Joey Ramone

popular name: Marty Robbins

date_of_death: December 8, 1982

age: 57

cause_of_death: Cardiovascular disease, lung and kidney failure following quadruple bypass surgery

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Marty Robbins was country music's most versatile singer and consistent hitmaker. His early recordings saw him veer from tear-stained ballads and honky-tonks to rockabilly and pop. Best known for his string of gunfighter ballads, Robbin's musical integrity made him one of the most beloved entertainers by his fans and within the Nashville music scene. And if you still don't know who Marty Robbins is - listen to the song "El Paso" and that will probably jog a memory cell or two.

popular name: Howlin' Wolf

date_of_death: January 10, 1976

age: 65

cause_of_death: Complications from brain cancer and kidney disease

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Chester Arthur Burnett, known as Howlin’ Wolf or Howling Wolf, was one of the most influential musicians of the post–World War II era. His electric blues guitar, backing his powerful, howling voice, helped shape rock and roll. The raw, rasping, guttural power of Wolf's fierce voice, combined with his imposing physical presence and wild stage abandon, made him unforgettable. His influence stretched far beyond the realm of the blues; British rock performers Eric Clapton, The Rolling Stones, and The Yardbirds merged Wolf's blues with white rock and roll in songs like "Smokestack Lightning," "Ain't Superstitious," "Back Door Man" and "Little Red Rooster." Wolf was an experimental bluesman who formulated a wide range of moods and possibilities for his songs. He was also notably consistent: Throughout his career he retained the style, vigor, and flavor of the Mississippi Delta blues of his early years.

popular name: Earle Hagen

date_of_death: May 26, 2008

age: 88

cause_of_death: Natural causes

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Earle Hagen was a talented Hollywood composer and musician who wrote some of the most famous theme songs in television history. Hagen's memorably melodic riffs in a variety of musical genres graced the score of dozens of television shows from 1953 to 1986, including “Make Room for Daddy,” “The Mod Squad,” “Eight Is Enough” and “The Dukes of Hazzard. Of course most remember him as the creator of possibly the most idly hummed melody of all time - the folksy, countrified whistle that opened “The Andy Griffith Show,” accompanying Sheriff Andy Taylor (Mr. Griffith) and his young son, Opie (Ron Howard), down a dirt road toward a fishing hole. And not only did he score the opening theme song, he also did the whistling himself. He also wrote the swing-like anthem for “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” accompanying Mr. Van Dyke’s entry into his suburban home and his tumble over an ottoman. (In later seasons, Mr. Van Dyke would sidestep the ottoman to the same playful musical phrase.) He wrote the cool, cosmopolitan and suggestively exotic theme for the espionage drama “I Spy.” He wrote the cheerily mock-military anthem for the bumpkin-in-the-marines comedy “Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C,” starring Jim Nabors. And he wrote the perky pop theme for the Marlo Thomas vehicle “That Girl.”