Joey Ramone

popular name: Leroy Carr

date_of_death: April 29, 1935

age: 30

cause_of_death: Complications of nephritis due to alcoholism

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Leroy Carr, together with Scrapper Blackwell are arguably the two most underrated blues musicians of the 1920s and 1930s. What is undeniable is the two together created some of the most recorded blues classics including How Long, How Long Blues, Mean Mistreater Mama and When the Sun Goes Down.

popular name: Jelly Roll Morton

date_of_death: July 10, 1941

age: 50

cause_of_death: Respiratory distress due to previous stab wounds

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Along with Sidney Bechet, Johnny Dodds, Kid Ory, and Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton was one of the most important musical figure to emerge from the early days of New Orleans. While most will dismiss his claim that he, Jelly Roll Morton, alone created jazz music, there can be no doubt to his technical brilliance as a pianist, composer and arranger. For it was Jelly Roll Morton who transformed the rigid confines of ragtime and ushered in the free form structures of jazz. His composition "Jelly Roll Blues", published in 1915, was one of the first published jazz compositions. Morton also wrote "King Porter Stomp", "Wolverine Blues", "Black Bottom Stomp", and "I Thought I Heard Buddy Bolden Say" which were covered by every major jazz and dance orchestra including Benny Goodman and Fletcher Henderson. Sadly he never received a penny in royalties for his original compositions and he was only recognized for his contributions decades after his passing when Morton was inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, elected as a charter member of the Gennett Records Walk of Fame and was inducted into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame.

popular name: Wilbert Harrison

date_of_death: October 26, 1994

age: 65

cause_of_death: Stroke

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Wilbert Harrison, singer, songwriter and musician is known for recording the definitive version of “Kansas City,” one of the great rock and roll songs of all time. Released in 1959, it was #1 on the R&B charts for seven consecutive weeks and #1 on the pop charts for two weeks. Written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, whose catalog of hits includes “Jailhouse Rock” and “Smokey Joe’s Cafe,” the song was originally titled, “K.C. Lovin.'” Harrison’s limited chart success after Kansas City wasn’t due to not trying. Over the years he would cut nearly three dozen singles. He toured extensively with a backing band called “The Roamers”. In 1969 Harrison recorded “Let’s Work Together (Part 1),” which reached the pop chart. His last chart record was “My Heart Is Yours,” released in 1971. Kansas City was chosen by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio, as one of the 500 songs that shaped Rock and Roll. He died at age 65 in Spencer, NC without a dime to his name. Harrison was inducted posthumously into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2001 for his 1959 recording of Kansas City. He was laid to rest at North Pinewood Cemetery in Charlotte, North Carolina.