Joey Ramone

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.

popular name: Tex Ritter

date_of_death: January 2, 1974

age: 68

cause_of_death: Heart attack

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Tex Ritter was an American singer, songwriter, and actor known for his contributions to country music and his work in Western films. Ritter's early life was shaped by a love for music, especially traditional country and cowboy songs. He pursued his passion for music and acting in the 1930s, first gaining recognition with his debut recording, Rye Whiskey in 1932. He became a prominent figure in the 1940s, recording numerous hit songs like "High Noon (Do Not Forsake Me)" in 1952, which became his signature song and earned him an Academy Award for Best Original Song. In addition to his music career, Ritter appeared in over 78 films, often playing cowboy roles in B-Western movies, particularly in the 1930s and 1940s. He was a regular on the radio and television, and he became an influential figure in Western film and music. He remains to this day the only artist to be elected into both the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Cowboy Hall of Fame. Upon his death, he was laid to rest at Oak Bluff Memorial Park, Port Neches, Texas.

popular name: The Greatest Unknown Guitar Player

date_of_death: August 14, 1988

age: 48

cause_of_death: Suicide - hanging (disputed)

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Roy Buchanan was an blues guitarist and a pioneer of the Telecaster sound, Buchanan worked as a sideman and as a solo artist, with two gold albums early in his career and two later solo albums that made it to the Billboard chart. Guitar Player praised him as having one of the "50 Greatest Tones of All Time." Sweet Dreams, released in 1972, remains the finest moment in the career of the man who was damned with the accolade ‘the guitarist’s guitarist’. Lauded by the likes of Jeff Beck, Gary Moore (who covered the blues-rock thriller The Messiah Will Come Again) and, more recently, Joe Bonamassa, Buchanan never attained any real fame or fortune during his lifetime. These days he’s as infamous for apparently turning down an offer to join the Rolling Stones and his mysterious death in a Virginia jail cell in 1988 as he is for his music. Yet Buchanan’s legacy as a guitarist punches way above that of many of the rock stars who held him in such high regard.