# Whose artist's death robbed us of the best (future) hits by this person? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** music\ **Created:** [July 18, 2023, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whose-artists-death-robbed-us-of-the-best-future-hits-by-this-person/987232 "2023-07-18T23:37:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2023, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whose-artists-death-robbed-us-of-the-best-future-hits-by-this-person/987232/121 "2023-07-20T23:33:01Z")
> [@Jay\_Z](#): > > With as fast moving as things were at the time, I think “Oldies Circuit” is probably the most likely outcome. Or a transition into Country records like so many Rockabilly artists of the 50s (including Holly’s last bass player, Waylon Jennings.) ---
**Author:** ![Disinfectus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/disinfectus/32/11085_2.png) [@Disinfectus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Disinfectus)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2023, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whose-artists-death-robbed-us-of-the-best-future-hits-by-this-person/987232/122 "2023-07-20T23:44:14Z")
Drummer [Jeff Porcaro](https://www.wikipedia.com/en/Jeff_Porcaro) was considered one of the best on the planet. He was drumming on The Sonny and Cher show at 17, playing with Steely Dan before he was out of his teens. Over the next 20 years, he was one of the most in-demand drummers in the industry, playing on countless albums for other artists as well as drumming for the rock band he founded, Toto. His discography is nothing less than astounding. He died at the young age of 38, not long before the music industry as he knew it would forever change, eliminating musicians in favor of machines. In a way, I’m glad he never saw what it became. But I also believe he might have prolonged the demise, because he had the Midas touch when it came to turning songs into hits. Anyone in their right mind would have rather had Jeff on a track than a machine. We were all robbed of an immense talent on the day he died. You might not know his name but you’ve heard him thousands of times. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2023, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whose-artists-death-robbed-us-of-the-best-future-hits-by-this-person/987232/123 "2023-07-21T02:04:17Z")
> [@Wilson](#): > > Franz Schubert is another classical composer who died way too young (31 in his case). Indeed, and it’s quite possible that, at the time he died, his best and/or most popular work would have been still ahead. You might say something similar about Felix Mendelssohn, who died at 38. Another rocker who hasn’t been mentioned yet: [Terry Kath](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Kath), of Chicago (the band), who died at 31. ---
**Author:** ![Al128](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/al128/32/16541_2.png) [@Al128](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Al128)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2023, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whose-artists-death-robbed-us-of-the-best-future-hits-by-this-person/987232/124 "2023-07-21T03:12:12Z")
> [@Jasmine](#): > > I’m thinking it was John Lennon because he was assassinated at an age where he should have had decades more in which he would have been wonderfully creative. donno - the same could be said about Macca … and what GOOD stuff did Paul create after 1980 (year JL was killed).?? I wish no bad on anybody, but from a pure musical POV, Macca could as well have also been gunned down in 1980 and his relevant ouvre would be pretty much unchanged to what it is now. The same holds truefor the Stones, The Who, Deep Purple, Carlos Santana, etc… …hugely important and creative bands, but it seems once you go past the age of 30 and become part of the “music machinery” it becomes a the equivalent of a cushy office JOB ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2023, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whose-artists-death-robbed-us-of-the-best-future-hits-by-this-person/987232/125 "2023-07-21T03:21:27Z")
> [@Al128](#): > > what GOOD stuff did Paul create after 1980 All of Paul’s post-Beatle output has been uneven, but I don’t see that his post-1980 work has been, on the whole, any worse than the pre-1980 stuff. I looked at a bunch of different online “McCartney Albums ranked” lists, and aside from _Band on the Run_ and _Ram_ coming in at or near the top, I didn’t see any chronological order to the list; most of them had several post-1980 albums ranked fairly high. ---
**Author:** ![Al128](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/al128/32/16541_2.png) [@Al128](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Al128)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2023, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whose-artists-death-robbed-us-of-the-best-future-hits-by-this-person/987232/126 "2023-07-21T03:29:29Z")
his 60ies work was really great, (i got the feeling the world never knew how much of the Beatles owe to G. Martin) his 70ies also (but only partly, but as you mention BOTR, live and let die, and basically all his relevant Wings output is from this decade… and that makes for a very enjoyable “wings - best hits” album Except for those awful 80ies duets with Michael Jackson (one of the few music pieces I actively hate), I could not name a song he did after 1980 … he was pretty good riding the gravy train for the past 40 years … ---
