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Nick Drake died November 25, 1974

Nick Drake was born Nicholas (Nick) Rodney Drake (June 19, 1948 – November 25, 1974) and was an English singer-songwriter and musician, best known for his acoustic guitar-based songs. His father, Rodney Shuttleworth Drake (1908–1988), moved to Rangoon, Burma, in the early 1930s to work as an engineer with the Bombay Burmah Trading Corporation. In 1934, he met the daughter of a senior member of the Indian Civil Service, Mary Lloyd (1916–1993), known to her family as “Molly”. Both of Nick’s parents were musical and each wrote pieces of music. Recordings of some of his mother, Molly’s songs, which have…
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Musical Genius Sergei Rachmaninoff died March 28, 1943

Sergei Rachmaninoff (April 1, 1873 – March 28, 1943) was a Russian pianist, conductor and composer of what became known as the late Romantic period. Some of his works, including my personal favorite the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, are among the most popular in the romantic, classical repertoire. Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff was born into a musical family and began to play the piano at age four. His father, Vasily Rachmaninoff, was an army officer and an amateur pianist who married Lyubov Petrovna Butakova, the daughter of a wealthy army general who gave her five estates as part of her dowry….
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The Temptations Dennis Edwards died February 1, 2018.

Dennis Edwards Jr. (February 3, 1943 – February 1, 2018) was an American soul and R&B singer, and most famously a lead singer of The Temptations. Edwards was born in Fairfield, Alabama, which is about eight miles from Birmingham. His father was Reverend Dennis Edwards Sr and young Dennis started singing in his father’s church at just two years old. The Edwards family moved to Detroit, Michigan when Dennis Jr was ten years old, and he continued to sing in his father’s church there, eventually becoming its choir director. As a teenager, Dennis Edwards Jr studied music at the…
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Dolores O’Riordan from the Cranberries died suddenly on January 15, 2018

Dolores O’Riordan, lead singer of The Cranberries, has died suddenly at the age of 46. Dolores Mary Eileen O’Riordan (September 6, 1971 – January 15, 2018) was an Irish singer, songwriter, musician and lead singer with The Cranberries. Dolores O’Riordan was born on September 6, 1971 in Ballybricken, County Limerick, and was the youngest of nine children, two of which sadly died in infancy. Her father, Terry O’Riordan (1937–2011), was a farm labourer and her mother, Eileen, a school caterer. In 1990 O’Riordan auditioned for a band called the Cranberry Saw Us and got the job of lead singer. The band…
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Motörhead’s Fast Eddie died January 10, 2018

Edward Allan Clarke (known as Fast Eddie) (October 5, 1950 – January 10, 2018), the last remaining member of the classic Motörhead line-up has died aged 67. He passed away peacefully in hospital after battling pneumonia. He was born in London, England on October 5, 1950 and began playing the guitar at an early age. By 15 he had already played in several local bands and in 1973 he turned professional by joining blues prog rock band, Zeus, as lead guitarist. In 1974, Zeus and Fast Eddie recorded an album called The Second Coming. After leaving Zeus, Fast Eddie played…
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16 musicians who died in 2017

Several excellent musicians passed away in 2017, here we celebrate some of their lives and contributions to the world of music. February 12, 2017: Al Jarreau Alwin Lopez Jarreau (March 12, 1940 – February 12, 2017) was an American singer and musician who received a total of seven Grammy Awards and was nominated for over a dozen more. Al Jarreau earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Ripon College in Wisconsin in 1962, and a master’s in vocational rehabilitation from the University of Iowa in 1964. Afterward he moved to San Francisco, where he worked as a rehabilitation counselor for…
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Donny Hathaway died January 13, 1979

Donny Edward Hathaway (October 1, 1945 – January 13, 1979) (known as Donny Hathaway) was an American jazz, blues, soul and gospel singer, songwriter, arranger and pianist. He born in Chicago and raised by his grandmother, a professional gospel singer, on a housing project in St. Louis. Aged three he began singing in a church choir with his grandmother and also started studying the piano. In 1963 he graduated from Vashon High School and then studied music on a scholarship at Howard University, Washington, D.C.. It was here where he met and became close friends with Roberta Flack. During 1967, after receiving several job offers in the…
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David Cassidy died November 21, 2017

David Cassidy, who shot to fame in The Partridge Family, before going on to become a teen pop idol in the 1970s, has died aged 67. David Bruce Cassidy (April 12, 1950 – November 21, 2017) was an actor, singer, songwriter and guitarist. He first became famous playing Keith Partridge, the son of Shirley Partridge, in the 1970s musical-sitcom The Partridge Family. This role led to him becoming one of the biggest teen idols and pop singers of the 1970s. He later had a career in both acting and music. David Cassidy was born in New York City in 1950,…
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AC/DC’s Malcolm Young died November 18, 2017

Malcolm Young (January 6, 1953 – November 18, 2017) was a Scottish-Australian musician, songwriter, and co-founder, rhythm guitarist and backing vocalist of legendary hard rock, heavy metal band AC/DC. He was born in Glasgow, Scotland to William and Margaret Young on January 6, 1953 and the family moved to Australia in 1963, when Malcolm was 10. Except for a brief absence in 1988, Malcolm was with AC/DC from its beginning in November 1973 until he retired in 2014 for health reasons. Malcolm Young was 20 when he formed AC/DC with his younger brother Angus in 1973. The line-up was Angus…
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Fats Domino died October 24, 2017

Fats Domino was born Antoine “Fats” Domino Jr, (February 26, 1928 – October 24, 2017) was an American pianist and singer-songwriter and probably the most influential rock and roll performers of the 1950s and 60s, has died of natural causes aged 89. He was born at home with the help of his grandmother, a midwife, and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana, the eighth and last child of Antoine Caliste Domino, a well-known violinist, and Marie-Donatille Gros. The family was of French Creole background and Louisiana Creole French was Fats first language. His name was originally, incorrectly given as Anthony on…
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