Joey Ramone

popular name: Felix Pappalardi

date_of_death: April 17, 1983

age: 43

cause_of_death: Homicide - gunshot wound

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Felix Pappalardi was once a big name. Born in The Bronx on Dec. 30, 1939, and classically trained, he’d been a regular among the Greenwich Village folk crowd in the mid-’60s, first as an arranger for singer-songwriters like Tom Paxton and Fred Neil and then producing albums for Joan Baez and the Youngbloods, among others. His big moment came in 1967 when Cream - the rising British blues-rock trio featuring Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker - hired him to produce their second album. Disraeli Gears catapulted Cream onto rock’s A-list and with it Pappalardi. He also produced their Wheels of Fire and Goodbye albums. After his work with Cream he formed the group Mountain and quickly rose to the top with a performance at Woodstock followed by the hit song Mississippi Queen. His career ended very suddenly with a single bullet to the neck when his wife, Gail Collins, shot him dead in the bedroom of their New York City apartment.

popular name: Charlie Patton

date_of_death: April 28, 1934

age: 43

cause_of_death: Heart Disease (Mitral Valve Disorder)

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Small in stature but a giant blues talent, the often stubborn and rude (he was married 8 times) Charley Patton was the most influential artist of the first blues generation. And while there are no guitars, homes, autographs and only two known photographs of the bluesman, time has not diminished his celebrity and his place in blues history has reached mythical proportions.

popular name: D. Boon

date_of_death: December 22, 1985

age: 27

cause_of_death: Broken neck, blunt force trauma (car accident)

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: D. Boon was a pioneer of the punk scene in the early 1980s in Los Angeles, California. As singer, songwriter, guitarist and vocalist for the punk rock trio the Minutemen, D. Boon mixed funk, punk, metal, country and a healthy dose of rage that influenced the likes of Nirvana for generations. Like peers Black Flag, Husker Du and the Meat Puppets, the Minutemen built a solid cult following throughout the U.S. the old-fashioned way - by living in a van on the road for six years. Tragically the end came suddenly when after a concert D. Boon was killed in a tragic auto accident at the young age of 27.