Béla Bartók

popular name: Gene Krupa

date_of_death: October 16, 1973

age: 64

cause_of_death: Heart failure coupled with leukemia and emphysema

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Before Keith Moon, before John Bonham there was the one and only Gene Krupa - one of the greatest drummers and drum kit innovators in the 20th century. With his arms flailing behind the drum kit, Krupa forever changed the role of the drummer and provided his fans with an everlasting visual and musical image of the swing era. In 1936 he joined Benny Goodman and Teddy Wilson for the first incarnation of the Benny Goodman Trio (later expanding to a quartet with Lionel Hampton) where his drum work made him a national celebrity. His tom-tom interludes on the hit "Sing, Sing, Sing" were the first extended drum solos to be recorded commercially. After his gig with Goodman he continued to record with his own group, Tommy Dorsey, Gerry Mulligan and starred as himself in several Hollywood musical-based films. In addition to his drum skills, he was also a well regarding composer with compositions which he wrote or co-wrote included "Some Like It Hot" in 1939, "Drum Boogie", "Boogie Blues", his theme song "Apurksody", "Ball of Fire", "Disc Jockey Jump" with Gerry Mulligan, "Wire Brush Stomp", "Hippdeebip", "Krupa's Wail", "Swing is Hee", "Quit and Roll 'Em" with Sam Donahue, and "How 'Bout This Mess". Even today Krupa’s reputation still looms large in pop culture: Rolling Stone recently put him at Number 7 in its list of the 100 greatest drummers of all time.

popular name: Boxcar Willie

date_of_death: April 12, 1999

age: 67

cause_of_death: Leukemia

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Perhaps the most successful invented character in the history of country music, Boxcar Willie was an American country music singer and songwriter who sang in the "old-time hobo" music style, complete with dirty face, overalls, and a floppy hat. "Boxcar Willie" was originally a character in a ballad he wrote, but he later adopted it as his own stage name. Much of Boxcar Willie's early notoriety came from a Gong Show appearance and roles in television commercials for LP compilations, namely the multi-platinum album King of the Road. And like Jimmie Rodgers before him, Martin really did grow up around trains and wrote and sang about trains. Lots and lots of trains.

popular name: Luther Vandross

date_of_death: July 1, 2005

age: 54

cause_of_death: Heart attack

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Luther Vandross was an American soul and R&B singer, songwriter, and record producer. Throughout his career, he achieved eleven consecutive RIAA-certified platinum albums and sold over 40 million records worldwide. After a short stint at college and drifting through numerous groups and as a backup singer, in 1974 after a short stay with David Bowie, Luther worked with a vast array of award-winning recording artists including Roberta Flack, Chaka Khan, Ben E. King, Bette Midler, Diana Ross, Carly Simon, Barbra Streisand, Cat Stevens, Gary Glitter, Ringo Starr, Sister Sledge, and Donna Summer. Across the next decade, Vandross would top the US R&B charts six more times - so successful was he, and, at times, so large his girth, that he was nicknamed "the Pavarotti of pop". British audiences embraced him in the late 1980s: Never Too Much hit the British top 20 eight years after it was an American hit. At one point, he had three albums simultaneously in the top 100. Vandross's greatest hits of that era - Stop To Love, There's Nothing Better Than Love, Any Love, Here And Now, Power Of Love/Love Power - established him as the most widely admired male soul singer of the post-disco era. Vandross continued to enjoy healthy sales in the early 1990s, but his glacial pop/soul style became increasingly predictable and he was soon overshadowed by a younger, more hip-hop oriented breed of male R&B singer. His last British hit was Endless Love, a duet with Mariah Carey in 1994. All in all, Vandross has been recognized as one of the 200 greatest singers of all time (2023) by Rolling Stone, as well as one of the greatest R&B artists by Billboard. In addition, NPR named him one of the 50 Great Voices. He was the recipient of eight Grammy Awards, including Song of the Year in 2004 for a track recorded not long before his death, "Dance with My Father". In 2021, he was posthumously inducted into the National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame.