Joey Ramone

popular name: Eddie Cochran

date_of_death: April 17, 1960

age: 21

cause_of_death: Automobile accident

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Eddie Cochran was an American rock and roll musician and songwriter with such hits as "Twenty Flight Rock", "Summertime Blues", "C'mon Everybody" and "Somethin' Else", captured teenage frustration and desire in the mid-1950s and early 1960s. He was one of the first musicians to experiment with multitrack recording, distortion techniques, and overdubbing even on his earliest singles. His image as a sharply dressed young man with a rebellious attitude epitomized the stance of the 1950s rocker and with only one album during his lifetime and passing at the age of 21, in death he achieved iconic status.

popular name: Dean Manuel

date_of_death: July 31, 1964

age: 30

cause_of_death: Plane crash

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: "Dockie" Dean Manuel played piano for several noteworthy bands of the mid-twentieth century both on the West Coast and in Nashville, Tennessee. While attempting to re-establish himself in the West Coast country music scene after returning from the armed services, Dean received a phone call from Jim Reeves in Nashville, who was reorganizing the Blue Boys, named for Jim’s big hit of 1958, “Blue Boy.” Manuel and his family moved to Nashville. Manuel became part of the Jim Reeves Blue Boys band in 1959. He he was joined by drummer Mel Rogers and bass player James Kirkland to be in the band. Manuel, Rogers, and Kirkland, along with Leo Jackson (who was returning from the military), formed the nucleus of Jim Reeves and the Blue Boys. Sadly in 1965 Manuel died in a plane crash with Jim Reeves after leaving Independence County, where he had been helping Reeves with a land purchase.

popular name: Steve Peregrin Took

date_of_death: October 27, 1980

age: 31

cause_of_death: Asphyxiation after inhaling a cocktail cherry during drug use

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: One-half of the founding members of T. Rex with Marc Bolan, Steve Peregrin Took was by all accounts a remarkable musician and songwriter - when he was sober. After two years and three albums, Took's push to perform more of his own material – as well as his drug use – had driven a wedge between Marc and Steve and Took was fired from the group. He went on to a series of short-lived bands, but never came close to the success Bolan achieved without him. Sadly, relegated to the history books as the Pete Best of glam rock, he is cruelly remembered as the rock star who choked on a cocktail cherry and died.