Pick a Day

Music History Events: Deaths

March 22, 2016 After years of health problems and a battle with diabetes, Phife Dawg of A Tribe Called Quest dies at age 45.

March 16, 2016 Frank Sinatra Jr., the only son of Frank Sinatra, dies of a heart attack at age 72 while on tour in Daytona Beach, Florida.

March 11, 2016 Keith Emerson, the keyboard player and primary music composer in Emerson, Lake & Palmer, dies of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at age 71.

March 8, 2016 Beatles producer George Martin dies at age 90. Paul McCartney says in a statement: "From the day that he gave The Beatles our first recording contract, to the last time I saw him, he was the most generous, intelligent and musical person I've ever had the pleasure to know."

March 7, 2016 Michael White, the British producer whose work includes the films Monty Python and the Holy Grail and The Rocky Horror Picture Show, dies of heart failure at age 80.

February 13, 2016 All four members of the promising English group Viola Beach are killed, along with their manager, when their car crashes on a bridge near Stockholm. Coldplay pay tribute by covering their song "Boys That Sing" at the Glastonbury Festival.

February 4, 2016 Earth, Wind & Fire founder Maurice White dies at age 74 after a long battle with Parkinson's disease.

January 24, 2016 Butch Trucks, co-founder and drummer of The Allman Brothers Band, dies at age 69 of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

November 23, 2015 Cynthia Robinson, trumpet player and founding member of Sly & the Family Stone, dies at age 71. That's her saying, "Get on up and dance!" in "Dance To The Music."

November 9, 2015 Allen Toussaint dies at age 77. A giant in the New Orleans musician scene, he wrote "Southern Nights," which was a #1 hit for Glen Campbell in 1977.

September 13, 2015 REO Speedwagon guitarist Gary Richrath, who wrote their hits "Ridin' the Storm Out" and "Take It On The Run," dies at age 65.

July 26, 2015 Bobbi Kristina Brown, daughter of Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown, dies at age 22. She is found unconscious in her bathtub, and the cause of death is eventually revealed as "immersion associated with drug intoxication."

May 21, 2015 Louis Johnson of The Brothers Johnson dies at 60. In addition to his work with the group, he also played bass on many sessions for other artists; that's him on Michael Jackson's "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" and "Billie Jean."

April 30, 2015 Ben E. King, songwriter and singer of "Stand By Me," dies at age 76.

April 14, 2015 Percy Sledge, who had a #1 hit with "When A Man Loves A Woman" and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, dies at age 74.

April 1, 2015 Cynthia Lennon, John Lennon's first wife, dies of cancer at age 75 in Mallorca, Spain.

March 31, 2015 British jazz pianist Ralph Sharon, who brought "I Left My Heart In San Francisco" to Tony Bennett, dies in Boulder, Colorado, at age 91.

March 21, 2015 Jackie Trent dies at age 74. She was married to Tony Hatch, with whom she wrote the theme song to the Australian TV show Neighbours and the Petula Clark hit "Don't Sleep In The Subway."

March 20, 2015 Twisted Sister drummer A.J. Pero dies of an apparent heart attack in New York at age 55.

March 13, 2015 Daevid Allen, Australian jazz-rock guitarist (of Gong, Soft Machine), dies of cancer at age 77.

March 11, 2015 Jimmy Greenspoon (keyboardist for Three Dog Night) dies of cancer, metastatic melanoma, at age 67.

March 9, 2015 Eugene Patton, known as Gene Gene the Dancing Machine from the classic '70s Gong Show, dies at age 82 in Pasadena, California.

February 27, 2015 R&B singer Charmayne Maxwell (of Brownstone) dies in a freak accident at age 46 when she falls on a broken wine glass and cuts her neck.

February 16, 2015 Lesley Gore, known for the '60s pop hit "It's My Party," dies of lung cancer at age 68.

February 12, 2015 Laugh-In announcer Gary Owens dies of complications from type 1 diabetes at age 80 in Encino, California.

January 29, 2015 Rod McKuen, songwriter, poet, and composer, dies during a bout of pneumonia at age 81. Frank Sinatra's 1969 A Man Alone album was a compilation of McKuen's songs, including "Love's Been Good To Me."

January 20, 2015 Edgar Froese (drummer for Tangerine Dream) dies of a pulmonary embolism at age 70 in Austria.

January 18, 2015 Dallas Taylor, former Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young drummer, dies of complications from pneumonia and kidney disease in Los Angeles, California, at age 66.

January 15, 2015 Kim Fowley dies of bladder cancer in Hollywood, California. The self-styled "Lord of Garbage" and founder of The Runaways was an infamous eccentric and was often sighted in his later days walking the Las Vegas strip with a cane, and his hair dyed green.

January 8, 2015 Gospel singer Andraé Crouch dies of complications from a heart attack at age 72.