Joey Ramone

popular name: Sam Butera

date_of_death: June 3, 2009

age: 81

cause_of_death: Pneumonia

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Sam Butera was a tenor saxophonist best noted for his collaborations with Louis Prima and Keely Smith. Butera is frequently regarded as a crossover artist who performed with equal ease in both R&B and the post-big band pop style of jazz that permeated the early Vegas nightclub scene. With Louis Prima, Butera remained the bandleader of The Witnesses for more than twenty years. During that time, he performed with Louis Prima and/or Keely Smith on such Prima-associated songs as "That Old Black Magic", "Just a Gigolo/I Ain't Got Nobody," "Come on-a My House," and "I Wan'na Be Like You" (from Disney's The Jungle Book). Butera is noted for his raucous playing style, his off-color humor, and the innuendo in his lyrics. The arrangement he made with Prima of "Just a Gigolo/I Ain't Got Nobody" has been covered by David Lee Roth, Los Lobos, Brian Setzer, The Village People, and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy. In addition to his accomplishments as a saxophonist and composer, Butera is widely regarded as the inspiration for the vocal style of fellow New Orleans-born jazz singer Harry Connick, Jr. Upon his passing, he was interred at Greenwood Cemetery in New Orleans, Louisiana.

popular name: Fritz Kreisler

date_of_death: January 29, 1962

age: 86

cause_of_death: Heart failure

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Making his professional debut at the age of 13, Fritz Kreisler is considered the one of the greatest, if not the greatest, violinist ever to play the instrument. His technique was animated by a riveting vibrato the likes of which no one had previously possessed or even imagined, and he used it constantly, even in passagework. Kreisler owned several antique violins made by luthiers Antonio Stradivari, Pietro Guarneri, Giuseppe Guarneri, and Carlo Bergonzi. He was the owner of the great Guarneri "del Gesu" violin of 1733 which was donated to the Library of Congress.

popular name: Tommy Dorsey

date_of_death: November 26, 1956

age: 51

cause_of_death: Asphyxia - aspiration of food in his sleep

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: A highly respected and influential trombonist, Tommy Dorsey—both independently and with his brother Jimmy—led several of the most popular big bands of the swing era. Dorsey was an American jazz trombonist, composer, conductor and bandleader of the big band era. He was known as the "Sentimental Gentleman of Swing" because of his smooth-toned trombone playing. His theme song was "I'm Getting Sentimental Over You". He famously gave a skinny, big-eared Italian-American kid with a cool, seductive voice a shot at stardom. That kid was Frank Sinatra. The Tommy Dorsey Orchestra is best remembered for standards such as "Opus One", "Song of India", "Marie", "On Treasure Island", and his biggest hit single, "I'll Never Smile Again".