musical deaths

[Dr. Linux]

Michael Norman Finn (3 June 1947 – 11 January 2003)[1] was an English musician. He was best known as the percussionist and sideman to Marc Bolan in his band Tyrannosaurus Rex (on one album, A Beard of Stars) and later the 1970s glam rock group T. Rex. After Bolan's death and T. Rex's demise, he worked as a session musician for The Blow Monkeys and The Soup Dragons.

[weimy froob]

Teddy Pendagrass
Died: January 13, 2010
American singer. Born in Kingstree South Carolina he was raised in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, he initially rose to musical fame as the lead singer of Harold Mel-
vin & the Blue Notes. After leaving the group over monetary disputes in 1976,
Pendergrass launched a successful solo career under the Philadelphia International
label, releasing five consecutive platinum albums, then a record for an African-
American R&B artist. Pendergrass's career was suspended after a March 1982 car
crash that left him paralyzed from the chest down. Pendergrass continued his
successful solo career until announcing his retirement in 2007.

[weimy froob]

Jerry Nolan
Died: January 14, 1992
American rock drummer,
best known for his work
with the New York Dolls
and Johnny Thunders and
The Heartbreakers.

[Dr. Linux]

Dee Murray




David Murray Oates (3 April 1946 – 15 January 1992),[1] known as Dee Murray, was an English bass guitarist. He was best known for his long-time collaboration with Elton John as a member of the Elton John Band.

[weimy froob]

Harry Nilsson
Died: January 15, 1994
Harry Edward Nilsson III, known professionally as Nilsson, was an American
singer-songwriter who achieved the peak of his commercial success in the
early 1970s...He was voted No. 62 in Rolling Stone's 2015 list of the "100
Greatest Songwriters of All Time", where he was described as "a pioneer
of the Los Angeles studio sound."

[weimy froob]

Phil Spector
Died: January 16, 2021
Harvey Phillip Spector was an American re-
cord producer, musician, and songwriter who
is best known for his innovative recording
practices and entrepreneurship in the 1960s,
followed decades later by his two trials and
conviction for murder in the 2000s. Spector
developed the Wall of Sound, a production
style that he described as a Wagnerian ap-
proach to rock and roll. He is regarded as
one of the most influential figures in pop
music history and one of the most successful
producers of the 1960s.

[weimy froob]

Don Kirshner
Died: January 17, 2011
Donald Clark Kirshner, once described
by Time Magazine as The Man With the
Golden Ear, was an American music
publisher, rock music producer, talent
manager, and songwriter. He was best
known for managing songwriting talent
as well as successful pop groups, such
as the Monkees, Kansas, and the Archies.

[weimy froob]

David Crosby
Died: January 18, 2023
David Van Cortlandt Crosby was an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist.
He first found fame as a member of the Byrds, with whom he helped pioneer
the genres of folk rock and psychedelia in the mid-1960s, and later as part of
the supergroup Crosby, Stills & Nash, who helped popularize the California
sound of the 1970s. In addition to his music, Crosby was known for his out-
spoken personality, politics, and personal troubles; he was sometimes de-
picted as emblematic of the counterculture of the 1960s...Crosby's combined
work with the Byrds and CSNY has sold over 35 million albums. He was in-
ducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice: once for his work in the
Byrds and again for his work with CSN. Five albums to which he contributed
are included in Rolling Stone's list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time",
three with the Byrds and two with CSN(Y).

[weimy froob]

Carl Perkins
Died: January 19, 1998
American singer-songwriter who re-
corded most notably at the Sun Stu-
dio, in Memphis, beginning in 1954.
Amongst his best-known songs are
'Blue Suede Shoes', 'Matchbox' and
Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby'...
Called "the King of Rockabilly", he
was inducted into the Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame, the Rockabilly Hall of
Fame, the Memphis Music Hall of
Fame, and the Nashville Songwriters
Hall of Fame. He also received a
Grammy Hall of Fame Award.

[weimy froob]

Meat Loaf
Died: January 20, 2022
American singer, songwriter, record producer, and actor. He was noted for
his wide-ranging operatic voice and theatrical live shows.

[weimy froob]

Colonel Tom Parker
Died: January 21, 1997
The Dutch-born manager of Elvis Presley. Their partner-
ship was uniquely successful, Elvis being an entirely new
force in popular music, and Parker an entrepreneurial
genius able to market him.

[weimy froob]

Allen Collins
Died: January 23, 1990
One of the founding members and guitarists of
Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd, and co-wrote
many of the band's songs with late frontman
Ronnie Van Zant. He was born in Jacksonville, Florida.

[Bon Scott]

Criss Oliva
Christopher Michael Oliva (April 3, 1963 – October 17, 1993) was an American musician who was the lead guitarist and co-founder of the heavy metal band Savatage. During his lifetime, he released seven studio albums and one EP with the band.

[weimy froob]

Butch Trucks
Died: January 24, 2017
American drummer. He was best known as a founding member of The Allman
Brothers Band.

[weimy froob]

Albert Grossman
Died: January 25, 1986
American entrepreneur and manager in the American folk music scene and rock
and roll. He was famous as the manager of many of the most popular and successful
performers of folk and folk-rock music, including Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, Peter, Paul
and Mary, the Band, Odetta, Gordon Lightfoot and Ian & Sylvia.

