Joey Ramone

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.

popular name: T-Bone Walker

date_of_death: March 16, 1975

age: 64

cause_of_death: Bronchial pneumonia

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Infusing the blues with an electrifying, yet, sophisticated uptown flavor, T-Bone Walker was the driving force that redirected the course of the blues - moving it from juke joints and roadhouses to swank nightclubs and theaters. Favoring hot swing rhythms with a big band accompaniment, Walker seamlessly blended jazz and Texas blues to become a seminal figure in the development of rock 'n' roll. In his youth, a 10-year-old T-Bone was called upon to work as lead boy to Blind Lemon Jefferson through the rough neighborhoods of Dallas. In exchange Jefferson taught the young boy the basics of blues guitar. In the fall of 1942 Walker got the chance to record his electric guitar when he cut "I Got a Break Baby" and "Mean Old World" on Capital Records. His biggest hit, "Call it Stormy Monday" was issued in 1947 and made him a household name. In the 1960s, when blues began to lose it's popularity, Walker toured Europe with such legends as Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon, John Lee Hooker and Memphis Slim. After 50 years on the road the effects of drinking, gambling, ulcers and arthritis all took their toll and he died of a stroke-induced pneumonia at the age of 64.

popular name: Nick Drake

date_of_death: November 25, 1974

age: 26

cause_of_death: Overdose of amitriptyline (a prescribed antidepressant)

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Nick Drake was an English singer-songwriter and musician best known for his acoustic, mournful, melancholy songs. With only three albums released to middling reviews, abysmal sales coupled with his descent into mental illness he failed to find a wide audience during his lifetime, And while some like to call him "the most influential English singer-songwriters of the last 50 years", quite frankly his influence and legacy has largely been forgotten.