History WhatCouldHaveBeen / Music

* In 1991, RecordProducer Michael Bivins was promoting a roster of vocal groups billed as the “East Coast Family” - since one of the groups in question, Music/BoyzIIMen, included {{shout out}}s to two of the others in their single "Motownphilly", the music video included [[TheCameo cameos]] from all the rest: Music/BellBivDevoe, Another Bad Creation, and Sudden Impact. Bell Biv Devoe and Another Bad Creation had already released successful albums for {{Creator/Motown}} at that point - on the other hand, Sudden Impact hadn't established themselves yet, and ultimately would break up without having released any music.

* In 1991, RecordProducer Michael Bivins was promoting a roster of vocal groups billed as the “East Coast Family” - since one of the groups in question, Music/BoyzIIMen, included {{shout out}}s to two of the others in their single "Motownphilly", the music video included [[TheCameo cameos]] from all the rest: Music/BelBivDevoe, Another Bad Creation, and Sudden Impact. Bel Biv Devoe and Another Bad Creation had already released successful albums for {{Creator/Motown}} at that point - on the other hand, Sudden Impact hadn't established themselves yet, and ultimately would break up without having released any music.

* In 1991, RecordProducer Michael Bivins was promoting a roster of vocal groups billed as the “East Coast Family” - since one of the groups in question, BoyzIIMen, included {{shout out}}s to two of the others in their single "Motownphilly", the music video included [[TheCameo cameos]] from all the rest: Music/BelBivDevoe, Another Bad Creation, and Sudden Impact. Bel Biv Devoe and Another Bad Creation had already released successful albums for {{Creator/Motown}} at that point - on the other hand, Sudden Impact hadn't established themselves yet, and ultimately would break up without having released any music.

* The song "Something to Talk About" , written by Shirley Eikhard, was first pitched to Anne Murray in 1985 - Anne herself wanted to record it, but her producers didn't see it being a hit and rejected it, though the 1986 album that would have featured the song still ended up being named after it. Six years later, the song was a hit for Music/BonnieRaitt instead.

** When asked for material to give Music/OzzyOsbourne for an album in 2000, Rivers offered a demo version of "Hash Pipe", later to become the lead-off single for Weezer's 2001 self-titled album. Conversely, Rivers wrote and sung the hook for "Magic" by rapper B.O.B., but had originally written it as a Weezer song.

** The biggest grouping of artists who could have played Woodstock are the ones who were contacted by the organizers but declined the offer. These include: Music/LedZeppelin, Music/TheByrds, Music/SimonAndGarfunkel, Music/JethroTull, Music/TheBeachBoys, Music/{{The Rolling Stones|Band}}, Music/FrankZappa and the Mothers of Invention, Tommy James and the Shondells, Spirit, Free, Lighthouse, Blind Faith, Music/{{Love}}, Blues Image, The Rascals, Mind Garage, Poco, the Strawberry Alarm Clock, Zager & Evans, Raven, Music/TheGuessWho, Music/LauraNyro, Music/{{Donovan}}, and Roy Rogers, who was specifically contacted to be the final performer at the concert and to conclude the show with "Happy Trails".

** For 1971's ''Music/TheConcertForBangladesh'', the original plan included having all the Beatles join Music/GeorgeHarrison for reuniting in the concert. Out of the remaining three, only Music/RingoStarr accepted; Paul still had lingering bad feelings from the legal ramifications of the breakup, and John backed out at the last minute, supposedly after getting into an argument with Music/YokoOno. While all four of them were still alive, they've all contributed to two of Ringo's albums, albeit not in the same sessions.

* In response to [[MistakenForRacist the rumor]] that Music/ThreeEleven was named for the UsefulNotes/KuKluxKlan, they started writing a song entitled "Fuck the KKK". This eventually morphed into the song [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLiaJEVe57Y "Electricity"]], which is a cry for tolerance and unity. The opening lyrics explain why:

** "Crack A Bottle" was originally intended for Music/DrDre's ''Detox'', and therefore was written to have two Dre verses with an Eminem verse in between. When it was instead moved to Eminem's ''Relapse'', the final verse was given to Music/FiftyCent, who rewrote it himself. Dre never recorded the third "Crack A Bottle" verse, but - as his lyrics were written by Eminem - a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=281aPdgvEe0 leaked demo]] exists in which Eminem [[TalkingToHimself raps Dre's verses in a pretty convincing impression of his voice]].

[[quoteright:350:[[Creator/MichaelJackson https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/michael_jackson_this_is_it_03_1920x1080.jpg]]]]

*** However, this ended up being somewhat of a good thing, as it led to the writing of "Hey Nineteen", which is regarded as a classic. Fagen noted that they threw it together quickly. Some sources say "Third World Man" is the replacement in question, but they actually had worked on it during the ''Music/{{Aja}}'' sessions under the title "Were You Blind That Day".

* Entirely averted by Creator/JohannesBrahms, who ''burned'' all the drafts of his music before publication.