**Author:** ![Jay\_Z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Jay\_Z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jay_Z)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2023, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whose-artists-death-robbed-us-of-the-best-future-hits-by-this-person/987232/127 "2023-07-21T06:04:21Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > All of Paul’s post-Beatle output has been uneven, but I don’t see that his post-1980 work has been, on the whole, any worse than the pre-1980 stuff. I looked at a bunch of different online “McCartney Albums ranked” lists, and aside from _Band on the Run_ and _Ram_ coming in at or near the top, I didn’t see any chronological order to the list; most of them had several post-1980 albums ranked fairly high. As a hitmaker, though, McCartney was in a decline phase from about 1975 on. The late 1970s albums didn’t sell quite as well as those earlier in the decade. By the early 1980s he had to resort to duets with other top artists to score hits. By the mid 1980s he’d scored his last top 10 hit for quite a while (“Spies Like Us”) and his first flop album (“Press To Play.”) ---
**Author:** ![Toxylon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f05b48/32.png) [@Toxylon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxylon)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2023, 8:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whose-artists-death-robbed-us-of-the-best-future-hits-by-this-person/987232/128 "2023-07-21T08:21:38Z")
No More Lonely Nights (released Sep.'84) went to No 6 in the U.S. and to No 2 in the UK, and was played everywhere. ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2023, 8:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whose-artists-death-robbed-us-of-the-best-future-hits-by-this-person/987232/129 "2023-07-21T08:49:17Z")
> [@74westy](#): > > Yeah. The headline refers to “hits”. For all his musical genius, Hendrix only had one hit in his career. Though the same could be said for Bowie in his early years, in fact had he died at 27 he’d basically be a one hit wonder. Hendrix was far more groundbreaking and innovative than Bowie was in his early years. And there are plenty of songs that weren’t hits in is life time went on to make millions after his death (and are rightly considered masterpieces), it’s pretty churlish to consider them as “not hits”. ---
**Author:** ![Toxylon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f05b48/32.png) [@Toxylon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxylon)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2023, 10:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whose-artists-death-robbed-us-of-the-best-future-hits-by-this-person/987232/130 "2023-07-21T10:49:51Z")
Bowie at 27 a one-hit wonder? A claim with no basis in reality. Bowie’s first hit song was Space Oddity, released when he was 22. The next year he would release the album and song The Man Who Sold The World, which were not chart successes, but proved classics nonetheless. The Rise and Fall… was released in mid-1972, when Bowie was 25. It catapulted him to superstardom, arguably the world’s biggest and hottest act. It also made Hunky Dory from the previous year shoot up the charts, to the Top 3, on both albums and singles charts. Between just those two albums there are easily a dozen songs that have proven classics through and through, and are known by any music lover. Before leaving 27, Bowie would make Aladdin Sane (a No 1 album with two Top Three singles hits) and Diamond Dogs (a No 1 album with a Top 5 hit singles hit), no need to count the compilation and covers albums. Off Wiki: “By 1973, [David Bowie](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Bowie) was at his commercial peak. At the end of July, five of his six albums were in the top 40 and three were in the top 15, according to biographer David Buckley, an “unprecedented feat” for a solo artist.” By 1973 Bowie was 26 and as far from a one hit wonder as can be. ---
**Author:** ![74westy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/74westy/32/3950_2.png) [@74westy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/74westy)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2023, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whose-artists-death-robbed-us-of-the-best-future-hits-by-this-person/987232/131 "2023-07-21T14:37:18Z")
> [@griffin1977](#): > > And there are plenty of songs that weren’t hits in is life time went on to make millions after his death (and are rightly considered masterpieces), it’s pretty churlish to consider them as “not hits”. I guess my point was that the word “hit” has a specific meaning and it doesn’t necessarily mean “musically great” or “influential” or “masterpiece”. It has to do with popularity as distinct from inherent worth. Vincent van Gogh sold, I think, two paintings during his life. I hope you don’t consider pointing that out to be a criticism of his work or an assertion that he would not have created unimaginably great work if he had survived. > [@Ecclesiastes 9:11-12](#): > > I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all. ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2023, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whose-artists-death-robbed-us-of-the-best-future-hits-by-this-person/987232/132 "2023-07-22T00:36:32Z")
> [@74westy](#): > > Vincent van Gogh sold, I think, two paintings during his life. Actually he sold hundreds of paintings - he worked in a gallery, after all. Only one was _his_, though. ---
**Author:** ![Moonrise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moonrise/32/14764_2.png) [@Moonrise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moonrise)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2023, 8:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whose-artists-death-robbed-us-of-the-best-future-hits-by-this-person/987232/133 "2023-07-22T08:11:44Z")
Another classical music composer whose best works were still to come is [Guillaume Lekeu](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guillaume_Lekeu). Influenced by **Franck** and **D’Indy** , his music was nonetheless very oringinal and highly respected by his peers. In his own words : “Even more, it will be weird, mad, horrible, anything you like, but at least it will be original” His _violin sonata_ is thought to be the inspiration for the imaginary _Vinteuil Sonata_ **Proust** wrote about. ---
