Joey Ramone

popular name: Jack Teagarden

date_of_death: January 15, 1964

age: 58

cause_of_death: Heart failure

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Until Jack Teagarden, jazz trombone sounded like "a dying cow in a thunderstorm" according to jazz trombonist Vic Dickerson. Like musical innovators Louis Armstrong and Charlie Parker before him Teagarden developed new ideas and a close-to-the-chest slide technique that revolutionized jazz trombone. He parlayed his talents and collaborated with such giants as Glenn Miller, Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, Hoagy Carmichael as well as fronting his all-star jazz band. But 50 years on the road, 5 marriages and excessive alcohol consumption all took their toll when he died in his sleep after a gig at the Dream Room in New Orleans.

popular name: Jimmy Reed

date_of_death: August 29, 1976

age: 50

cause_of_death: Respiratory failure due to epileptic seizure

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Jimmy Reed was an American blues musician and songwriter whose particular style of electric blues was popular with blues as well as non-blues audiences. Reed's songs such as "Honest I Do" (1957), "Baby What You Want Me to Do" (1960), "Big Boss Man" (1961), and "Bright Lights, Big City" (1961) appeared on both Billboard magazine's rhythm and blues and Hot 100 singles charts. In the beginning Reed learned the rudiments of guitar from his friend Eddie Taylor, a far more accomplished guitarist who would serve as Reed’s accompanist for much of his career. By the 1950s, Reed had established himself as a popular musician yet failed to gain a recording contract with Chess Records, but signed with Vee-Jay and began playing again with Eddie Taylor and soon released "You Don't Have to Go", his first hit record. It was followed by a long string of hit songs. Reed maintained his reputation despite his rampant alcoholism; his wife sometimes had to help him remember the lyrics to his songs while recording. In 1957, Reed developed epilepsy, though the condition was not correctly diagnosed for a long time, as Reed and doctors assumed it was delirium tremens. After his death his songs have been covered innumerable times, by artists as diverse as Tina Turner, The Rolling Stones, Grateful Dead, Etta James, Neil Young and The Righteous Brothers. BMI lists over 30 covers of “Baby What You Want Me to Do” alone, while Elvis Presley chose to sing “Big Boss Man” (one of the few Reed hits that was not from his own pen) on his 1968 television comeback special. Reed was posthumously inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1980 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991.

popular name: R.J. Vealey

date_of_death: November 13, 1999

age: 37

cause_of_death: Heart Attack due to chronic cocaine abuse

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: R. J. Vealey was a respected studio drummer and former member of Roy Orbison's backing band who joined the Atlanta Rhythm Section in 1995. After the Atlanta Rhythm Section had finished an afternoon set at a concert festival in Orlando, Florida, the 37-year-old drummer complained of indigestion and then collapsed and died of a heart attack. It was later determined that the young drummer died from prolonged and abusive cocaine consumption. The former drummer for Roy Orbison died on his daughter's first birthday.