Joey Ramone

popular name: Charles Aznavour

date_of_death: October 1, 2018

age: 94

cause_of_death: Cardiorespiratory arrest complicated by an acute pulmonary edema

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Charles Aznavour was a French singer of Armenian ancestry, as well as a songwriter, lyricist, actor and diplomat. Aznavour was known for his distinctive vibrato tenor voice: clear and ringing in its upper reaches, with gravelly and profound low notes. In a career as a composer, singer and songwriter spanning over 70 years, he recorded more than 1,200 songs interpreted in 9 languages. Moreover, he wrote or co-wrote more than 1,000 songs for himself and others. Aznavour is regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time and an icon of 20th-century pop culture. Between 1974 and 2016, Charles Aznavour received over sixty gold and platinum records around the world. According to his record company, the total sales of the artist's recordings were over 180 million units.

popular name: Édith Piaf

date_of_death: October 10, 1963

age: 47

cause_of_death: Ruptured aneurysm due to liver failure

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: The most popular singer in France in the 1950s, Edith Piaf gained international recognition through her emotional songs of doom and tragic love. Unlike her contemporaries Charles Aznavour and Maurice Chevalier, Piaf achieved stardom through her French recordings and not the English translation of her hits. Like her songs, she died tragically young from drug and alcohol dependency after the loss of her true love in a plane crash.

popular name: Lucio Dalla

date_of_death: March 1, 2012

age: 68

cause_of_death: Heart attack

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Lucio Dalla was a popular Italian singer-songwriter, musician and actor who belonged to a genre of Italian songwriters known as “cantautori,” whose lyrics gave voice to the aspirations and frustrations of a postwar generation seeking societal change. Even at a young age he was playing professionally and at 16 he performed with Chet Baker, the American jazz trumpeter, whom he credited as one of his main influences. However it wasn't until 1971 when he catapulted to fame with a series of albums that sold well and drew critical acclaim. One of his best-known songs, “Caruso,” sold millions of copies and has been recorded by a long list of singers including Julio Iglesias, Luciano Pavarotti and Josh Groban. Dalla’s popularity continued and spanned decades and even the month before his death, he participated in the San Remo Festival of Italian song, a popular competition. In addition to his own albums, Dalla also composed songs for famous Italian film directors such as Mario Monicelli, Michelangelo Antonioni, Pupi Avati, Carlo Verdone and Michele Placido. He also wrote an opera inspired by Puccini’s Tosca. Interested in all forms of art, Dalla was also the curator of a contemporary art gallery in Bologna.