Music
Age 55
October 8, 1932 - July 29, 1988
Spring Hill Cemetery / Nashville / Tennessee / USA / North America
Pete Drake was one of the greatest pedal-steel musicians who played on 118 Gold and Platinum albums with artists ranging from Bob Dylan, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, Marty Robbins, Elvis Presley, Ernst Tubb and George Jones. H...
Music
Age 30
September 7, 1964 - March 26, 1995
Rose Hills Memorial Park / Whittier / California / USA / North America
Co-founder of the influential Compton, California gangsta rap group N.W.A., Easy-E with Dr. Dre and Ice Cube won acclaim for portraying life on the streets of east L.A. in the 1980s as one of the premier west coast rappers. Sadly ...
Music
Age 75
April 29, 1899 - May 24, 1974
Woodlawn Cemetery / Bronx / New York / USA / North America
Considered by many as the greatest jazz composer and bandleader of his time, Duke Ellington led his band for more than half a century, composed thousands of scores, and created one of the most distinctive ensemble sounds in all of...
Music
Age 32
September 19, 1941 - July 29, 1974
Mount Sinai Memorial Parks / Los Angeles / California / USA / North America
Her unmistakable voice as a founding member of The Mamas and The Papas in songs like California Dreamin’, Monday Monday and Dream a Little Dream of Me, catapulted her into the iconography of the 1960’s.
Music
Age 71
November 2, 1944 - March 11, 2016
Lancing and Sompting Cemetery / Lancing / West Sussex / England / Europe
Keith Emerson was an English keyboardist, songwriter, and record producer who was perhaps best known as one-third of Emerson, Lake and Palmer. He played keyboards in a number of bands before finding his first commercial success wi...
Music
Age 40
February 19, 1957 - February 6, 1998
Der Wiener Zentralfriedhof / Simmeringer Hauptstraße 234 / Vienna / Austria / Europe
His name was Falco, and the image of sharp suit and slick-back hair already set him apart from the glam rockers and post-punks of the late 80s. He was a musician; a singer; a rapper. A gentleman, a womanizer; he hated garden gnome...
Music
Age 81
August 10, 1909 - March 21, 1991
Fairhaven Memorial Park / Santa Ana / California / USA / North America
Keith Richard's once said "thank God for Leo Fender". For it was Leo Fender, with $600 in his pocket, started the Fender Radio Service company during World War II which eventually led to a lifetime obsession with creating and buil...
Music
Age 47
December 3, 1914 - August 23, 1962
Sharon Memorial Park / Sharon / Massachusetts / USA / North America
Irving Fine was an American composer with a remarkable gift for lyricism, whose masterfully crafted scores inevitably "sing." Aaron Copland wrote that his music "wins us over through its keenly conceived sonorities and its fully r...
Music
Age 72
February 13, 1919 - October 17, 1991
Alta Mesa Memorial Park / Palo Alto / California / USA / North America
American singer known for his rich bass-baritone voice in singing country, pop, and gospel, Tennessee Ernie Ford's hit recordings include "The Shotgun Boogie" and "Sixteen Tons". Ford also was a television host and known for his e...
Music
Age 79
September 21, 1921 - May 20, 2001
Holly Ridge Cemetery / Holly Ridge / Mississippi / USA / North America
Not to be confused with Little Willy Foster from Chicago, Willie Foster was a talented delta blues harmonica player who was born into poverty who ended up eventually in Chicago playing for tips on Maxwell Street. Shortly after he ...
Music
Age 75
July 21, 1939 - January 15, 2015
Hollywood Forever Cemetery / Los Angeles / California / USA / North America
Hunter S. Thompson once said "The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side." A more apt description of fo...
Music
Age 39
February 1, 1939 - March 11, 1978
Cimetière de Dannemois / Dannemois / France / Europe
Claude François was a popular French pop singer, composer, songwriter, record producer, drummer and dancer. François co-wrote the lyrics of "Comme d'habitude" (composed by Jacques Revaux), the original version of "My Way" (as ma...
Music
Age 52
October 12, 1942 - February 23, 1995
Forest Lawn Memorial Park – Hollywood Hills / Los Angeles / California / USA / North America
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 m...
Music
Age 43
December 15, 1921 - January 20, 1965
Lake View Cemetery / Cleveland / Ohio / USA / North America
Alan Freed was an American disc jockey and Rock and Roll’s first great evangelist and martyr. Freed became associated with the genre on July 11, 1951, when he started hosting a radio show with the purpose of exposing white teena...
Music
Age 47
March 31, 1928 - July 19, 1975
Forest Lawn Memorial Garden / Goodlettsville / Tennessee / USA / North America
Widely considered one of the greatest country singers who ever lived, Lefty Frizzell's body of work gives little indication of the enormous stylistic impact he had on country music beginning in the 1950s. Had Lefty died the way Ha...
Music
Age 63
April 15, 1936 - October 12, 1999
Magnolia Cemetery / Helena / Arkansas / USA / North America
One of the foremost Delta blues harmonica players of his generation. Frank Frost only picked up the harmonica after an accident damaged his hand that prevented him from continuing with guitar. Taught by Sonny Boy Williams II, Fran...
Music
Age 23
October 22, 1942 - July 18, 1966
Forest Lawn Memorial Park – Hollywood Hills / Los Angeles / California / USA / North America
"I fought the law and the law won". These words became an anthem for a generation of disaffected youth during the turbulent 60s. Written and sung by Bobby Fuller fronting the Bobby Fuller Four, like so many young talent of those u...
Music
Age 62
April 2, 1928 - March 2, 1991
Cimetière du Montparnasse / Paris / France / Europe
Serge Gainsbourg was a French musician, singer-songwriter, author, filmmaker and actor. Regarded as the most important figure in French pop whilst alive, he was renowned for often provocative and scandalous releases which caused u...
Music
Age 70
October 9, 1947 - January 7, 2018
Cimetière de Montmartre / Paris / France / Europe
France Gall was a French yé-yé singer who first rose to fame in 1965 when, at the age of 17, she won the Eurovision Song Contest for Luxembourg. What little did she know at the time was the song that she won the Eurovision Song ...
Music
Age 70
November 22, 1946 - February 5, 2017
Knollwood Cemetery / Mayfield Heights / Ohio / USA / North America
Geraci made his mark in the Cleveland music scene as the lead singer for the Outsiders. Signed to Capital Records they released four Top-40 hits including "Girl in Love" and "Help Me Girl". In 1971 Geraci scored his biggest hit s...