Big Maybelle

popular name: Louis Prima

date_of_death: August 24, 1978

age: 67

cause_of_death: Cerebral hemorrhage followed by a 3 year waking coma

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Proud son of Italian immigrants and a talented band leader, trumpter, composer and singer Louis Prima developed his talent earning the title "King of the Vegas Lounges" and "The Wildest Act in Las Vegas." With poker-faced Keely Smith's cool image and melodic vocals coupled with Prima's inspired clowning and factured Italian dialect scat singer augmented by the backing band of Sam Butera and the Witnesses, Prima would wail wildly into the wee hours of the morning.

popular name: Waylon Jennings

date_of_death: February 13, 2002

age: 64

cause_of_death: Diabetic complications

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Waylon Jennings was the "outlaw" singer, songwriter and musician who was one of the founding pioneers of the Outlaw Movement in country music in the 1970s. A protégé of Buddy Holly and devotee of Hank Williams, he sold more than 40 million records, won 2 Grammy Awards, multiple Country Music Association awards including Male Vocalist of the Year, and was Ranked #7 in Rolling Stone's Top 100 Greatest Country Artists of All Time in a career spanning six decades. Upon his passing from diabetes complications, the legendary Waylon Jennings grave can be found at Mesa Cemetery in Mesa, Arizona.

popular name: Falco

date_of_death: February 6, 1998

age: 40

cause_of_death: Automobile accident

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: His name was Falco, and the image of sharp suit and slick-back hair already set him apart from the glam rockers and post-punks of the late 80s. He was a musician; a singer; a rapper. A gentleman, a womanizer; he hated garden gnomes and loved chaos. He was honest, plain, but one in a million. With the hit song (and matching music video) "Rock Me Amadeus" etched into our very brains, the infectious chorus of 1986 hit went on to become the only number one on the Billboard Hot 100 spoken in German. It became an international hit, climbing the charts of countless nations. Proving that he was no one-hit wonder, Falco had several international hits including "Der Kommissar" (1981), "Vienna Calling", "Jeanny", "The Sound of Musik", "Coming Home (Jeanny Part II, One Year Later)", and posthumously "Out of the Dark". But it was "Rock Me Amadeus" that reached No. 1 on the Billboard charts in 1986, making Falco the only artist in history whose principal language was German, to score a vocal number-one hit in the United States. According to his estate, he has sold 20 million albums and 40 million singles, which makes him the best-selling Austrian singer of all time. Sadly his life was cut short when his rental car collided with a bus outside of the resort town of Villa Montellano.