Anderson gives us a peep of what it could have been like, he sings on "Prince Rupert Awakes" from the resulting album, ''Lizard.''

* Vangelis was offered a spot in the group Yes. However, he turned it down to go solo. Had Vangelis accepted, we probably would have never gotten the scores to ''Chariots of Fire'' or ''BladeRunner''.
** It probably would have also resulted in a very different Yes, if his album 666 is any indication.

* [[SmashingPumpkins Billy Corgan]] was once working on backing music for a Shaquille O'Neal rap album (At his own publisher's suggestion). Around the same time, David Lynch wanted a new Smashing Pumpkins song for LostHighway, but didn't like their original contribution, "Tear". So Corgan took the electronic instrumental he intended to submit to the Shaq album, built it into a more-electronic-than-usual Smashing Pumpkins song, and the resulting song "Eye" appeared in LostHighway instead. Would ''Adore'' still be a NewSoundAlbum if "Tear" was released on the LostHighway soundtrack and fared less well on the radio than "Eye" was? Perhaps more importantly, what on earth would "Eye" sound like with Shaq rapping over it?

* [[SmashingPumpkins Billy Corgan]] was once working on backing music for a Shaquille O'Neal rap album (At Corgan's publisher's suggestion). Around the same time, David Lynch wanted a new Smashing Pumpkins song for LostHighway, but didn't like their original contribution, "Tear". So Corgan took the electronic instrumental he intended to submit to the Shaq album, built it into a more-electronic-than-usual Smashing Pumpkins song, and the resulting song "Eye" appeared in LostHighway instead. Would ''Adore'' still be a NewSoundAlbum if "Tear" was released on the LostHighway soundtrack and fared less well on the radio than "Eye" was? Perhaps more importantly, what on earth would "Eye" sound like with Shaq rapping over it?

** Later on, Waters's original plans and demos for the epic ''{{The Wall}}'' included the album filling out ''three'' LP's and a worldwide tour in "a giant inflatable slug", according to Nick Mason's book on his time in the band, ''Inside Out''. Ultimately, due to financial reasons and the sheer insanity of Water's ambitions, the album's length was cut by a third and the tour only consisted of a string of residencies in New York City, Los Angeles, and London (which still ended up losing the band money because of the previously unheard of expense of the shows).
* Freddie Mercury had a lot of those: in mid-70's, there'd been plans for a singing trio called Nose, Teeth and Hair including Elton John, himself and Rod Stewart, but it never happened (he once jokingly stated they could never agree on the order of the words). He'd also been scheduled to appear on ''Thriller'' and to sing with Michael on ''State of Shock'' (there's even a demo of the latter) as well as doing the title track of the ''Victory'' album (which remains unreleased). Michael was supposed to guest on Freddie's solo song ''There Must Be More to Life Than This'' (again, there's a surviving demo).
** Speaking of Queen: ''Another One Bites the Dust'' was supposed to be about cowboys (there's also a legend that John wrote it for MJ, but it's a lie), ''Prophet's Song'' was supposed to be a guitar extravaganza, not a vocal one, ''Procession'' was to include timpani and orchestral cymbals, etc.
** As Brian May and Roger Taylor have observed, there are also numerous tracks from ''The Miracle'' and ''Innuendo'' which would have been good [[AudienceParticipationSong Audience Participation Songs]] if Freddie hadn't become too sick to perform live by 1989. As well as that, there was the persistent rumour in the mid-nineties that GeorgeMichael could be the new singer for Queen.

** Pictured above is a snippet from the rehearsals of his upcoming ''This Is It'' tour. [[AuthorExistenceFailure Which he unfortunately did not live to do so.]] Luckily, {{Sony}} compiled all the rehearsals and make it into a two-hour movie. And now everyone's happy.
** MJ's song "Bad" was originally supposed to be a duet with The Artist Formerly Known as The Artist Formerly Known as Prince. Prince turned down the offer because he felt the song was excellent with just Michael singing.

* {{The Beatles}} recorded ''Strawberry Fields Forever'' and ''Penny Lane'' in the ''Sgt. Pepper'' sessions and planned to release them on the album. However, [[ExecutiveMeddling the record company]] wanted a new single in the meantime. The Beatles didn't release singles prior to them appearing on an album, so they were left off. George Martin later viewed this as a mistake. And he was quite right.
** In fact, "Strawberry Fields Forever" stopped another What Could Have Been: the Beach Boys' album ''Smile''. Brian Wilson worked so hard on the album, which was supposed to be like "Good Vibrations" except much, much more...and then he heard the Beatles' song and halted work on the project. This also might have been one of the causes of Brian Wilson's insanity.
** [[{{ThePeteBest}} Pete Best's]] ENTIRE LIFE can basically be summed up by this trope.

