Al Jackson Jr.

popular name: Scrapper Blackwell

date_of_death: October 7, 1962

age: 59

cause_of_death: Murdered (solved but no arrest)

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Scrapper Blackwell, together with Leroy Carr are arguably the two most underrated blues musicians of the 1920s and 1930s. What is undeniable is the two together created some of the most recorded blues classics including How Long, How Long Blues, Mean Mistreater Mama and When the Sun Goes Down

popular name: Arthur Crudup

date_of_death: March 28, 1974

age: 68

cause_of_death: Stroke

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Arthur William "Big Boy" Crudup was an American Delta blues singer, songwriter and guitarist. He is best known for his songs "That's All Right" (1946), "My Baby Left Me" and "So Glad You're Mine", later recorded by Elvis Presley in the mid-1950s. His songs "Mean Old 'Frisco Blues", "Who's Been Foolin' You" and "That's All Right" were popular in the South even though he did not tour regularly due to stage fright. These and his other songs "Rock Me Mama", "So Glad You're Mine", and "My Baby Left Me" have been recorded by many artists, including Slade, Elton John, Rod Stewart, Creedence Clearwater Revival and helped launch Elvis Presley's career. You would think that Crudup could sit back and enjoy living off the royalties - but that would not be the case. He was cheated out of his royalties his entire life by producer Lester Melrose and others as his catalog was sold to different record companies. After making a living outside of music, in the late 1960s Crudup was “rediscovered,” and, for the first time in his career, he was playing concerts with large audiences, mostly at colleges. He played such venues as the Newport Jazz Festival and the Mariposa Folk Festival and even traveled to Europe where he was enthusiastically received. Just before he died Arthur was touring with Bonnie Raitt. He was finally beginning to get the recognition he richly deserved, but not the money. Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup died of a stroke on March 28, 1974. He never collected his due.

popular name: Elvis Presley

date_of_death: August 16, 1977

age: 42

cause_of_death: Heart attack

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Elvis Presley was an American singer, musician and actor. He is regarded as one of the most significant cultural icons of the 20th century and is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll". He is the best-selling solo music artist of all time, and was commercially successful in many genres, including pop, country, R&B, adult contemporary, and gospel. He won three Grammy Awards, received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award at age 36, and has been inducted into multiple music halls of fame. Presley made his film debut in "Love Me Tender". After touring and starring in films, by 1973 Elvis's health was in major and serious decline. Twice during that year, he overdosed on barbiturates, spending three days in a coma in his hotel suite after the first incident. On the evening of Tuesday, August 16, 1977, Presley was scheduled to fly out of Memphis to begin another tour. That afternoon, Ginger Alden discovered him in an unresponsive state on a bathroom floor. According to her eyewitness account, "Elvis looked as if his entire body had completely frozen in a seated position while using the toilet and then had fallen forward, in that fixed position, directly in front of it. ... It was clear that, from the time whatever hit him to the moment he had landed on the floor, Elvis hadn't moved."