Johann Strauss ll

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.

popular name: Antonio Salieri

date_of_death: May 7, 1825

age: 74

cause_of_death: Effects of dementia caused by a head wound

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Antonio Salieri was an Italian classical composer, conductor, and teacher. Salieri was a pivotal figure in the development of late 18th-century opera. As a student of Florian Leopold Gassmann, and a protégé of Christoph Willibald Gluck, Salieri was a cosmopolitan composer who wrote operas in three languages. Salieri helped to develop and shape many of the features of operatic compositional vocabulary, and his music was a powerful influence on contemporary composers. Appointed the director of the Italian opera by the Habsburg court, a post he held from 1774 until 1792, Salieri dominated Italian-language opera in Vienna. During his career, he also spent time writing works for opera houses in Paris, Rome, and Venice, and his dramatic works were widely performed throughout Europe during his lifetime. Even as his works dropped from performance, and he wrote no new operas after 1804, he still remained one of the most important and sought-after teachers of his generation, and his influence was felt in every aspect of Vienna's musical life. Franz Liszt, Franz Schubert, Ludwig van Beethoven, Anton Eberl, Johann Nepomuk Hummel and Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart were among the most famous of his pupils. In the last year of his life he struggled with health issues related to a head injury and passed away at the age of 74.

popular name: Sonny Bono

date_of_death: January 5, 1998

age: 62

cause_of_death: Massive head injuries caused by skiing into a tree

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Singer, songwriter, actor and entertainer Sonny Bono began his career struggling to write songs while working as a waiter, a construction worker, a truck driver and a butcher's helper. In his 20's he immersed himself in the music business as a songwriter and singer with Specialty Records, where he worked with Sam Cooke and Little Richard. Soon he teamed up with the legendary record producer Phil Specter, where he wrote songs (''You Bug Me, Baby,'' and ''Needles and Pins'') and sang background for groups like the Righteous Brothers. The turning point of his career took place when the exotically beautiful 16-year-old named Cherilyn Sarkisian, who called herself Cher, drifted into his life. The pair first achieved fame with two hit songs in 1965, "Baby Don't Go" and "I Got You Babe". The couple's career as a duo ended in 1975 following their divorce. In the decade they spent together, Sonny and Cher were nominated for two Grammy Awards and sold over 40 million records worldwide. Rolling Stone ranked them No. 18 on its list of the 20 Greatest Duos of All Time. Sadly, it was on January 5th, 1998 when Sonny took off alone snow skiing and later slammed into a tree. Bono's body was found late Monday afternoon in a narrow, wooded area between two ski runs at the Heavenly Ski Resort. He died instantly from massive head trauma.