Jack Anglin: Age 46
Country
(b.13 March 1916, on a farm near Columbia, Williamson County, Tennessee, d. 7 March 1963).
 Jack worked at a local hosiery mill and here became acquainted with his future wife, Louise and
through her, her brother Johnnie Wright. At the time Wright, his wife Muriel ( Kitty Wells) and
Louise were regulars on WSIX as Johnnie Wright And The Harmony Girls. The two men became
friends and when, in 1939, the Anglin Brothers disbanded, Jack was soon performing with Wright
as Johnnie Wright And The Happy Roving Cowboys with Jack Anglin. In 1940, they became
Johnnie And Jack, who enjoyed much success as a vocal duo until Jack Anglin's career came to
an untimely end in 1963. Driving alone to attend a memorial service for Patsy Cline not far from
his home, he rounded a bend on New Due West Avenue in Madison at high speed, crashed and
was instantly killed. No other vehicle was involved.
 

Stiv Bators: Age 40
Dead Boys
(b. Stivin Bator, 22 October 1949, Cleveland, Ohio, USA, d. 4 June 1990).
 Bators formed his first bands Mother Goose and Frankenstein, who were transmuted
into a seminal US ‘no wave’ band the Dead Boys. They moved to New York in 1976.
Although they officially split in 1978 there would be frequent reunions, as Bators moved to
Los Angeles where he recorded demos with friend Jeff Jones (ex-Blue Ash).  After
appearing in John Walter's cult movie Polyester, Bators formed a touring band with Rick
Bremner replacing Quinton. By 1981, Bators had become a permanent member of the
Wanderers.  After the impressive ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE (1981), Bators took
Dave Treganna (ex-Sham 69) with him to join James and Nicky Turner (ex-Barracudas)
in Lords Of The New Church.   Following the Lords' demise, Bators resurfaced in London
in 1989 for a Return Of The Living Boys gig. This time his cohorts were drawn from a variety
of local personnel, and it was not until he returned to Paris that he entered a recording studio
once more.  With six songs completed, Bators was hit by car in June 1990, and died the day after.
 

Chris Bell:
Big Star
Bell was the major writer and performer for Big Star.   Prior to the Box Tops Alex Chilton
sang in a few Memphis groups. One of these groups included Bill Cunningham and Chris Bell,
though Alex only briefly worked with them at the time.  After the Box Tops disbanded Alex
returned to Memphis where he joined Chris Bell's power trio, Ice Water. They changed their
name to Big Star and recorded two albums which, while unsuccessful at the time, had a huge influence.
After Alex Chilton joined the band, Bell quit, unable to deal with their fights. Bell died in a 1978 car
crash, hitting a telephone pole.
 

Jesse Belvin:  Age 27
(b. 15 December 1932, San Antonio, Texas, USA, d. 6 February 1960).
Earth Angel, a collaboration with two fellow conscripts, was recorded successfully
by The Penguins, while Belvin enjoyed a major hit in his own right with Goodnight My
Love, a haunting, romantic ballad adopted by disc jockey Alan Freed as the closing
theme to his highly-influential radio show. In 1958 Belvin formed a vocal quintet, The
Shields, to record for Dot Records the national Top 20 hit, You Cheated. That same
year the singer was signed to RCA Records, who harboured plans to shape him in the
mould of Nat King Cole and Billy Eckstine.  Further hits, including Funny and Guess Who
—the latter of which was written by his wife and manager Jo Ann—offered a cool, accomplished
vocal style suggestive of a lengthy career, but Belvin died, along with his wife, following a car
crash in February 1960.

