Joey Ramone

popular name: Michael Stephen Knust

date_of_death: September 15, 2003

age: 54

cause_of_death: Long term effects of drug use

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Michael was the lead guitarist for the psychedelic rock band Fever Tree who, in 1968, released their best known song, "San Francisco Girls (Return of the Native)", becoming the group's only nationally charting single.

popular name: Gilbert Bécaud

date_of_death: December 18, 2001

age: 74

cause_of_death: Lung cancer

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Gilbert Bécaud was a French singer, composer, pianist and actor known as "Monsieur 100,000 Volts" for his energetic performances. His best-known hits are "Nathalie" and "Et maintenant", a 1961 release that became an English language hit as "What Now My Love". He remained a popular artist for nearly fifty years, identifiable in his dark blue suits, with a white shirt and "lucky tie"; blue with white polka dots. His favourite venue was the Paris Olympia under the management of Bruno Coquatrix. He debuted there in 1954 and headlined in 1955, attracting 6,000 on his first night, three times the capacity. Bécaud composed over 450 songs and sold millions of records over the years, and seemed almost never to spend an evening away from a stage - in one year he gave 249 concerts. He sang in six languages, a fact that helped his overseas tours, but was always happiest at the Olympia in Paris, where he topped the bill more than 30 times. Upon his death in 2001, he was laid to rest in Cimetière du Père Lachaise, Paris France.

popular name: Adolph Rickenbacker

date_of_death: March 21, 1976

age: 88

cause_of_death: Cancer

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Adolph Rickenbacker was a Swiss-American remembered as one of the co-founders of the Rickenbacker guitar, and one of the key people who was responsible for the creation and adoption of electric guitars that managed to change the shape and sound of the modern music industry altogether. The Rickenbacker International Corporation (RIC) grew out of the first company founded for the sole purpose of creating and manufacturing fully electric musical instruments and amplifiers-the Los Angeles-based Electro String Instrument Corporation. Founded in 1931 by Adolph Rickenbacker and George D. Beauchamp, this pioneering firm produced "Rickenbacker Electro Instruments", the first modern electric guitars. RIC's history now spans 92 years in business on the leading edge of music trends that have changed popular culture forever. Played by Hawaiian musicians of the 1930s to jazz bassists of the 1990s, by the Beatles the Byrds and Tom Petty (to name just a few) the ringing sound of Rickenbacker instruments has helped define music as we know it today.