Pick a Day

Music History Events: Deaths

December 16, 2001 Big Country lead singer Stuart Adamson commits suicide by hanging himself in his Honolulu hotel room. He was 43.

August 5, 2001 Part-time C&W DJ and quadruple murderer Robert Spangler dies from terminal cancer in prison.

July 3, 2001 Delia Derbyshire, who helped create the electronic sounds on the Doctor Who theme, dies aged 64.

December 18, 2000 British singer Kirsty MacColl, daughter of Ewan MacColl, is killed by a boat propeller while scuba diving in Cozumel, Mexico at age 41.

December 3, 2000 Kevin Mills, Newsboys' former bassist, is killed in a motorbike accident. He was 32.

October 30, 2000 TV personality Steve Allen, also a composer and writer, dies of a heart attack after a minor car accident in Encino, California, at age 78. Allen was a frequent panelist on the long-running game show What's My Line?, the host of the game show I've Got a Secret, and the first host of The Tonight Show.

September 26, 2000 The popular songwriter Carl Sigman dies. Among his many compositions: "It's All In The Game" and "Marshmallow World."

July 15, 2000 Paul Young, frontman with Sad Café and lead singer on the Mike + the Mechanics hit "All I Need Is A Miracle," dies of a heart attack at age 53.

August 24, 1999 Big Band trombonist Warren Covington dies at age 78 in New York City.

April 3, 1999 British composer Lionel Bart, known for the Broadway smash Oliver!, dies at age 68 of cancer.

January 6, 1999 Jazz pianist Michel Petrucciani dies at age 36. Born with a debilitating genetic condition, he became a top performer in his native France.

September 26, 1998 The father of Blackhawk's Dave Robbins dies of a heart attack the day after watching his son perform at the North Georgia State Fair.

July 6, 1998 Roy Rogers, star of many Western films in which he sang, dies of heart failure at 86. The other singing cowboy of his era, Gene Autry, dies a few months later.

February 17, 1998 Songwriter Bob Merrill commits suicide aged 76. His compositions include the #1 UK hits "(How Much Is) That Doggie In The Window?" and "She Wears Red Feathers (And A Huly-Huly Skirt)."

August 22, 1997 Twelve-year-old Georgia Lee Moses is found dead in South Petaluma, California. Tom Waits hears her story and is inspired to write "Georgia Lee," the thirteenth track on Mule Variations.

November 2, 1996 Eva Cassidy dies of cancer at age 33. Over the next few years, her music is discovered in the UK and becomes wildly popular, with her album Songbird reaching #1 in 2001.

December 10, 1995 During a recording session, Fat Boys member Darren Robinson, known as "The Human Beatbox," dies of a heart attack at age 28.

August 27, 1995 Big Dee Irwin dies of heart failure in Las Vegas, Nevada, at age 63. Recorded a popular version of "Swinging on a Star" with Little Eva.

April 25, 1995 Ginger Rogers, Academy Award-winning actress and longtime dance partner of Fred Astaire, dies at age 83 of a heart attack.

February 18, 1995 Denny Cordell, who produced Tom Petty & The Hearbreakers, The Moody Blues, and Procol Harum, dies in Dublin of lymphoma, aged 51.

May 10, 1994 Serial killer John Gacy, the subject of songs by Sufjan Stevens and Jane's Addiction, is executed for the murders of 33 young men and boys.

June 18, 1992 Peter Allen, best remembered for his 1972 hit, "I Still Call Australia Home," which soon made its way into commercials for Qantas Airlines, dies at his home in Sydney, struck down with an AIDS-related throat cancer. He was 48 years old.

May 10, 1992 Jazz singer Sylvia Syms (not to be confused with the actress Sylvia Syms) dies from a heart attack onstage at the Algonquin Hotel in New York.

April 1, 1992 Nigel Preston, drummer and founding member of The Cult, dies of a heroin overdose at age 28.

September 4, 1991 Country singer Dottie West, 58, dies five days after getting in a car accident on her way to perform at the Grand Ole Opry.

August 16, 1991 Wilfrid Thomas, broadcaster and radio commentator, dies in London, England, at age 87. Wrote the English lyrics to "Rose, Rose, I Love You," recorded by Frankie Laine in 1951.

August 4, 1991 Jeri Southern, a singer whose popular songs include "An Occasional Man" and "Fire Down Below," dies of pneumonia at age 64.

April 23, 1991 Johnny Thunders of The Heartbreakers and New York Dolls dies from a drug overdose at age 38.

December 14, 1989 It's a Beautiful Day vocalist Pattie Santos dies in a car accident in California at age 40.

October 22, 1989 Folk singer Ewan MacColl, whose songs include "Dirty Old Town" and "First Time Ever I Saw Your Face," dies at 74.