Johann Strauss ll

popular name: Alan Freed

date_of_death: January 20, 1965

age: 43

cause_of_death: Kidney failure and cirrhosis of the liver

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Alan Freed was an American disc jockey and Rock and Roll’s first great evangelist and martyr. Freed became associated with the genre on July 11, 1951, when he started hosting a radio show with the purpose of exposing white teenagers to the music. Sponsored by record retailer Leo Mintz, the show was originally called “Freeditorium,” but its host soon adopted the goofy on-air nickname “Moondog” and the show was re-titled “Moondog House.” The playlist featured what was known as “race music” before Billboard magazine renamed it “rhythm and blues” in 1949. The tunes had a heavy beat conducive to dancing but were rarely enjoyed by white audiences prior to Freed. It was not just the music that Freed introduced to the wider world. Freed also produced and promoted large traveling concerts with various acts including Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers, Bill Haley and the Burnette Brothers helping to spread the importance of rock and roll music throughout North America. Sadly in the early 1960s, Freed's career was destroyed by the payola scandal that hit the broadcasting industry (even thought his fine was a mere $300). A downward spiral began with the legal fees from the scandal that forced him into bankruptcy, chain smoking, heavy drinking, unemployment, tax evasion charges and internal injuries from a car accident in 1953. Moving to Palm Springs, California Freed died alone at the young age of 43.

popular name: Lightnin' Hopkins

date_of_death: January 30, 1982

age: 69

cause_of_death: Esophageal cancer

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Sam Lightnin' Hopkins began his blues trail as Blind Lemon Jefferson's guide before spending 30 years on the weekend juke joint circuit. As a soloist who loved to drink, smoke, gamble, fight and chase women, Hopkins had the scars from the prison leg irons of which he sang. Before his death he recorded over 80 albums and Rolling Stone magazine included Hopkins at number 71 on its list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time.

popular name: Al Wilson

date_of_death: April 21, 2008

age: 68

cause_of_death: Kidney Failure

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Al Wilson is best remembered for the #1 pop hit "Show and Tell". From the age of 12 Wilson was already singing professionally - his own spiritual quartet and singing in the church choir, even performing covers of country & western hits. After a two-year military stint, Wilson settled in Los Angeles, touring the local nightclub circuit before joining the R&B vocal group the Jewels; from there he landed with the Rollers, followed by a stint with the instrumental combo the Souls. In 1966 singer Johnny Rivers not only signed Wilson to his Soul City imprint, but also agreed to produce the sessions that yielded the 1968 R&B smash "The Snake." The minor hit "Do What You Gotta Do" appeared that same year, but Wilson then largely disappeared from sight until 1973, when he issued the platinum-selling Weighing In -- the album's success was spurred by the shimmering "Show and Tell," a Johnny Mathis castoff that sold well over a million copies. "The La La Peace Song," released in 1974, proved another major hit, and two years later, "I've Got a Feeling We'll Be Seeing Each Other Again" peaked at number three on the R&B chart. With 1979's "Count the Days" Wilson scored his final chart hit and spent the next two decades touring local clubs and lounges before succumbing to kidney disease at the age of 68.