Pick a Day

Music History Events: Deaths

March 8, 1995 Ingo Schwichtenberg (drummer for Helloween), suffering from drug addiction and schizophrenia, commits suicide by jumping in front of a train.

March 5, 1995 Viv Stanshall of Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band dies in a fire at age 51. Stanshall was asleep in his North London home when an electrical fire broke out.

February 23, 1995 Melvin "Blue" Franklin (bass singer for The Temptations) dies at age 52. Franklin had long suffered with rheumatoid arthritis and developed diabetes in the '80s.

February 18, 1995 Bob Stinson (lead guitarist for The Replacements) dies at age 35 after years of drug and alcohol abuse takes its toll on his health.

January 29, 1995 Ken Jensen (drummer for D.O.A.), age 29, dies of smoke inhalation while trying to escape a house fire.

January 11, 1995 Sean McDonnell (lead singer, guitarist for Surgery) dies at age 30, four days after suffering a severe asthma attack.

January 3, 1995 Canadian news anchor Byron MacGregor, who reached #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1974 with his version of "Americans," dies of complications from pneumonia in Detroit, Michigan, at age 46.

January 1, 1995 Blues singer-songwriter Ted Hawkins dies of a stroke at age 58.

December 23, 1994 Dan Hamilton of Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds dies of Cushing's syndrome in Los Angeles, California, at age 48.

November 23, 1994 Tommy Boyce (of the '60s songwriting duo Boyce and Hart) commits suicide at age 55.

November 18, 1994 Jazz singer/bandleader Cab Calloway dies at age 86, five months after suffering a severe stroke.

November 16, 1994 Chet Powers aka Dino Valenti (lead singer of Quicksilver Messenger Service), who underwent brain surgery years earlier, dies suddenly at age 51 during a period of ill health.

November 10, 1994 Jazz singer Carmen McRae dies at age 72, a month after suffering a stroke.

November 4, 1994 Fred "Sonic" Smith (of The Sonics, MC5), plagued by poor health, dies of heart failure at age 45.

October 26, 1994 Wilbert Harrison, known for his hit "Kansas City," dies at 65 after suffering a stroke.

October 18, 1994 Tenor saxophonist Lee Allen dies of cancer in Los Angeles, California, at age 68. A prominent rock-and-roll session musician, his sax playing can be heard anywhere from Little Richard's "Tutti-Frutti" to Fats Domino's "I'm Walking" to Etta James' "Tough Lover."

October 4, 1994 Guitarist Danny Gatton commits suicide in Newburg, Maryland, at age 49.

September 19, 1994 Frankie Kennedy (flautist/tin whistle player for Altan) dies of cancer (Ewing's sarcoma) in Belfast, Ireland, at age 38.

September 16, 1994 Producer/singer/songwriter Thomas Kaye (composer for Jay & the Americans, Three Dog Night) dies of an overdose of painkillers in Warwick, New York.

September 3, 1994 R&B singer Major Lance dies of heart disease in Decatur, Georgia, at age 55. Known for the 1963 hit "Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um," written by Curtis Mayfield.

August 14, 1994 Clifton Clowers, the real-life Tennessee mountain man who was the subject of Claude King's 1964 country smash "Wolverton Mountain," dies at the ripe old age of 101, still on the mountain (which is actually spelled "Woolverton"). Clowers apparently couldn't keep suitors away from his daughters as well as the legend suggested, as he leaves behind 15 grandchildren, 27 great-grandchildren and five great-great-grandchildren.

August 6, 1994 Singer/actor Domenico Modugno dies of a heart attack at age 66 in Lampedusa, Sicily, Italy.

June 16, 1994 Kristen Pfaff (bassist for Hole) dies of acute opiate intoxication at age 27.

June 14, 1994 Noted film composer Henry Mancini dies of pancreatic cancer at age 70.

June 4, 1994 Derek Leckenby (lead guitarist for Herman's Hermits) dies of non-Hodgkin lymphoma at age 51.

May 25, 1994 Jazz guitarist Eric Gale (of Stuff) dies of lung cancer at age 55.

May 23, 1994 Jimmy Fernandez (bassist for The God Machine) dies suddenly of a brain tumor at age 28.

March 22, 1994 Dan Hartman dies of an AIDS-related brain tumor at age 43.

February 24, 1994 Singer/actress Dinah Shore dies at age 77 of cachexia (or wasting syndrome), a complication of her ovarian cancer.

February 22, 1994 Blues violinist Papa John Creach (of Jefferson Airplane/Starship) dies of congestive heart failure at age 76.