Chu Berry: Age 31
tenor sax
(b Leon Berry, 13 September 1910, Wheeling, West Virginia,  d. 30 October 1941).
In the early '30s Berry played tenor saxophone with a number of New York bands, including
sessions for Spike Hughes and spells with the bands of Benny Carter and Fletcher Henderson.
He was in great demand among leaders who were setting up recording and club sessions and
played on memorable dates with Roy Eldridge and Lionel Hampton. In 1937, he was added to
the star-studded Cab Calloway band, where his musical influence helped build the band's
reputation as a fine jazz outfit (despite the leader's exhibitionism). A superbly eloquent soloist,
Berry's playing was in the mold of Coleman Hawkins with a rich and emotional sound.
However, before he was able to forge a completely distinctive style, he received
severe head injuries in a car crash while touring with Calloway and died a few days later.
 

Marc Bolan:  Age 30
T. Rex
(b. Mark Feld, 30 July 1947, London, England, d. 16 September 1977).
  Initially dubbed Toby Tyler, he completed several unsuccessful demo discs
before reportedly adopting his new surname from ( Bo) b Dy( lan).  A former
model in the halcyon Mod era, Bolan began his singing career during the mid-60s
folk boom.  Frustrated at his commercial impasse, the artist then opted to join Napier-Bell
proteges John's Children in 1967. He composed their best-known single, Desdemona,
but left the line-up after a matter of months to form Tyrannosaurus Rex (later T. Rex).
Between 1970-73 this highly popular attraction enjoyed a run of 10 consecutive Top 5
singles, but Marc's refusal to alter the formula of his compositions resulted in an equally
spectacular decline. Bolan was, nonetheless, one of the few established musicians to
embrace punk and a contemporary television series, MARC, revived a flagging public profile.
This ascendancy ended abruptly in September 1977 when the artist, as a passenger in a car
driven by his second wife, American soul singer Gloria Jones, was killed when they crashed
into a tree on Barnes Common, London. (T. Rex members: Steve Peregrine Took died in 1980
choking on a cherry pit on mushrooms, and Steve Currie, who had played bass on Electric
Warrior and The Slider, met his end in 1981).
 

D. Boon:  Age 27
The Minutemen
(b. Dennis Dale Boon, 1 April 1958, d. 22 Dec. 1985).
 Formed in 1980 in San Pedro, California, USA, and originally known as the
Reactionaries. This influential hardcore trio initially comprised D. Boon (guitar/vocals),
Mike Watt (bass) and Frank Tonche (drums), but the last named was replaced by
George Hurley prior to recording. Although the trio donated tracks to several independent
compilations, notably for the pivotal Radio Tokyo Tapes and the Posh Boy and New
Alliance labels, their association with SST Records resulted in some of the genre's most
impressive recordings.  The Minutemen started in february of 1980 and roared on 'til
December 22, 1985 when D. boon was killed in a van accident in Arizona.
 
Clifford Brown: Age 25
(b.  30 October 1930, Wilmington, Delaware, USA, d. 26 June 1956).
By his late teens Brown had attracted the favorable attention of leading jazzmen,
including fellow trumpeters  Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis and Fats Navarro.  In the
autumn of 1953 he was a member of the big band Lionel Hampton took to Europe.
Brown then joined Art Blakey and in mid-1954 teamed up with Max Roach to form
the Clifford Brown-Max Roach Quintet. The quintet was quickly recognized as one of
the outstanding groups in contemporary jazz and Brown as a major trumpeter and composer.
On a rain-swept, early morning in June, 1956, on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, Clifford
Brown, along with pianist Richie Powell, and Richie's wife, Nancy (who was driving) was
killed when their automobile hurtled over an embankment.  Fortunately for jazz fans,
Brown's own work persists in the form of his recordings almost any of which can be safely
recommended as outstanding examples of the very best of jazz. Indeed, all of his recordings
with Roach are classics.    ///Clifford Brown Album Covers///Quotes on Brownie.

Milton Brown: Age 32
( b. 8 September 1903 Stephensville, TX, d. 18 April 1936).
 

