Music History

Canadian-American actor and occasional singer Glenn Ford died at the age of 90.

Jumpin' Gene Simmons, American rockabilly singer and songwriter, died after a long illness at the age of 69. He became known especially for his version of the song "Haunted House", which reached No. 11 in the US in 1964. KISS bassist Gene Simmons, born Chaim Witz, chose his stage name in his honor.

Lee Hazlewood, American singer, songwriter, and producer known in part for his work with Nancy Sinatra, died at the age of 78 at his home near Las Vegas after a three-year battle with kidney cancer.

Mark Marush, saxophonist with The Fabulous Wailers, died.

Anthony Wilson, the British music entrepreneur behind some of Manchester’s most successful bands, died of kidney cancer at the age of 57. He was a television presenter, co-owner of Factory Records, an artist manager, and the founder of the Haçienda and Dry Bar. In 2000, he also helped launch Music33, one of the first digital music stores.

Hilly Kristal, founder of New York punk club CBGB, died at the age of 75 from complications related to lung cancer. He is credited with discovering Patti Smith and The Ramones, and his club became an important venue for the development of punk rock. It originally opened as a venue focused on country, bluegrass and blues.

Erik Darling, a member of The Rooftop Singers and The Tarriers, died in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, at the age of 74 from Burkitt lymphoma.

American musician Robert Hazard, songwriter and composer of “Girls Just Want to Have Fun,” died at the age of 59 from pancreatic cancer.

Pioneering American singer, songwriter and musician Isaac Hayes was found dead at his home in Memphis, Tennessee, at the age of 65 after an apparent stroke. He won an Oscar and a Grammy for “Theme From Shaft,” was a major creative force at Stax Records, and co-wrote the iconic songs “Soul Man” and “Hold On, I'm Comin'.” He was also known as the voice of Chef on “South Park”.

Don Helms, the steel guitarist best known as a member of Hank Williams' Drifting Cowboys, died at the age of 81. He played on more than 100 Hank Williams recordings and also appeared on classic country recordings by Patsy Cline, Stonewall Jackson, the Louvin Brothers, Lefty Frizzell and Loretta Lynn.

She died in Liverpool, England. In 1953, she had a number-one hit with her version of Patti Page's “How Much Is That Doggie In The Window”. She was the first British female singer to reach number one on the UK singles chart.

American music producer and journalist Jerry Wexler died at the age of 91 from heart failure. He significantly influenced the development of modern rhythm and blues and worked on Aretha Franklin's “Respect”, Wilson Pickett's “In the Midnight Hour” and Bob Dylan's album Slow Train Coming. He also worked with Ray Charles, Percy Sledge, Solomon Burke, Led Zeppelin and Dire Straits. As a Billboard journalist, he helped establish the term “rhythm and blues” in 1949 as a replacement for the then-used term “Race Records”.

Spiral Starecase keyboardist Harvey Kaye, who can be heard on their 1969 hit “More Today Than Yesterday”, died of a heart attack five days before his 70th birthday.

Pervis Jackson, bassist and original member of the Motown group The Spinners, died at the age of 70 from brain cancer. The group had a number of hits in the 1970s, including “I'll Be Around,” “Could It Be I'm Falling in Love,” “Then Came You” and “Rubberband Man.”

American saxophonist and arranger LeRoi Holloway Moore, a founding member of Dave Matthews Band, died at the age of 46. A month earlier, he had suffered serious injuries, including a punctured lung, in an accident involving an ATV/vehicle on his farm in Virginia. He died as a result of those injuries and subsequent pneumonia.

Wayne Wadhams, keyboard player and lead vocalist of The Fifth Estate, who had the 1967 Billboard No. 11 hit “Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead”, died at the age of 61. In addition to his music career, he was a respected author and educator and spent many years as a professor at Berklee College of Music, where he helped create and develop the Music Production and Engineering (MP&E) programme.

Drummer Buddy Harman died of congestive heart failure at the age of 79. He worked with Elvis Presley (“Little Sister”), Patsy Cline (“Crazy”), Roy Orbison (“Pretty Woman”), Johnny Cash (“Ring Of Fire”) and Tammy Wynette (“Stand By Your Man”). He was the first studio drummer for the Grand Ole Opry and can be heard on more than 18,000 recordings.

Singer, guitarist, songwriter and actor Jerry Reed died at the age of 71 from complications associated with emphysema. He became known for songs including “Guitar Man,” “Amos Moses,” “When You’re Hot, You’re Hot,” “A Thing Called Love” and “Alabama Wild Man.” His song “East Bound and Down” became closely associated with his role in the 1977 film Smokey and the Bandit. He appeared in a total of 23 films and reached the Billboard Country chart 52 times.

Rockabilly singer and musician Billy Lee Riley died on August 2, 2009, at the age of 75 from colon cancer.

Willy DeVille, frontman of New York's Mink DeVille, died at the age of 58 after battling pancreatic cancer. In the 1970s, the band regularly performed at CBGB in New York and had the hit “Spanish Stroll.”

Folkový zpěvák a hudebník Mike Seeger ze skupiny New Lost City Ramblers zemřel na rakovinu v Lexingtonu ve Virginii.

Les Paul, a pioneering guitarist, inventor and recording innovator, died at the age of 94 from complications related to pneumonia.

Allen Shellenberger died in Artesia, California, from cancer at the age of 39. He was the drummer for Lit.

Guitarist, songwriter, and inventor Les Paul died at a hospital in White Plains, New York, at the age of 94 from severe pneumonia. He was a pioneer of the solid-body electric guitar and made significant contributions to the development of overdubbing, tape delay, phasing, and multitrack recording.

American singer, multi-instrumentalist and producer Jim Dickinson died at the age of 67. He was best known as the frontman of Mud Boy and the Neutrons.

