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“Unhappy is he who depends on success to be happy,” Alex Dias Ribeiro, a former Formula 1 race-car driver, once wrote. “For such a person, the end of a successful career is the end of the line. His destiny is to die of bitterness or to search for more success in other careers and to go on living from success to success until he falls dead. In this case, there will not be life after success.”

As I read the article, I couldn't help but think of the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Del Shannon, who had continual boughts of depression and finally took his own life at the age of 61, right before his final album was due to come out.

He hit a huge with "Runaway" in 1961, at the age of 26, and never could quite match that initial success. Even his last album's release for a single was a tune called "Walkaway".

Similarly, Danny of Danny and the Juniors (At the Hop, Rock 'n' Roll is Here to Stay). I imagined him, a talented guitarist who hit big early, performing to shrinking, aging audiences who just wanted to hear "At the Hop".