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: Roy Acuff

date_of_death: November 23, 1992

age: 89

cause_of_death: Congestive heart failure

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Roy Acuff was an American country music singer, fiddler, and promoter known as the "King of Country Music". Acuff is often credited with moving the genre from its early string band and "hoedown" format to the singer-based format that helped make it internationally successful. Acuff began his music career in the 1930s and gained regional fame as the singer and fiddler for his group, the Smoky Mountain Boys. He joined the Grand Ole Opry in 1938, and although his popularity as a musician waned in the late 1940s, he remained one of the Opry's key figures and promoters for nearly four decades. In 1942, Acuff and Fred Rose founded Acuff-Rose Music, the first major Nashville-based country music publishing company, which signed such artists as Hank Williams, Roy Orbison, and the Everly Brothers. In 1962, Acuff became the first living inductee into the Country Music Hall of Fame.

popular name: Guy Lombardo

date_of_death: November 5, 1977

age: 75

cause_of_death: Heart attack

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Guy Lombardo was a Canadian and American bandleader, violinist, and hydroplane racer whose unique sweet jazz style remained popular with audiences for nearly five decades. Lombardo formed the Royal Canadians in 1924 with his brothers Carmen, Lebert and Victor, and other musicians from his hometown. They billed themselves as creating "the sweetest music this side of Heaven". The Lombardos are believed to have sold between 200 and 300 million records during their lifetimes, many featuring the band's lead singer from 1940 onward, Kenny Gardner. Lombardo is perhaps best remembered for his big band remote broadcasts which were carried on several national radio and television networks for nearly fifty years. Starting in 1929, the Royal Canadians began broadcasting live from the Roosevelt Grill in the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City as "radio's first nationwide New Year's Eve broadcast". Invariably, each broadcast closed with Lombardo's rendition of the song Auld Lang Syne as part of the annual New Year's Eve tradition. The broadcasts proved to be immensely popular and continued from this venue until 1959 when they were transferred to the Grand Ballroom at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel where they continued until 1976.