Music History Events: Deaths
July 1, 1981 Rushton Moreve (original bass guitarist for Steppenwolf) dies in an automobile accident at age 32.
June 3, 1981 Just before The Duprees are about to embark on a reunion tour, the doo wop group's Joe Santollo dies of internal bleeding after suffering a heart attack at age 37.
May 21, 1981 Reggae star Bob Marley is buried with state honors in St. Ann's, Jamaica.
May 16, 1981 Ernie Freeman, a pianist known for R&B and pop arrangements from the '50s through the '70s, dies at a heart attack at age 58. Won Grammy awards for his arrangements of Frank Sinatra's "Strangers in the Night" and Simon & Garfunkel's "Bridge Over Troubled Water."
May 13, 1981 Pop singer Joan Weber, known for the 1955 hit "Let Me Go, Lover!," dies of heart failure in a New Jersey mental institution at age 45.
April 28, 1981 Original T. Rex bass player Steve Currie dies in a car accident at age 33, four years after the group's lead singer Marc Bolan met his demise in a similar fashion.
April 5, 1981 Blues-rock musician Bob "The Bear" Hite (lead singer of Canned Heat) dies at age 38 after snorting a vial of heroin - thinking it was cocaine - given to him by a fan.
March 5, 1981 Songwriter E.Y. "Yip" Harburg ("Over The Rainbow") dies in a car accident at age 81.
February 15, 1981 Mike Bloomfield, a renowned guitarist with The Paul Butterfield Blues Band and The Electric Flag, is found dead in his car under mysterious circumstances. Al Kooper, who played with him on many Bob Dylan sessions, surmises that Bloomfield overdosed and his drug dealer drove him to a secluded spot to be found later.
February 6, 1981 Hugo Montenegro, an orchestra leader and film composer known for his 1968 hit cover of Ennio Morricone's theme from The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly dies of emphysema at age 55.
January 23, 1981 Orchestral composer Samuel Barber dies of cancer at age 70. Barber won the Pulitzer Prize for Music twice: first for the 1956 opera Vanessa and then for his 1962 Concerto for Piano and Orchestra.
January 9, 1981 Jazz drummer Cozy Cole, known for the 1958 hits "Topsy" and "Topsy II," dies of cancer at age 71.
January 2, 1981 David Lynch of The Platters dies of cancer at age 51 in Long Beach, California.
December 29, 1980 Folk musician Tim Hardin, who wrote the hit "If I Were a Carpenter," dies of a heroin overdose at age 39.
December 7, 1980 Darby Crash (of the Germs) commits suicide at age 22 through an intentional heroin overdose.
November 16, 1980 '60s soul singer O.V. Wright ("That's How Strong My Love Is") dies of a heart attack at age 41 after consistent drug abuse weakens his health.
November 4, 1980 Ronnie Goodson (of Ronnie and the Hi-Lites), battling brain cancer, dies in his sleep at age 33.
October 27, 1980 Steve Took, original percussionist of T. Rex, dies in New Kensington, London, at age 31. Although he had taken drugs, his official cause of death was asphyxiation after inhaling a cocktail cherry.
October 15, 1980 R&B singer Bobby Lester (of The Moonglows) dies of cancer at age 49.
July 23, 1980 Grateful Dead keyboardist Keith Godchaux, 32, dies of head injuries sustained in a car accident two days earlier. He had been on the way home from his birthday party at the time of the crash.
July 14, 1980 Malcolm Owen (original singer for Ruts) dies of a heroin overdose at age 26.
June 21, 1980 Bert Kaempfert, composer of "Strangers in the Night" and "Moon Over Naples," dies after suffering a stroke at age 56.
May 30, 1980 Rock bassist Carl Radle (of Derek & the Dominos) dies of a drug-and-alcohol-related kidney infection at age 37.
April 28, 1980 Tommy Caldwell (original frontman for The Marshall Tucker Band) dies at age 30 when his Jeep overturns during an accident.
April 16, 1980 Academy Award-winning composer Morris Stoloff - who worked with the likes of Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Jr., and Dinah Shore during his long tenure as music director at Columbia Pictures - dies at age 81.
March 29, 1980 The Italian conductor Mantovani dies at age 74.
March 26, 1980 John Poulos (drummer for The Buckinghams) dies of drug-related heart failure less than a week before this 33rd birthday.
March 23, 1980 Reggae musician Jacob Miller (of Inner Circle) dies in a car accident in Jamaica at age 27.
February 21, 1980 Janet Vogel of The Skyliners ("Since I Don't Have You") commits suicide at age 37.
January 30, 1980 New Orleans bluesman Professor Longhair dies of a heart attack at age 61.
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