Clifford Lee Burton: Age 24
Metallica
(b. 10 February 1962, USA, d. 27 September 1986, Sweden).
Formed during 1981, in California, USA by Lars Ulrich (b. 26 December 1963, Copenhagen,
Denmark; drums) and James Alan Hetfield (b. 3 August 1963, USA; guitar/vocals) after each
separately advertised for fellow musicians in the classified advertisements of the American
publication THE RECYCLER.  Jef Warner (guitar) and Ron McGovney (bass) each had a brief
involvement with Metallica, and at the end of 1982, Clifford Lee Burton, formerly of Trauma,
joined the band, playing his first live performance on 5 March 1983. Burton had never been a
particularly smooth player, but other band members had not attempted to reign him in. They did try
once, however, to persuade him to forego his bell-bottom jeans in favor of more traditional heavy
metal garb, but quickly realized the attempt was futile; Burton was set in his ways and rarely influenced
by others. In truly bizarre heavy metal fashion, one of his dreams had been to invent a gun that shot knives
instead of bullets. The Ulrich, Hetfield, Burton and Hammett combination lasted until disaster struck the
band in the small hours of 27 September 1986, when Metallica's tour bus overturned in Sweden on an
icy road, killing Cliff Burton.
 

Tommy Caldwell: Age 30
The Marshall Tucker Band
(b. 1950, Spartanburg, South Carolina, USA, d. 28 April 1980).
Formed in 1971 in South Carolina, the Marshall Tucker Band was a ‘southern-rock’
style outfit which maintained modest popularity from the early to late '70s. Their highest-
charting album, SEARCHIN' FOR A RAINBOW, came in 1975. Their first single to chart
was This Ol' Cowboy, also in 1975.  Most of the group's albums were gold or platinum
sellers through 1978, and the 1977 single Heard It In A Love Song was their best-selling,
reaching number 14. On April 28, 1980, Tommy Caldwell passed away from injuries sustained
in a car wreck almost a week earlier. The efect of Caldwell's death took a lot of the wind out
of the band's sails, but Marshall Tucker continued on, enlisting old Toy Factory bassist Franklin
wilkie to fill the vacancy.  The group continued to perform after the death, but never recaptured
their '70s success. (Toy Caldwell eventually pursued a solo career and relesed one album, Toy
Caldwell Band, in 1992 to good notices. Unfortunately, Caldwell passed away suddenly from
heart attack on February 25, 1993).
 

Harry Chapin:  Age 37
(b. 7 December 1942, New York, USA, d. 16 July 1980).
The son of a big band drummer, Chapin played in the Brooklyn Heights Boys’ Choir
and during his teens formed a group with his brothers, Tom and Stephen.  Immensely
talented as a writer and film-maker, he directed the Oscar-nominated LEGENDARY
CHAMPIONS in 1968, after which he returned to music.  He was signed to Elektra
Records and his debut HEADS AND TALES and the six-minute single Taxi enjoyed
minor success in the US charts.  In 1974, Chapin secured the US Christmas number 1
single with the evocative Cat's In The Cradle.  With a series of albums, strongly narrative
in tone, it was clear that Chapin was capable of extending himself and in 1975 he wrote
the Broadway musical revue, THE NIGHT THAT MADE AMERICA FAMOUS.
That same year, he also won an Emmy award for his musical work on the children's
television series, MAKE A WISH.   The title track to his album SEQUEL, which was
a story sequel to his first hit Taxi, gave him his final US Top 30 entry. On 16 July, while
travelling to a benefit concert, his car was hit by a truck in Jericho, New York and the
singer was killed.  Chapin, who had several tickets for speeding and moving violations,
and had his driver's license revoked, was driving illegally.  His oldest brother, James, told
Diliberto in People: "Ironically, I don't think this accident was Harry's fault."
 

