Pick a Day

Music History Events: Deaths

April 20, 2002 Pop singer Alan Dale ("(The Gang that Sang) Heart of My Heart") dies at age 76. Also known for playing a rock 'n roll singer in the 1956 film Don't Knock the Rock, featuring Alan Freed, Little Richard, The Treniers, and Bill Haley & His Comets.

March 26, 2002 Drummer Randy Castillo, who played with Ozzy Osbourne and Motley Crue, dies of cancer at age 51.

March 19, 2002 Soul jazz organist Big John Patton dies of complications from diabetes at age 66.

March 15, 2002 Marshall Leib (of The Teddy Bears) dies of a heart attack at age 63.

March 12, 2002 John "Speedy" Keene of Thunderclap Newman dies at age 56.

March 10, 2002 Jazz organist Shirley Scott dies of heart failure at age 67.

February 24, 2002 Arthur Lyman, jazz vibraphone and marimba player, dies of esophageal cancer at age 70.

February 16, 2002 Billy Ward of the vocal group Billy Ward and his Dominoes dies at age 80.

February 14, 2002 Sweet drummer Mick Tucker dies of leukemia at age 54.

February 13, 2002 Country music great Waylon Jennings dies at age 64.

January 21, 2002 Peggy Lee dies of complications from diabetes and a heart attack at age 81.

December 15, 2001 Rufus Thomas - R&B, funk, and soul singer - dies of heart failure in Memphis, Tennessee, at age 84.

November 24, 2001 Melanie Thornton, the lead singer for La Bouche, dies in a plane crash (Crossair Flight 3597) near Zurich, Switzerland, at 34.

November 23, 2001 O.C. Smith of "Little Green Apples" fame dies of a heart attack at age 69.

November 23, 2001 Juan Hinojosa (drummer for Los Fabulosos Cuatro), along with his 28-year-old son, dies in a car crash in Texas.

November 22, 2001 Jazz musician Norman Granz, producer for Ella Fitzgerald, among others, dies at age 83.

November 2, 2001 Country singer Buddy Starcher, known for the 1965 spoken-word recording "History Repeats Itself," dies at age 95.

October 29, 2001 Henry Berthold "Spike" Robinson, jazz tenor saxophonist, dies at age 71.

October 24, 2001 Kim Gardner (bass guitarist for Ashton, Gardner & Dyke) dies of cancer in Los Angeles, California, at age 53.

October 22, 2001 Rev. Howard Finster - a Baptist minister who also designed '80s album covers for the likes of R.E.M. and Talking Heads - dies of congestive heart failure at age 84.

October 17, 2001 Composer Jay Livingston dies in Los Angeles, California, at age 86. Known for his work with songwriting partner Ray Evans, including the Doris Day hit "Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)."

October 2, 2001 Jazz baritone saxophonist Manny Albam, also a composer, arranger and conductor, dies of cancer in Croton-on-Hudson, New York, at age 79.

September 22, 2001 Isaac Stern, Soviet-born violinist and conductor, dies of congestive heart failure in New York City, at age 81.

August 19, 2001 Betty Everett, the first to have a hit with "The Shoop Shoop Song (It's In His Kiss)," dies at 61.

August 7, 2001 Composer/musician/actor Larry Adler dies in London, England, at age 87.

August 2, 2001 Ron Townson (of The 5th Dimension) dies of renal failure as a result of kidney disease at age 68.

July 27, 2001 Saxophonist Harold Land dies from a stroke at age 72.

July 27, 2001 Leon Wilkeson (bass guitarist for Lynyrd Skynyrd) dies in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, from chronic liver and lung disease at age 49.

July 19, 2001 Soul singer Judy Clay dies at age 62 from injuries sustained in a car accident.

July 7, 2001 Fred Neil, a folk singer-songwriter known for writing Harry Nilsson's hit "Everybody's Talkin'," dies during a battle with skin cancer at age 65.