Joey Ramone

popular name: Jim Reeves

date_of_death: July 31, 1964

age: 40

cause_of_death: Plane crash

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Jim Reeves was an American country and popular music singer-songwriter with records charting from the 1950s to the 1980s. He became well known as a practitioner of the traditional Nashville Sound. Reeves' last two recording sessions for RCA Victor were held July 2, 1964; they produced the songs "Make the World Go Away", "Missing You", and "Is It Really Over?" When the session ended with some time remaining on the schedule, Reeves suggested that he should record one more song. He taped "I Can't Stop Loving You", in what was to be his final RCA recording. Known as "Gentleman Jim", his songs continued to chart for years after his death in a plane crash. He is a member of both the Country Music and Texas Country Music Halls of Fame.

popular name: Joe Pass

date_of_death: May 23, 1994

age: 65

cause_of_death: Liver cancer

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: In the last fifty years, few have come to epitomize the image of the jazz guitarist as completely as Joe Pass. As a soloist, Pass redefined the instrument, weaving spontaneous chordal sequences, walking bass lines and single notes into colorful musical textures. After a 15 year period lost to drug abuse, prison and rehab Joe worked with worked often with pianist Oscar Peterson and vocalist Ella Fitzgerald and recorded or played live with Benny Carter, Milt Jackson, Herb Ellis, Zoot Sims, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie and Count Basie.

popular name: Otis Spann

date_of_death: April 24, 1970

age: 46

cause_of_death: Liver cancer

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Arguably the most important pianist of the postwar Chicago blues scene, Otis Spann started playing piano at the age of seven, with some instruction from local piano players in his native Jackson. By 1944 he was playing in local bands around that city and three years later left for Chicago, where he would live for the rest of his tragically short life. Spann replaced Merriweather as Muddy Waters' piano player in late 1952, and had his first recording session with the band on September 24, 1953. From 1952 to 1969 Spann was a full-time member of the Muddy Waters band, which also included Jimmy Rogers and Little Walter. He was also in great demand by the Chess label as house pianist, accompanying artists like Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry ("No Money Down", "You Can't Catch Me"), Howlin' Wolf, Sonny Boy Williamson, Jimmy Rogers and Little Walter. In April of 1970, blues pianist Otis Spann flew to Boston to play a gig. With him were his wife, Lucille, and his band. The concert would be Otis' last. Before he flew to Boston, doctors had diagnosed Spann with terminal liver cancer — he died three weeks after the concert. He was laid to rest at Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip, Illinois.