Eddie Cochran:  Age 21
(b. 3 October 1938, Albert Lea, Minnesota, USA, d. 17 April 1960, Wiltshire, England).
Although Cochran's career was brief, during which time he topped the charts only once, he
is now regarded as one of the finest ever rock ‘n’ roll artists.  In 1956 his cameo performance
of Twenty Flight Rock in the film The Girl Can't Help It gave this handsome James Dean lookalike
the career boost he needed and he was signed by Liberty Records.  The song Summertime Blues
has been recorded and performed by dozens of artists, and is now one of the most famous rock
songs of all time. Cochran was killed in Chippenham, Wiltshire, when his taxi suffered a burst tire
and veered off the road and crashed. Gene Vincent was a badly injured passenger, as was Sharon
Sheeley, co-writer of his posthumous hit Something Else, (which became a major hit for the Sex
Pistols in 1979). His biggest record was the inappropriately titled Three Steps To Heaven which
topped the UK chart shortly after his untimely death.

Keith Godcheaux:
Grateful Dead
(b. d. 21 July 1980).
After years of ill-health through alcohol abuse, Pigpen died in 1973. He was replaced by
Keith Godcheaux from Dave Mason's band, who together with his wife Donna on vocals
compensated for the tragic loss.  Although they had been with the band for some years,
Keith and Donna Godcheaux had never truly fitted in.  They were asked to leave at the end
of 1979.  They rebounded into a band called Ghosts which reformed as the Heart of Gold Band.
The word is that the first gig was sensational, and a few days later they went into the Dead's
Front Street Studio. After one wonderful night of rehearsal, Keith drove off to the car crash
that killed him.

Earl Grant: Age 37
(b.20 January 1933, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA, d. 10 June 1970).
 Earl Grant was an easy-listening pianist/organist and singer who was popular in the late '50s
and early '60s.  Grant signed to Decca Records in 1958 and reached number 7 in the US
charts with his first single, The End, which received airplay on ‘beautiful music’ stations in the
USA. His first album, EBB TIDE, released in 1961, was also a number 7 entry.  He placed
five further singles in the US charts and six more albums (of over 20 released on Decca) through
1968. Grant appeared in a number of films as well. He died in a car accident in Lordsburg, New
Mexico, USA.
 

Michael Hedges: Age 43
(b. 31 December 1953, Enid, OK, d. 1 December 1997 Medocino County, California).
This American guitarist, singer and composer has moved from being known to possess a
highly individual instrumental style to a growing acclaim as a singer and composer.  In 1980,
he moved to California to study computer music at Stanford University and was signed by the
Windham Hill Records label.  The 43-year-old Grammy nominee was found dead down a steep
embankment.  He apparently had died several days earlier while driving home from San Francisco
International Airport after a Thanksgiving visit to his girlfriend in Long Island, NY, said his manager
and longtime friend, Hillary Burgess.  He had been thrown from his 1986 BMW, which had tumbled
120 feet over the cliff, apparently after skidding on a rain-slicked S-curve, California Highway
Patrol spokesman Bob Burke said. Worn tires and speed may have contributed to the crash,
Burke said . It appeared Hedges had died close to instantly, Deputy Mendocino County
Coroner Kevin Broin said.
 

Johnny Horton: Age 35
(b. 3 April 1925, Los Angeles, California, USA, d. 5 November 1960, Texas, USA).
For a time he worked in the fishing industry but began his singing career on KXLA Pasadena
in 1950 and soon acquired the nickname of The Singing Fisherman. Horton recorded Honky
Tonk Man the day after Elvis Presley recorded Heartbreak Hotel and Presley's bass player,
Bill Black, was on the session. The song was successfully revived by Dwight Yoakam in 1986,
while George Jones revived another song recorded that day, I'm A One Woman Man, in 1989.
 He married Hank Williams’ widow, Billie Jean, in September 1953. In 1959, Horton switched
direction and concentrated on story songs, often with an historical basis, and had his first US
country number l with a Tillman Franks song, When It's Springtime In Alaska. This was followed
by his version of Jimmie Driftwood's The Battle Of New Orleans, which became a number l pop
and country hit in the USA.  On 5 November 1960 Horton was involved in a car collision near
Milano, Texas, which claimed the lives of himself and his guitarist, Tommy Tomlinson. Tillman
Franks received serious injuries but eventually pulled through. Billie Jean became a country
star's widow for the second time in seven years.
 

