Joey Ramone

popular name: Eddie Lang

date_of_death: March 26, 1933

age: 30

cause_of_death: Blood loss during tonsillectomy surgery

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Born Salvatore Massaro in Philadelphia, PA, in 1920 at age 18 Salvatore legally changed his name to Eddie Lang, exchanged his violin for a banjo, and began working with band leaders Charlie Kerr, Bert Estlow, Vic D’Ippolito, and then Billy Lustig. In 1924, he exchanged his banjo for a one-stringed guitar when he became a member of the Mound City Blue Blowers led by Red McKenzie. He recorded one of the first guitar solos in “Deep Second Street Blues” in 1926. Before his performance, the guitar had not been a prominent instrument in jazz bands and dance orchestras. In 1929, Lang and Joe Venuti became members of the Paul Whiteman Orchestra. Vocalist Bing Crosby soon joined the orchestra on a trip west to Hollywood to make the movie King of Jazz in which Lang and Venuti appeared. Through Crosby’s wife, Lang met Kitty, a Ziegfeld girl, whom he soon married. In 1930 when Crosby was looking for a job in radio, he had Lang as his accompanist. Two years later, Crosby made another movie The Big Broadcast in which Lang also appeared. When Crosby returned to New York City and started his orchestra in late 1932, he hired Lang as a regular. Lang suffered from occasional laryngitis and had a chronic sore throat. After a doctor recommended a tonsillectomy, Crosby urged Lang to have the operation. Assured that the surgical procedure was routine, Lang entered Park West Hospital in Manhattan on March 26, 1933. He never woke up from the surgery and died at age 30. He was laid to rest at Holy Cross Cemetery in Yeadon, Pennsylvania.

popular name: Big Joe Williams

date_of_death: December 17, 1982

age: 79

cause_of_death: Natural causes

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: As a first generation bluesman, Joseph Lee "Big Joe" Williams recorded more often, performed longer and lived longer than almost all of his contemporaries. In 1935 Williams recorded his signature song “Baby Please Don’t Go,” which has been covered by dozens of artists including Muddy Waters, Van Morrison (with the band Them), and Bob Dylan (who played harmonica on a Big Joe session in 1962).

popular name: Peter Tosh

date_of_death: September 11, 1987

age: 42

cause_of_death: Homicide - gunshot wounds

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Peter Tosh was a Jamaican reggae musician who, along with Bob Marley and Bunny Wailer, was one of the core members of the band the Wailers, after which he established himself as a successful solo artist and a promoter of Rastafari. As a solo artist Tosh began recording and released his solo debut, Legalize It, in 1976. The title track soon became popular among endorsers of marijuana legalization, reggae music lovers and Rastafari all over the world, and was a favorite at Tosh’s concerts. He continued to record and tour worldwide before he was killed in a home invasion in 1987.