Someone mentioned Barbara Mandrell in another thread, and it got me wondering about her career. Although she was classified as a country singer, she did a number of R&B covers that both sound very convincing and don’t have a shred of country in them. Would she have been better off artistically being a straight R&B singer? (I can totally understand the issues she’d have commercially.) What musician have you heard that made you say “they’d be much better playing a different type of music”?
Charlie Watts is, of course, best known for being the drummer for The Rolling Stones. He’s an excellent rock drummer, but is an even better jazz drummer in my opinion.
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I’ve seen some of his jazz work and, well, it leaves a lot to be desired, IMHO. Maybe I’m just watching the wrong videos. Like this video.
His cool, laid-back style works great with the Stones, though.
It’s been mentioned by Dopers that Billy Joel should have been a Broadway composer — a sort of Sondheim, I suppose.
Jethro Tull really shouldn’t have been “Heavy Metal” for ten minutes back in 1988…
(how the hell they won a Grammy for that, over Metallica yet…)
Here’s a more thorough take on it.
Yes. That’s a good one. I’m one of those people who have said that his music always sounded to me like “rock” music as envisioned by someone writing for Broadway.
Roy Clark was a guitar virtuoso that could play anything, check out his spanish/classical stuff Link
IMO he wasted a lot of time on silly ‘pickin & grinnin’ folk/country.
Listen to some early Black Sabbath, and you’ll hear some great, bluesy bass lines by Geezer Butler. IMO he would have been a great blues player.
I once made the mistake of buying one of his solo albums. I listened to the first 10 minutes of it then threw it way - it was hard rock garbage. If he put out a blues album, I would buy it in a nanosecond.
Crystal Gayle was called country because she was Loretta Lynn’s sister, but Crystal was about as country as Karen Carpenter.
Whatever they classed Linda Rondstat as, she’d do something else completely different.
Pickin’ and grinnin’ all the way to the bank… Hee haw was a big deal, for a lot longer than most people realize.
Check him out on an episode of The Odd Couple flamenco-ing. I barely remember it, but it may have been Malaguena like the previous link.
Ringo Starr could’ve done well in country, IMO.
I just watched the Stones doing a concert on PBS. They did the whole album ‘Sticky Fingers’ alot of it sounds country.
Levon Helm shoulda went country.
That’s not jazz, that’s woogy boogy. Kind of like when the Stones did Down The Road A Piece.
Rock lost a great guitarist when Frampton left Humble Pie and went pop.
Well, boogie woogie is a jazz subgenre, as far as I’m concerned. But, anyhow, I know some people love him as a jazz drummer, but listening to his work with his quartet or quintet, I haven’t really been impressed by anything I’ve heard. I guess he kind of brings to jazz what he brought to rock – a restrained, coolness. But I just find it works better in the rock context.
Dude. You couldn’t have picked a worse example. Barbara Mandrell was country, when country wasn’t cool.**
Johann Sebastian Bach should have been the keyboardist for Phish.
I’m not sure this is quite what the OP had in mind, but I’m quite certain that if the Eagles had been formed in 1991 instead of 1971, they would have burned up the Country charts, but would never have received airplay on any rock station.
Well, part of that would be because they were a big part of “Country Rock” being embraced by the “Album Oriented Rock” crowd… if they hadn’t formed til '91, that might not even be a viable genre.
Not sure Buffalo Springfield and Poco and Firefall would’ve been enough to make those hippies and “I hate Top 40” types start loving country-tinged music.
Now, in the spirit of the OP, should Joe Walsh have switched from Rock ‘n’ Roll to Countryish Rock? I would’ve told him “No, are you crazy?! Remember James Gang? You’re a guitar god, you need to get back out on the road!” But, as it turned out, it’s a good thing he never asked me – he did okay.
elvis Costello would have no problem going straight George jones/randy travis country for the rest of his career as he has in past albums
And hed have the backing of old school Nashville too
Don’t try to lay no “Woo-gie Boo-gie” on the King of Rock n’ Roll. 
Don’t forget Graham Parsons!