Joey Ramone

popular name: Mel Tormé

date_of_death: June 5, 1999

age: 73

cause_of_death: Stroke

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Singer, actor, writer, composer, arranger, drummer and pianist Mel Tormé was extraordinarily versatile, but he will primarily be remembered as one of the supreme popular vocalists of this century, a superb song stylist equally persuasive handling tender love-songs, swinging rhythm numbers or giving a cool jazz sound to the best of popular song. As a singer, his name ranks in the top echelon along with Crosby and Sinatra, but he excelled them when it came to jazz stylings, particularly with the series of superb recordings he made with arranger Marty Paich starting in the mid-Fifties. As a composer, his best-known work, "The Christmas Song" ("Chestnuts roasting on an open fire . . ."), is a perennial favourite. His own autobiography, It Wasn't All Velvet, is an oblique reference to the label given him by the disc jockey Fred Robbins, "The Velvet Fog", an attempt to sum up the warm, mellow timbre that gave Torme's voice its unmistakable individuality. Sadly on August 8, 1996, a stroke ended Tormé's 65-year singing career. In February 1999, he was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. He died from another stroke on June 5, 1999, at the age of 73.

popular name: T-Bone Walker

date_of_death: March 16, 1975

age: 64

cause_of_death: Bronchial pneumonia

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Infusing the blues with an electrifying, yet, sophisticated uptown flavor, T-Bone Walker was the driving force that redirected the course of the blues - moving it from juke joints and roadhouses to swank nightclubs and theaters. Favoring hot swing rhythms with a big band accompaniment, Walker seamlessly blended jazz and Texas blues to become a seminal figure in the development of rock 'n' roll. In his youth, a 10-year-old T-Bone was called upon to work as lead boy to Blind Lemon Jefferson through the rough neighborhoods of Dallas. In exchange Jefferson taught the young boy the basics of blues guitar. In the fall of 1942 Walker got the chance to record his electric guitar when he cut "I Got a Break Baby" and "Mean Old World" on Capital Records. His biggest hit, "Call it Stormy Monday" was issued in 1947 and made him a household name. In the 1960s, when blues began to lose it's popularity, Walker toured Europe with such legends as Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon, John Lee Hooker and Memphis Slim. After 50 years on the road the effects of drinking, gambling, ulcers and arthritis all took their toll and he died of a stroke-induced pneumonia at the age of 64.

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.