American keyboardist and bassist Larry Knechtel, best known as a member of the studio collective The Wrecking Crew, died at the age of 69 at Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital in Washington, apparently from a heart attack. In 1970, he won a Grammy for his piano part on Simon & Garfunkel's “Bridge over Troubled Water”. In 1972, he played on Johnny Rivers' recording “Rockin' Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu”, and from 1971 to 1973 he was a member of Bread. As a member of The Wrecking Crew, he worked with Simon & Garfunkel, Duane Eddy, The Beach Boys, The Mamas & the Papas, The Monkees, The Doors, Jerry Garcia and Elvis Presley, among others. In 2007, he was inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville along with other members of the Wrecking Crew studio collective.

Doo-wop and R&B singer Johnny Carter, a member of The Dells (“Stay In My Corner” from 1968) and The Flamingos (“I Only Have Eyes for You”), died in Harvey, Illinois, at the age of 75 from lung cancer.

Soul and doo-wop singer Johnny Carter, a member of The Dells and The Flamingos, died of lung cancer at the age of 75. He was known for his distinctive falsetto and was among the few artists inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with two different groups.

A Los Angeles coroner ruled that Michael Jackson's death was a homicide caused by a combination of drugs used to treat insomnia. Doctor Conrad Murray was later charged with involuntary manslaughter and in November 2011 was sentenced to four years in prison.

Edward “Ted” Kennedy died; although he was best known as an American senator, he supported music and the arts through legislation.

American pop singer, songwriter and producer Eleanor “Ellie” Greenwich died at the age of 68 from a heart attack after suffering from pneumonia. She collaborated with Phil Spector and Jeff Barry on numerous hits, including “Da Doo Ron Ron”, “Be My Baby”, “Then He Kissed Me”, “Do Wah Diddy Diddy”, “Leader of the Pack”, “Chapel of Love”, “Maybe I Know” and “River Deep – Mountain High”. In 1991, she was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame together with her former husband Jeff Barry.

Adam “DJ AM” Goldstein died at the age of 36 from an accidental overdose in his New York apartment. It happened almost a year after Goldstein and his friend Travis Barker survived a plane crash that killed four other people.

Hit songwriter Ellie Greenwich, known for songs including “Be My Baby” and “Leader of the Pack”, died at the age of 68.

Former Echo and the Bunnymen keyboardist died at the age of 53 after his motorcycle collided with a converted ambulance on the Isle of Man. In 1989, the band's original drummer Pete De Freitas died in a similar accident.

Guy Babylon, Elton John’s keyboardist, died of a heart attack while swimming in the pool at his home in Los Angeles. He had been an important member of John’s touring and recording band for more than 21 years.

Bobby Hebb, singer and songwriter best known for “Sunny,” died in Nashville at the age of 72 from lung cancer.

Ted Kowalski, a member of the Canadian vocal group The Diamonds, died of heart disease at the age of 79. The group had fifteen Billboard Top 40 hits during the second half of the 1950s.

Richie Hayward, drummer and co-founder of Little Feat, died at the age of 64.

Bassist Robert Wilson of The Gap Band died at the age of 53 from a heart attack. From the late 1970s onward, the group had four platinum albums and placed 30 songs on the Billboard R&B chart.

Kenny Edwards, a founding member of the country-rock group The Stone Poneys, died at the age of 64 from cancer. The group, led by Linda Ronstadt, reached No. 13 in 1967 with “Different Drum.”

Songwriter George David Weiss, author of “What a Wonderful World” and “Can't Help Falling in Love”, died at the age of 89.

Marshall Grant, americký baskytarista a dlouholetý člen doprovodné skupiny Johnnyho Cashe, zemřel ve věku 83 let na aneurysma v Jonesboro v Arkansasu. V letech 1954 až 1980 působil jako baskytarista Johnnyho Cashe, později byl manažerem skupiny The Statler Brothers a napsal autobiografii „I Was There When It Happened“.

Jani Lane, lead singer of Warrant, died at the age of 47 after a long battle with drug and alcohol addiction.

Ross Barbour, singer and co-founder of the vocal quartet The Four Freshmen and the last original member of the group from the 1950s, died at the age of 82 from cancer in Southern California. The group's biggest hit was “Graduation Day”, which reached No. 17 in 1956.

Songwriter and producer Jerry Leiber, half of the songwriting and production team Leiber & Stoller, died at his home in Los Angeles at the age of 78 from cardiopulmonary failure. Together with Mike Stoller, he wrote and produced more than 70 hit singles, including “Hound Dog”, “Jailhouse Rock”, “King Creole”, “There Goes My Baby”, “Searchin'”, “Yakety Yak”, “Stand By Me”, “Poison Ivy” and “Kansas City”. The duo also wrote hits for The Coasters and The Drifters. Leiber & Stoller were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1985 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.

One half of the married songwriting, production, and recording duo Ashford & Simpson, Nickolas Ashford, died in New York at the age of 70 from complications related to throat cancer. With his wife Valerie Simpson, he wrote some of Motown's most significant hits, including “Ain't No Mountain High Enough”, “You're All I Need to Get By”, “Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing”, and “Reach Out and Touch (Somebody's Hand)”. The duo also had hits of their own, including “Found a Cure”, which reached No. 36 on the U.S. chart in 1979, and “Solid”, which reached No. 3 on the British chart in 1985.

Songwriter Jerry Leiber, whose songwriting catalogue included “Hound Dog”, “Jailhouse Rock”, “Yakety Yak”, “Poison Ivy” and “Love Potion Number 9”, died at the age of 78. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame with songwriting partner Mike Stoller in 1985 and into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame two years later.

Nick Ashford of the songwriting duo Ashford & Simpson died.