Joey Ramone

popular name: Eddie Lang

date_of_death: March 26, 1933

age: 30

cause_of_death: Blood loss during tonsillectomy surgery

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Born Salvatore Massaro in Philadelphia, PA, in 1920 at age 18 Salvatore legally changed his name to Eddie Lang, exchanged his violin for a banjo, and began working with band leaders Charlie Kerr, Bert Estlow, Vic D’Ippolito, and then Billy Lustig. In 1924, he exchanged his banjo for a one-stringed guitar when he became a member of the Mound City Blue Blowers led by Red McKenzie. He recorded one of the first guitar solos in “Deep Second Street Blues” in 1926. Before his performance, the guitar had not been a prominent instrument in jazz bands and dance orchestras. In 1929, Lang and Joe Venuti became members of the Paul Whiteman Orchestra. Vocalist Bing Crosby soon joined the orchestra on a trip west to Hollywood to make the movie King of Jazz in which Lang and Venuti appeared. Through Crosby’s wife, Lang met Kitty, a Ziegfeld girl, whom he soon married. In 1930 when Crosby was looking for a job in radio, he had Lang as his accompanist. Two years later, Crosby made another movie The Big Broadcast in which Lang also appeared. When Crosby returned to New York City and started his orchestra in late 1932, he hired Lang as a regular. Lang suffered from occasional laryngitis and had a chronic sore throat. After a doctor recommended a tonsillectomy, Crosby urged Lang to have the operation. Assured that the surgical procedure was routine, Lang entered Park West Hospital in Manhattan on March 26, 1933. He never woke up from the surgery and died at age 30. He was laid to rest at Holy Cross Cemetery in Yeadon, Pennsylvania.

popular name: Lisa "Lefteye" Lopes

date_of_death: April 25, 2002

age: 30

cause_of_death: Fracture of the base of the cranium and open cerebral trauma due to an automobile accident

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: For many, Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes simply was TLC who jacked the pop charts with a blend of soul and rap that preached safe sex and self-reliance. Two years after their first album was released, TLC went on to garner international fame with their second album CrazySexyCool selling over 4 million albums. On April 25th, just weeks before her 31st birthday, the outspoken Lopes died in a car wreck while on a spiritual retreat at a “healing village” in Honduras.

popular name: Charlie Rich

date_of_death: July 25, 1995

age: 62

cause_of_death: Pulmonary embolism (blood clot in the lungs)

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Charlie Rich was a country singer, songwriter and alcoholic whose career peaked in the 1970s.