** Let it Be was originally supposed to be a return to the band's original sound, recorded alongside a documentary, and culminating as a live album. Instead, the documentary was less of the creation of an album and more the end of a band, the live show was on a rooftop, and the tapes were given to Phil Spector, who added strings and his trademark lush sound.

*** Before Appetite For Destruction was released Slash spent a lot of time hanging out with Mustaine. They smoked crack and wrote music and Slash joining Megadeth was a serious possibility for a brief period of time.

* In the months before John Lennon's death, the Beatles had been teasing in interviews about the band reuniting for a Reunion Tour. That's right, the Beatles were planning to reunite in 1980. Then along came [[UnderStatement some arsehole]] who read The Catcher in the Rye way too much...

* Weezer's second album was originally going to be an ambitious RockOpera with a science fiction backdrop, entitled ''Songs From The Black Hole''. It was hinted that this was scrapped because Matt Sharp's side project The Rentals released their debut first, and the two albums would have sounded too similar to each other due to prominent use of moog and female vocals. Some of the material intended for it worked well enough out of context to become ''Pinkerton'' album tracks or b-sides, but the rest of the material was never recorded by the band, though it was all sketched out in home demo form by Rivers Cuomo. These demos are being gradually portioned out in Rivers Cuomo's ''Alone'' solo releases, and for a spell he even took to posting lyrics and sheet music to unheard songs from the project online so fans can do their own versions.

* {{Megadeth}} frontman Dave Mustaine once offered Dimebag Darrell Abbot a spot in the band as lead guitarist. Dimebag turned it down, as he wouldn't play without his brother, Vinnie Paul Abbot, and the position of drummer in Megadeth was already filled. Dime and Vinnie Paul carried on with their own band, Pantera, who is often named as the only band that carried heavy metal through the days of grunge.

*** Whilst not being tragic a loss to the history ''musically'', it recently came up in interviews that {{Hulk Hogan}} attempted to audition for the part. even ''more'' surreal is the fact he later tried to do the same with ''{{The Rolling Stones}}''

* Music/{{Beck}} was originally slated to sing on one track of The Melvins' ''The Crybaby'' - next to {{Tool}} he would have been the biggest name on the guest-appearance-heavy album. Beck reportedly expressed interest in doing it (he's apparently somewhat of a fan, as he sampled The Melvins' "Hog Leg" in "Beercan" and got Buzz Osborne to make a cameo in the video), but some record label issues prevented the collaboration from happening.

** ''Let it Be... Naked'' is Paul McCartney's redo of it that removes the Spector element.

** Don't forget that while they were taking ''In the Court of the Crimson King'' on tour, Robert Fripp actually offered to resign from the group to settle the creative bustups they were having. But Michael Giles and Ian McDonald rejected this offer and resigned themselves. Also, Greg Lake actually quit to join ELP before recording started on ''In the Wake of Poseidon'', and appeared on the album as a session vocalist only. So, if Giles or McDonald had accepted Fripp's resignation, Anderson, Ferry or Elton could have ended up ''running'' King Crimson.

** As Brian May and Roger Taylor have observed, there are also numerous tracks from ''The Miracle'' and ''Innuendo'' which would have been good [[AudienceParticipationSong]]s if Freddie hadn't become too sick to perform live by 1989. As well as that, there was the persistent rumour in the mid-nineties that GeorgeMichael could be the new singer for Queen.

* {{Beck}} was originally slated to sing on one track of The Melvins' ''The Crybaby'' - next to {{Tool}} he would have been the biggest name on the guest-appearance-heavy album. Beck reportedly expressed interest in doing it (he's apparently somewhat of a fan, as he sampled The Melvins' "Hog Leg" in "Beercan" and got Buzz Osborne to make a cameo in the video), but some record label issues prevented the collaboration from happening.

* {{Beck}} was originally slated to make an appearance on The Melvins' ''The Crybaby'' - next to {{Tool}} he would have been the biggest name on the guest-appearance-heavy album. Beck reportedly expressed interest in doing it (he's apparently somewhat of a fan, as he sampled The Melvins' "Hog Leg" in "Beercan" and got Buzz Osborne to make a cameo in the video), but some record label issues prevented the collaboration from happening.

** It probably would have also resulted in a very different Yes too, if his album 666 is any indication.

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