Joey Ramone

popular name: Jesse Belvin

date_of_death: February 6, 1960

age: 27

cause_of_death: Automobile accident

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: As author of the best known do-wop hit “Earth Angel” and “Good Night My Love,” Jesse Belvin was one of the premier voices of the West Coast black vocal music before his life (and that of his driver and wife) was cut short in a highly suspicious auto “accident”.

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: Udo Jürgens

date_of_death: December 21, 2014

age: 80

cause_of_death: Cardiac arrest

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Udo Jürgens, was an Austrian composer and singer of German origin of popular music whose career spanned over 50 years. He won the Eurovision Song Contest 1966 for Austria, composed close to 1,000 songs, and sold over 104 million records. He is credited with broadening German-language pop music beyond the traditional post-war "Schlager" (hit song) in the 1950s by infusing it with a modern pop appeal and French chanson style. His compositions and arrangements attracted fans of all ages. A few of his memorable recordings include "Griechischer Wein", "Aber bitte mit Sahne", "Mit 66 Jahren", and—one of his biggest successes—"Buenos Días, Argentina". Until his death at age 80, he continued to fill venues in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Jürgens collapsed during a walk in Gottlieben, a town on Lake Constance north of Zurich, Switzerland, and died of heart failure later at a hospital.