** Furthermore, while they were taking ''Music/InTheCourtOfTheCrimsonKing'' 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 [[Music/EmersonLakeAndPalmer 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.

* Songwriter Jimmy Webb wrote "MacArthur Park" with the intention of giving it to The Association - the group rejected the song, apparently because its EpicRocking length meant they would have to cut two or three of their own original songs to fit it on an album. Not long after, Jimmy Webb would meet actor Richard Harris at a fundraiser and Harris would be the first to record the song.
* The Music/LedZeppelin tribute album ''Enconium'' was at one point going to feature Cracker covering "When The Levee Breaks", but the final version of the album had them performing "Good Times, Bad Times" instead. Rumor had it that the label had rejected their rendition of the former as "too weird", but members of the band would state it had to be cut from the album for legal reasons - the Led Zeppelin version of "When The Levee Breaks" is an adaptation of a song of the same name by Memphis Minnie and Kansas Joe [=McCoy=], and at the time it was unclear how songwriting royalties should be properly distributed for the recording, so the band was asked to record something else.

** As Music/BrianMay and Roger Taylor have observed, there are also numerous tracks from ''Music/TheMiracle'' and ''Innuendo'' which would have been good {{Audience Participation Song}}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 Creator/GeorgeMichael could be the new singer for Queen.
** Brian May has expressed regret for not pushing for releasing a ''Franchise/{{Highlander}}'' soundtrack album instead of ''A Kind of Magic'' and has stated that he hopes to put together an album featuring Michael Kamen's score as well as the songs recorded by Queen.
* Music/MichaelJackson's song "Is It Scary" was recorded in 1993 as a tie-in to ''[[Series/TheAddamsFamily Addams Family Values]]'', complete with a video (with a plot he hashed out with Stephen King) in which he faced a TorchesAndPitchforks mob. The video made it to the editing stage, but due to contractual difficulties the release was cancelled. He revived and refilmed the project in 1997 as the 38-minute video ''[[Film/MichaelJacksonsGhosts Ghosts]]'', which added two more songs and dropped the ''Addams Family'' tie-in.

* [[Music/TheWho Pete Townshend's]] original plan for the album ''Music/WhosNext'' was an elaborate RockOpera called ''Lifehouse'', about a futuristic dystopia where people live in pods and only experience life through a virtual mainframe. But suddenly, an old man teaches a group freedom fighters about rock 'n' roll (which had faded out of memory), and the fighters put on a concert that transforms the world and wakens those from their Matrix-esque prisons. It was going to involve direct participation from the audience by them inputing biographical data into a computer which would be written into the songs during concerts, effectively changing the music to fit in with those hearing it, hopefully resulting in a "perfect chord" that would allow the participants to transcend to a higher state of nirvana. It eventually fell apart, mostly due to no one else involved in The Who having a bloody idea what he was talking about; instead, we only got one of the greatest rock albums of all time; Townshend gathered the best songs he had prepared for the project, and they became the centerpiece for ''Who's Next''.
** Pete Townshend eventually completed ''Lifehouse'' and released it in 2000.

* Music/BobDylan allegedly considered following up 1969's ''Music/NashvilleSkyline'' with an album where he would be backed by frequent Dylan-coverers Music/TheByrds. It's not clear how serious the infamously fickle Dylan was about this, however. Bob Johnston had produced the most recent albums for both artists and would have been the producer for this project, but Johnston didn't get along with The Byrds and never produced anything else for them, which may have helped kill the album. Dylan wound up recording the DorkAge album ''Self Portrait'' instead.

** The ending of ''Relapse'' is a skit in which Eminem says he'll release a sequel album, ''Relapse 2''. However, ''Relapse'''s mixed reception from fans and poor chart performance spooked Eminem so badly that he scrapped the album and turned a lot of what he had of it into the much more [[RadioFriendliness radio-friendly]] and [[SincerityMode sincere]] ''Recovery'' - which gave him multiple radio hits and served as his [[CareerResurrection big comeback]]. Some songs written for ''Relapse 2'' turn up on ''Relapse: Refill'' and on ''Recovery'' (for example, "Cold Wind Blows" is a Shady joint with a bombastic beat and Em using a silly accent on the hook - and you can hear the "ohh!" adlib used throughout ''Relapse'' on "W.T.P."). A few others have leaked ("Oh No") or were released as part of ''Relapse: Refill'' ("Elevator"), but there is no ''Relapse 2'', which irritates a lot of fans now that ''Relapse'' turned out to be [[VindicatedByHistory hugely influential]] and ''Recovery'' started off an era of Eminem's career often considered a DorkAge.

** Music/TheMoodyBlues, The Jeff Beck Group, and Music/IronButterfly were all on the original poster, and all three missed the festival: The Moody Blues decided to play Paris instead, Music/JeffBeck broke up his band (resulting in his singer Music/RodStewart also missing out on a chance to play Woodstock), and Iron Butterfly got stranded in New York City and the organizers denied their manager's request to escort them to the festival ground by helicopter.