Joey Ramone

popular name: Melvin Franklin

date_of_death: February 23, 1995

age: 52

cause_of_death: Multiple health issues including rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes, necrotizing fasciitis, seizures and heart failure

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: It has been over five decades since The Temptations were first founded and in that time there have been 22 different members of the group, but it is the ‘Classic Five’ (and the post-Classic Five, Dennis Edwards) line-up that most fans consider the best. Central to that line-up was the incredible bass voice of Melvin Franklin, dubbed by the group and by their fans as ‘the world’s greatest bass singer’.

popular name: Marc Bolan

date_of_death: September 16, 1977

age: 29

cause_of_death: Automobile accident

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: As the lead singer, songwriter and guitarist for T Rex, Marc Bolan captivated generations with his strutting music and hyper-sexual charisma. Sporting makeup, glitter, a top hat with flowing locks of gorgeous hair, Bolan was on the forefront of glam rock with such classics as Jeepster, 20th Century Boy and, of course, Bang a Gong. Even 50 years since his tragic death Marc Bolan remains one of the most iconic figureheads in the history of British music.

popular name: Johannes Brahms

date_of_death: April 3, 1897

age: 63

cause_of_death: Neuroendocrine pancreatic cancer with liver metastases and liver failure

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Johannes Brahms was a German composer, pianist, and conductor of the mid-Romantic period. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, he spent much of his professional life in Vienna. Brahms composed for symphony orchestra, chamber ensembles, piano, organ, voice, and chorus. A virtuoso pianist, he premiered many of his own works. He worked with leading performers of his time, including the pianist Clara Schumann and the violinist Joseph Joachim (the three were close friends). Many of his works have become staples of the modern concert repertoire including Symphony No. 3 (1883), Piano Quintet (1865), Academic Festival Overture (1880) and Hungarian Dances (1869–1880). He is sometimes grouped with Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven as one of the "Three Bs" of music, a comment originally made by the nineteenth-century conductor Hans von Bülow.