Sammy Kaye (Samuel Zarnocay)
03/13/1910 - 06/02/1987
Sammy Kaye (March 13, 1910–June 2, 1987), born Samuel Zarnocay, Jr., was an American bandleader and songwriter, whose tag line, "Swing and sway with Sammy Kaye", became one of the most famous of the...
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Duke Ellington (Edward Kennedy Ellington)
04/29/1899 - 05/24/1974
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (born April 29, 1899, Washington, D.C., U.S.—died May 24, 1974, New York, N.Y.) American pianist who was the greatest jazz composer and bandleader. One of the originators of big-band jazz, Elli...
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06/20/1924 - 06/30/2001
Chester Burton Atkins (June 20, 1924 – June 30, 2001), better known as Chet Atkins, was an American guitarist and record producer who, along with Owen Bradley, created the smoother country music style known as the Nashville sound,...
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Stevie Vaughan (Stephen Ray Vaughan)
10/03/1954 - 08/27/1990
Stephen "Stevie" Ray Vaughan (October 3, 1954 – August 27, 1990) was one of the most influential American guitarists of the late 20th century.
Vaughan was an important figure in Texas blues, a loud, swing-driven fusion of blues...
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Frank Sinatra (Francis Albert Sinatra)
12/15/1915 - 05/14/1998
Francis Albert Sinatra was an American singer and Academy Award-winning actor who many consider to be one of the finest male popular song vocalists of all time. Critics place him alongside the great artists as one of the most important, popul...
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Spike Jones (Lindley Armstrong Jones)
12/14/1911 - 05/01/1965
Lindley Armstrong "Spike" Jones (December 14, 1911 – May 1, 1965) was a popular musician and bandleader specializing in performing satirical arrangements of popular songs.
Elvis Presley (Elvis Aaron Presley)
01/08/1935 - 08/16/1977
Elvis Aaron Presley began his career as first performer of rockabilly, an up-tempo fusion of country and rhythm and blues with a strong back beat. Presley had a versatile voice and had unusually wide success encompassing other genres, including go...
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11/12/1917 - 06/16/2008
Jo Elizabeth Stafford (November 12, 1917 – July 16, 2008) was an American singer of traditional pop music and jazz standards whose career ran from the late 1930s to the early 1960s. Stafford was greatl...
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01/27/1885 - 11/11/1945
Jerome David Kern (January 27, 1885 – November 11, 1945) was an American composer of musical theatre and popular music. One of the most important American theatre composers of the early 20th century, he wrote more than 700 songs, used in ove...
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05/21/1972 - 03/09/1997
Christopher George Latore Wallace (May 21, 1972 – March 9, 1997) was an American rapper. He was popularly known as Biggie Smalls (after a character in the 1975 film Let's Do It Again), Big Poppa, Frank White (after the main character of...
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02/20/1967 - 04/05/1994
Kurt Donald Cobain was an American singer-songwriter, musician, and artist, best known as the lead singer and guitarist of the grunge band Nirvana.
Nirvana was labeled "the flagship band" of G...
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12/25/1893 - 04/29/1957
Belle Baker (25 December 1893, New York City, New York – 29 April 1957, Los Angeles, California) was an American singer and actress. Popular throughout the 1910s and 1920s, Baker introduced a number of ragtime and torch songs including Irvin...
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11/15/1968 - 11/13/2004
Russell Tyrone Jones (November 15, 1968 – November 13, 2004) was an American rapper and occasional producer, who went by the stage name Ol' Dirty Bastard or simply ODB. He was one of the founding members of the Wu-Tang Clan, a Hip-Hop gr...
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07/06/1924 - 02/14/2009
Luigi Paulino Alfredo Francesco Antonio Balassoni (July 6, 1924 – February 14, 2009), better known by the stage name Louie Bellson (his own preferred spelling, although he is often seen in sources as Louis Bells...
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