I know someone already mentioned Mozart, but I would like to elaborate.
Mozart died when he was not yet 36. Whatever he died of, it was really poverty and anxiety about being able to keep a roof over his head and food on the table that killed him. So imagine that at age 30 he had found a wonderful patron who would have provided for him and allowed him to concentrate on writing music. Imagine if he had lived long enough compose in the same era as Beethoven at his height, and how that might have spurred him to greater heights himself. We might not have the requiem under these circumstances, but think how he might have progressed and grown and innovated. He could have changed the face of the classical and then the early romantic periods. If he had lived to 65, we can imagine Mozart intersecting with Bel Canto operas. Well, that’s my dream of an alternate universe where Mozart didn’t die young.
Not so sure about future “hits” but I think Jim Morrison had some moments of poetic brilliance, and might eventually have become a more impressive writer if he’d sobered up.
There’s another perhaps interesting way to look at this topic, one I was just discussing with a friend.
Imagine a universe where, say, U2 were killed in a plane crash following the release of “Achtung Baby” in 1991. Someone from that universe visits you and says, “Wow, we must have been robbed of some amazing music over the last 30 years, huh?”
Wouldn’t you have to say, “Uh…not really.”
So, while it’s fun to imagine what kind of music Jim Croce and John Lennon might have produced had they lived, it’s also possible it wouldn’t have been all that great.
Anyway, just a fun thought experiment, and maybe a way to ask “Which musical artist died at just the right time?”
So you’re saying that you’re not picturing him in a white sequined codpiece jumpsuit, yelling “I AM the Lizard King!” in his residency at Branson, Missouri.
Okay, guess that’s just me…
eta: So he’s a prime example of “died at the right time”.
I fell the same way about Metallica. Their “Black Album” was released in 1991 as well and every thing after that was below the standards of their earlier work
Johnny Cash was 71 when he died, but he was doing the best work of his career at the time and it’s not a stretch to predict that his best was yet to come had he not shed this mortal coil.
Stevie Ray is the first one that came to mind for me first. I could have just listened to him play his early stuff for decades to come. But his early work wasn’t all he had in him. He was just starting to do his best work and expanding his style when he died.
I’m not much of a rap fan in general, but I think Tupac could have become an Elder Statesman of hip-hop if he’d gotten to stick around, and he probably could’ve done some very interesting things long after the rest of his generation got old and soft.
Absolutely Jimi Hendrix is the right answer IMO. The combination of how ground breaking his music was and early he died make it a no-brainer to me. There is far more I’d like to hear in the “alternative reality back catalog” for the reality where Hendrix got help (and got rid of his sketchy management) and lived to 2023 than any other rock and roll casualty.
Not directly relevant to the OP but it doesn’t help that he really comes across a tragic figure who was completely destroyed by the music industry, he was this spectacularly talented shy prodigy who was just chewed up and spat out by the industry (not that other contenders were not sympathetic figures but Hendrix comes across as particularly tragic to me).
Otis Redding is a contender too, simply because he was amazing but died so incredibly early in his career (there are no video recordings of him singing Dock of the Bay!)
Frank Zappa died when he was 52. Though I think he peaked in the early to mid 1970s, I’m confident he would have continued to produce excellent works for years to come, had he lived longer.
Giovanni Battista Pergolesi - Died of tuberculosis at age 26, yet in his brief lifetime he wrote some of the most influential work of the 18th century, including his intermezzo La Serva Padrona that kickstarted the whole comic opera genre, and his Stabat Mater which revolutionized the whole sacred choral form.
Lili Boulanger. Seriously - seek out her orchestral works, which were already beginning to rival Ravel, Faure and Debussy. A child prodigy, she won the prestigious Prix de Rome prize for composition at age 19 and continued to produce astounding work until her death at only 24, also of tuberculosis. (Her sister Nadia did live a long and insanely influential life, but less as a composer than as a teacher and conductor.)
Charlie Christian, who died in 1942 at 25 years of age, just as the jazz he was helping to define and develop was taking off. All the old-timers held him in high regard (Les Paul, Joe Pass, etc.)
I read that, while he was hospitalized for pneumonia, a friend visited him and they smoked a joint, which led to complications that killed him. There’s no mention of that in the Wiki entry, so maybe it’s been disproven or discredited.
The biggest potential star was Gram Parsons. He’s credited with helping to develop the country rock sound. He was in the Byrds and played a pivotal role in the making of the Sweetheart of the Rodeo. He left the Byrds in 1968.
Gram’s heroin and alcohol addiction eventually killed him. He may have been a massive star. A lot depended on getting straight and forming the right band.
Since we’re including actors, one very talented man who left us far too soon was John Candy. He was a very enjoyable comedic actor to be sure, but he had begun branching out into dramatic roles and IMO had great potential as a character actor.