**Author:** ![Steven\_Maven](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steven_maven/32/3272_2.png) [@Steven\_Maven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steven_Maven)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2023, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whose-artists-death-robbed-us-of-the-best-future-hits-by-this-person/987232/134 "2023-07-22T16:36:02Z")
> [@Toxylon](#): > > Bowie was… as far from a one hit wonder as can be. You are correct! My David Bowie playlist on Apple Music, subtitled “Radio Friendly,” is 26 songs. The die-hard fans would probably nominate several more. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2023, 8:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whose-artists-death-robbed-us-of-the-best-future-hits-by-this-person/987232/135 "2023-07-26T08:37:25Z")
> [@Jay\_Z](#): > > As a hitmaker, though, McCartney was in a decline phase from about 1975 on. The late 1970s albums didn’t sell quite as well as those earlier in the decade. By the early 1980s he had to resort to duets with other top artists to score hits. By the mid 1980s he’d scored his last top 10 hit for quite a while (“Spies Like Us”) and his first flop album (“Press To Play.”) “My Brave Face” (1989) was an exception - that was pretty good and made the charts. Everything else, though… ---
**Author:** ![JohnnyEcks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnnyecks/32/18197_2.png) [@JohnnyEcks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnnyEcks)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2023, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whose-artists-death-robbed-us-of-the-best-future-hits-by-this-person/987232/136 "2023-07-26T12:45:28Z")
The sad reality is that we’ll never know. > **[97-Year-Old Dies Unaware Of Being Violin Prodigy](https://www.theonion.com/97-year-old-dies-unaware-of-being-violin-prodigy-1819571799)** > > ROCKFORD, IL—Retired post office branch manager Nancy Hollander, 97, died at her home of natural causes Tuesday, after spending her life completely unaware that she was one of the most talented musicians of the past century and possessed the untapped... ---
**Author:** ![veryfrank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/87869e/32.png) [@veryfrank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/veryfrank)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2023, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whose-artists-death-robbed-us-of-the-best-future-hits-by-this-person/987232/137 "2023-07-26T14:39:45Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > > [@Jay\_Z](#): > > > > As a hitmaker, though, McCartney was in a decline phase from about 1975 on. The late 1970s albums didn’t sell quite as well as those earlier in the decade. By the early 1980s he had to resort to duets with other top artists to score hits. By the mid 1980s he’d scored his last top 10 hit for quite a while (“Spies Like Us”) and his first flop album (“Press To Play.”) > > “My Brave Face” (1989) was an exception - that was pretty good and made the charts. Everything else, though… I quite like the single “Press” and the whole _Flowers in the Dirt_ album (“My Brave Face” was the leadoff single from that one) is terrific. I really enjoy his recent albums in the moment, by which I mean, while the CD is spinning I’m thinking it’s a solid piece of product. But I can’t hum a thing off of any of them. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2023, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whose-artists-death-robbed-us-of-the-best-future-hits-by-this-person/987232/138 "2023-07-26T14:56:17Z")
Whatever you think of their quality, McCartney’s recent albums have been commercially successful enough that it’s fair to call them “hits.” > **[McCartney III | Commercial performance](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCartney_III#Commercial_performance)** > > McCartney III had strong sales internationally. The album debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart on 25 December 2020, marking his first number-one solo album in his home country in 31 years (since 1989's Flowers in the Dirt). The album reached the top spot by selling 33,079 album-equivalent units. The album also reached the top 10 of many other European markets. > In the US, the album debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 with 107,000 equivalent album units, of which 104,000 were album ... ---
**Author:** ![Al128](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/al128/32/16541_2.png) [@Al128](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Al128)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2023, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whose-artists-death-robbed-us-of-the-best-future-hits-by-this-person/987232/139 "2023-07-26T16:46:22Z")
_The album reached the top spot by selling 33,079 album-equivalent units_ there is your answer … IIRC, a gold record in the USA was 500.000 sold albums … at one time (i know, media usage has changed) … but at $10 a piece, Macca could have bought all 33.000 albums for the pittance of $330.000,- and reach number-one place … 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/face_intentionally_left_blank/32/288_2.png) [@Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Face_Intentionally_Left_Blank)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2023, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whose-artists-death-robbed-us-of-the-best-future-hits-by-this-person/987232/140 "2023-08-01T03:57:39Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Another rocker who hasn’t been mentioned yet: [Terry Kath](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Kath), of Chicago (the band), who died at 31. The first one here that really caught my eye. 31 is far too young for such a talent to pass. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whose-artists-death-robbed-us-of-the-best-future-hits-by-this-person/987232.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whose-artists-death-robbed-us-of-the-best-future-hits-by-this-person/987232.md?page=8)