Joey Ramone

popular name: Arthur Crudup

date_of_death: March 28, 1974

age: 68

cause_of_death: Stroke

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Arthur William "Big Boy" Crudup was an American Delta blues singer, songwriter and guitarist. He is best known for his songs "That's All Right" (1946), "My Baby Left Me" and "So Glad You're Mine", later recorded by Elvis Presley in the mid-1950s. His songs "Mean Old 'Frisco Blues", "Who's Been Foolin' You" and "That's All Right" were popular in the South even though he did not tour regularly due to stage fright. These and his other songs "Rock Me Mama", "So Glad You're Mine", and "My Baby Left Me" have been recorded by many artists, including Slade, Elton John, Rod Stewart, Creedence Clearwater Revival and helped launch Elvis Presley's career. You would think that Crudup could sit back and enjoy living off the royalties - but that would not be the case. He was cheated out of his royalties his entire life by producer Lester Melrose and others as his catalog was sold to different record companies. After making a living outside of music, in the late 1960s Crudup was “rediscovered,” and, for the first time in his career, he was playing concerts with large audiences, mostly at colleges. He played such venues as the Newport Jazz Festival and the Mariposa Folk Festival and even traveled to Europe where he was enthusiastically received. Just before he died Arthur was touring with Bonnie Raitt. He was finally beginning to get the recognition he richly deserved, but not the money. Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup died of a stroke on March 28, 1974. He never collected his due. He was laid to rest at Bethel Memorial Gardens in Franktown, VA.

popular name: King Curtis Ousley

date_of_death: November 13, 1971

age: 37

cause_of_death: Homicide - stabbed to death

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Playing the saxophone when he was 12, King Curtis turned down college scholarships in order to join the Lionel Hampton Band and in 1952 moved to New York to become a session musician where he recorded Nat Adderley, Wynton Kelly, Buddy Holly, Andy Williams, The Coasters, The Five Keys, Aretha Franklin and many more. His saxophone virtuosity was widely admired in rhythm and blues, rock and roll, soul, blues, funk and soul jazz. King Curtis and his band, The Kingpins, backed Aretha Franklin. Curtis was stabbed to death by Juan Montanez, a vagrant drug addict on the front steps of his New York home on August 13, 1971. He was only 37.

popular name: Ritchie Valens

date_of_death: February 3, 1959

age: 17

cause_of_death: Gross trauma to brain due to crash of airplane, multiple fractures, left forearm and both legs

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Ritchie Valens was a singer, songwriter, and guitarist and a true rock and roll pioneer who died at the young age of 17 in the infamous Buddy Holly plane crash. Ritchie played is final concert at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa with Buddy Holly and J.P. "the Big Bopper" Richardson. Holly, Valens and Richardson left The Surf immediately after the show, going to the nearby Mason City airport and chartering a small plane with pilot Roger Peterson to take them to Fargo, North Dakota to prepare for their next show at the Moorhead Armory in Moorhead, Minnesota. The plane took off at 12:55 AM Central Time on Tuesday February 3, 1959. Shortly after takeoff, the plane crashed, killing everyone aboard.