Jonny Kidd: Age 26
Johnny Kidd and the Pirates
(born 1940-died October 7, 1966).  Auto accident.
 

Meade Lux Lewis: Age 58
piano
(b. 4 September 1905, Chicago, Illinois, USA, d. 7 June 1964).
Although he was popular in Chicago bars in the '20s, Lewis was little known elsewhere
and made his living running a taxicab firm with fellow-pianist Albert Ammons.  Encouraged
by John Hammond and the enormous success of Honky Tonk Train Blues, which he
re-recorded in 1936 (and later), Lewis became one of the most popular and successful
of the pianists to enjoy fleeting fame during the boogie-woogie craze. With Ammons and
Pete Johnson, billed as the Boogie Woogie Trio, he played at Hammond's Carnegie Hall
‘Spirituals to Swing’ concert and at many top New York clubs.  Meade died following
a road accident in 1964.
 

Ira Loudermilk (Louvin):
The Louvin Brothers
(b. 21 April 1924, d. 20 June 1965).
Ira took up the mandolin and Charlie the guitar and they created perfect harmonies for
country and gospel music, inspired, in particular, by the Blue Sky Boys. In 1943, after
winning a talent contest in Chattanooga, they began broadcasting regularly, leading to
three shows a day for WMPS in Memphis.  They crossed over to the country market
with their own composition When I Stop Dreaming, which is now a standard. The Louvin
Brothers' secular US country hits included I Don't Believe You've Met My Baby (their only
number 1), Hoping That You're Hoping, You're Running Wild and My Baby's Gone.  Ira
started his solo career with Yodel Sweet Molly but he was shot and badly injured by his wife,
Faye, whom he then divorced. He then married Florence, who sang on his shows as Anne
Young, but soon afterwards they both perished in Jefferson City, Missouri on 20 June 1965.
Driving home from a performance, Ira's car was struck in a head-on collision.  Ira and Charlie
had pledged that whoever lived the longest would sing at the other's funeral, and Ira sang Where
No One Stands Alone.  (A Louvin Brothers Book)
 

Rushton Moreve: Age 33.
Steppenwolf
died July 1, 1981.
Auto accident.
 

Razzle:
Hanoi Rocks
(b. Nicholas Dingley, 2 December 1963, Isle Of Wight, England, d. 7 December 1984).
This Finnish heavy rock band were distinguished by their leaning towards '70s glam rock,
which they carried off with more style and conviction than any of their peers.  The band travelled
to London where they began recording ORIENTAL BEAT.  Soon after it was finished Casino
was sacked (and joined the Road Rats) and replaced by Razzle, who had previously played
with Demon Preacher and the Dark. They hit the UK charts for the first and only time in
1984 with a cover version of Creedence Clearwater Revival's Up Around The Bend, but
the year ended in tragedy. The band were in the US when Razzle was killed in a car crash
on 7 December. The car driver—Vince Neil of Mötley Crüe—was later found guilty of
Vehicular Manslaughter.  However, Monroe never really accepted the loss of Razzle and in
early 1985 he told the band he intended to quit. Hanoi Rocks played their final gig in May 1985.
 

Bessie Smith: 
(b. 15 April 1894, Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA, d. 26 September 1937).
In her childhood, Smith sang on street corners before joining a touring black minstrel
show as a dancer. Also in the show was Ma Rainey and before long the young newcomer
was also singing the blues.  By 1920 Smith was headlining a touring show and was well on
the way to becoming the finest singer of the blues the USA would ever hear. On the night
of September 26, 1937, after appearing at a juke joint in Sunflower County,  Mississippi,
Smith and her fiance Richard Morgan were driving to Memphis from where they would
embark for New York, when their car was struck head-on by a truck. Morgan suffered
only minor injuries but Smith's right arm was nearly severed and she was bleeding profusely.
Though it has never been proven conclusively, legend has it that Smith was denied treatment
from several "whites only" hospitals in the Delta before arriving at a "colored's only" hospital in Clarksdale,
Mississippi. But by the time she arrived it was too late for she had died from loss of blood.
Most blues historians affirm this account of Smith's death to be accurate, though some
state that she actually died at the scene of the crash or shortly thereafter.

