Joey Ramone

popular name: Bill Black

date_of_death: October 21, 1965

age: 39

cause_of_death: Brain tumor

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: When Elvis Presley cut his first ground-breaking single "That's All Right, Mama" he was backed by Sun Studio musicians Scotty Moore on guitar and Bill Black on bass. With D. J. Fontana later added as drummer, the four hit the road and played every dancehall, fairground and club that manager Tom Parker could book. Black and Moore became Presley's backup group and were paid 25% of his earnings with the group billed as "Elvis Presley and the Blue Moon Boys." Black played on early Presley recordings including "Good Rockin' Tonight", "Heartbreak Hotel", "Baby Let's Play House", "Mystery Train", "That's All Right", and "Hound Dog", and eventually became one of the first bass players to use the Fender Precision Bass (bass guitar) in popular music, on "Jailhouse Rock", in the late 1950s. But what could have been the first great rock 'n' roll band fell apart when Parker paid and treated the other musicians as just the hired help. In 1959, Black joined a group of musicians which became Bill Black's Combo. The original lineup was Black (bass), Joe Lewis Hall (piano), Reggie Young (guitar), Martin Willis (saxophone), and Jerry Arnold (drums) although there were several personnel changes over the years. The band released blues instrumental "Smokie" for Hi Records in December 1959 and the follow-up "Smokie, Part 2" became a No. 17 U.S. pop hit, and made number one on the "black" music charts. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc by the RIAA. During his brief career the Bill Black Combo released 22 singles, 14 albums, and sold over 5 million records before Bill succumbing to brain cancer.

popular name: Big Mama Thornton

date_of_death: July 25, 1985

age: 57

cause_of_death: Heart and liver disorders due to longstanding alcohol abuse

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Janis Joplin called her one of her inspirations and Living Blues magazine described her as "two hundred pounds of boogaloo." Of course, fans and musicians alike just called her Big Mama Thornton. An aggressive blues shouter, who also played the drums and a biting country-style harmonica, Miss Thornton helped bring to rock-and-roll the legacy of such seminal blues singers as Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith and Memphis Minnie. A major influence on younger blues and soul singers, including Janis Joplin and Aretha Franklin, her growling, visceral rendition of the Jerry Leiber- Mike Stoller song ''Hound Dog'' directly influenced Presley's version, which became a No. 1 pop hit in 1956. Miss Thornton's own song ''Ball and Chain'' became a signature for Janis Joplin in 1968. A rhythm-and-blues singer and songwriter from Alabama, Thornton was the first to record Leiber and Stoller's "Hound Dog" in 1952, which became her biggest hit staying seven weeks at number one on the Billboard R&B chart and selling almost two million copies. Thornton's other recordings included the original version of "Ball and Chain", which she wrote. Stop me if you heard this story but this phenomenal blues artist died penniless in a small Los Angeles boarding house near the airport and now shares a grave with two other family members.

popular name: Steve Peregrin Took

date_of_death: October 27, 1980

age: 31

cause_of_death: Asphyxiation after inhaling a cocktail cherry during drug use

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: One-half of the founding members of T. Rex with Marc Bolan, Steve Peregrin Took was by all accounts a remarkable musician and songwriter - when he was sober. After two years and three albums, Took's push to perform more of his own material – as well as his drug use – had driven a wedge between Marc and Steve and Took was fired from the group. He went on to a series of short-lived bands, but never came close to the success Bolan achieved without him. Sadly, relegated to the history books as the Pete Best of glam rock, he is cruelly remembered as the rock star who choked on a cocktail cherry and died.