[weimy froob]

Charlie Louvin
Died: January 26, 2011
American country music singer and songwriter. He is best known as one of
the Louvin Brothers, and was a member of the Grand Ole Opry since 1955.

[weimy froob]

Pete Seeger
Died: January 27, 2014
American folk singer and social activist. A fixture on nationwide radio in the
1940s, Seeger also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a
member of the Weavers, most notably their recording of Lead Belly's "Good-
night, Irene", which topped the charts for 13 weeks in 1950. Members of the
Weavers were blacklisted during the McCarthy Era. In the 1960s, Seeger re-
emerged on the public scene as a prominent singer of protest music in sup-
port of international disarmament, civil rights, counterculture, and environ-
mental causes.

[weimy froob]

Willie Dixon
Died: January 29, 1992
William James Dixon was an American blues musician, vocalist, songwriter,
arranger and record producer. He was proficient in playing both the upright
bass and the guitar, and sang with a distinctive voice, but he is perhaps best
known as one of the most prolific songwriters of his time. Next to Muddy Wa-
ters, Dixon is recognized as the most influential person in shaping the post–
World War II sound of the Chicago blues.

[weimy froob]

Professor Longhair
Died: January 30, 1980
American singer and pianist who performed New Orleans blues. He was active in two
distinct periods, first in the heyday of early rhythm and blues and later in the resur-
gence of interest in traditional jazz after the founding of the New Orleans Jazz and
Heritage Festival in 1970. His piano style has been described as "instantly recognizable,
combining rumba, mambo, and calypso."...Professor Longhair was inducted into the
Blues Hall of Fame in 1981. In 1987, he was awarded a posthumous Grammy Award for
a collection of recordings produced by Quint Davis in 1971 and 1972 released as House
Party New Orleans Style. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992.

[weimy froob]

Slim Harpo
Died: January 31, 1970
Slim Harpo (born James Isaac Moore)
was an American blues musician, a
leading exponent of the swamp blues
style, and "one of the most commercially
successful blues artists of his day". He
played guitar and was a master of the
blues harmonica, known in blues circles
as a "harp".

[weimy froob]

Andy Gill
Died: February 01, 2020
A founding member and guitarist for the English rock group Gang of Four. Gill
was known for his jagged style of guitar on albums such as Entertainment! (1979)
and Solid Gold (1981) and hit singles such as "At Home He's a Tourist," "Damaged
Goods," "Anthrax" "What We All Want" and "I Love a Man in a Uniform".

[weimy froob]

Sid Vicious
Died: February 02, 1979
English bassist and vocalist. He achieved fame as a member of the punk rock band the Sex Pistols,
replacing Glen Matlock, who had fallen out of favor with the rest of the group.

[Beef Supreme]

RIP Wayne Kramer of MC5.

Dead today at age 75.



Kick out a jam today in his honor.

[weimy froob]

Karen Carpenter
Died: February 04, 1983
American singer and drummer who was part of the duo the Carpenters along-
side her brother Richard. She was praised for her contralto vocals, and her
drumming abilities were viewed positively by other musicians and critics.

[weimy froob]

Carl Wilson
Died: February 06, 1998
American musician, singer, and songwriter who co-founded
the Beach Boys. He is best remembered as their lead guitarist,
as the youngest brother of bandmates Brian and Dennis Wilson,
and as the group's de facto leader in the early 1970s. He was
also the band's musical director on stage from 1965 until his
death. Influenced by the guitar playing of Chuck Berry and the
Ventures, Wilson's initial role in the group was that of lead
guitarist and backing vocals, but he performed lead vocals on
several of their later hits, including "God Only Knows" (1966),
"Good Vibrations" (1966), and "Kokomo" (1988).

[weimy froob]

Bobby Troup
Died: February 07, 1999
American actor, jazz pianist, singer and
songwriter. He is best known for writing
the popular standard "Route 66", and for
his role as Dr. Joe Early, opposite his real-
life wife Julie London's character, in the
1970s US TV series, Emergency!

[weimy froob]

Del Shannon
Died: February 08, 1990
American rock and roll and country musician and singer-songwriter, best known
for his 1961 number 1 Billboard hit "Runaway". Shannon was inducted into the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999

[weimy froob]

Bill Haley
Died: February 09, 1981
American rock and roll musician. He is credited by many with first popularizing
this form of music in the early 1950s with his group Bill Haley & His Comets and
million-selling hits such as "Rock Around the Clock", "See You Later, Alligator",
"Shake, Rattle and Roll", "Rocket 88", "Skinny Minnie", and "Razzle Dazzle". He has
sold over 60 million records worldwide and has been described as the greatest
musical pioneer of the 20th century.

[weimy froob]

Dave Van Ronk
Died: February 10, 2002
American folk singer. An important figure in the American folk
music revival and New York City's Greenwich Village scene in
the 1960s, he was nicknamed the "Mayor of MacDougal Street".
In his autobiography Bob Dylan states, "I'd heard Van Ronk back
in the Midwest on records and thought he was pretty great,
copied some of his recordings phrase for phrase. ... Van Ronk
could howl and whisper, turn blues into ballads and ballads into
blues. I loved his style. He was what the city was all about. In
Greenwich Village, Van Ronk was king of the street, he reigned
supreme."

[weimy froob]

Whitney Houston
Died: February 11, 2012
American singer and actress. She was cited as the most awarded female artist
of all time by Guinness World Records and remains one of the best-selling music
artists of all time with 200 million records sold worldwide.