Red Sovine: Age 61
(b. Woodrow Wilson Sovine, 17 July 1918, Charleston, West Virginia,  d. 4 April 1980).
Sovine acquired the nickname of The Old Syrup Sopper following the sponsorship
by Johnny Fair Syrup of some radio shows, and the title is apt for such narrations
as Daddy's Girl.   From 1954 Sovine was a regular at GRAND OLE OPRY and, in all,
he had 31 US country chart entries. He particularly scored with maudlin narrations about
truckdrivers and his successes include Giddyup Go (a US country number 1 about a truck
driver being reunited with his son), Phantom 309 (a truck-driving ghost story!) and his
million-selling saga of a crippled boy and his CB radio, Teddy Bear (1976). Sequels and
parodies of Teddy Bear abound, Sovine refused to record Teddy Bear's Last Ride, which
became a US country hit for Diana Williams. He retaliated with Little Joe to indicate that
Teddy Bear was not dead after all. In 1980 Sovine died of a heart attack at the wheel of
his car in Nashville.

Dottie West:
(b. Dorothy Marie Marsh, 11 October 1932, McMinnville, Tennessee, d. 4 September 1991).
 In 1962, at the recommendation of Jim Reeves, Chet Atkins signed her to RCA Records.
Her first US country chart hit Let Me Off At The Corner was in 1963, the same year that
the first song she wrote, Is This Me, became a number 3 country hit for Jim Reeves. A
country Top 10 solo hit of her own song Here Comes My Baby followed, which so
successfully launched her career that between 1964-84, she charted a further 60 US country
hits. The following year the song made her the first female country singer to win a Grammy.
She has won many solo awards and in 1978 and 1979 she and Kenny Rogers were voted
the Country Music Association Vocal Duo of the Year. She appeared in two films Second
Fiddle To An Old Guitar and There's A Still On The Hill, and has played the Grand Ole
Opry regularly since first becoming a member in 1964.
On Friday 30 August 1991, due to problems with her own car, she asked an 81-year-old
neighbour to drive her to the Opry for her scheduled appearance. His car crashed at high
speed when it left the ramp to the Opry car park, vaulted in the air and hit the central
division. Both occupants were rushed to the Vanderbilt Medical Centre in a critical condition.
Dottie West suffered a severe rupture of the liver and, in spite of several operations, surgeons
could not control the bleeding. Although fully aware of the extent of her injuries, she was unable
to speak and sadly died a few days later on 4 September.
 

Clarence White:
Byrds/ Kentucky Colonels
(b. 7 June 1944, Lewiston, Maine, USA, d. 14 July 1973, Palmdale, CA).
White started playing acoustic guitar and singing in a bluegrass group with his
brothers when only 10 years old, and the group materialized into the Kentucky
Colonels in 1961. After leaving the Kentucky Colonels, he switched to electric guitar
and became a session musician, playing on albums by Randy Newman and Linda
Ronstadt. White joined Nashville West in 1968, and then the Byrds.  The Byrds flew the
coop in 1973 and White reformed the Kentucky Colonels to play Los Angeles clubs
and also to tour Europe. He worked on albums by Maria Muldaur and Gene Parsons
and also began his solo album, although only four tracks were recorded.  He was
knocked down and killed by a drunk driver while loading equipment into his car after
a show on 14 July 1973.   What there is of his solo album was included on the compilation
on Sierra Briar Records, Silver Meteor.