Vincent Crane of Dexy's Midnight Runners (May 21, 1943-February 14, 1989): The keyboardist on the band's third album committed suicide with pills. Pete Burns of Dead or Alive (August 5, 1959-October 23, 2016): The colorful lead singer's fixation on plastic surgery couldn't have helped his health he died of a heart attack.Ĭliff Burton of Metallica (February 10, 1962-September 27, 1986): Burton played on Metallica's first three studio efforts before perishing in a horrific tour-bus accident. Laura Branigan (July 3, 1952-August 26, 2004): The "Gloria" (1982) hitmaker died in her sleep following a period of headaches that turned out to be caused by a brain aneurysm. Stiv Bators of the Lords of the New Church (October 22, 1949-June 4, 1990): The punk singer died of a traumatic brain injury hours after being hit by a cab.ĭavid Bowie (January 8, 1947-January 10, 2016): The music icon died of liver cancer two days after his birthday. Matthew Ashman of Bow Wow Wow and Adam & the Ants (November 3, 1960-November 21, 1995): The guitarist died of complications from diabetes.īaltimora aka Jimmy McShane (May 23, 1957-March 29, 1995): The singer most associated with "Baltimora," which was actually an Italian collective, died of AIDS. Izora Armstead of the Weather Girls (July 6, 1942-September 16, 2004): Armstead, more than 10 years older than fellow Weather Girl Martha Wash (b.
Melanie Appleby of Mel and Kim (July 11, 1966-January 18, 1990): The singer was just 23 when she died of pneumonia following cancer treatment. Laura '80s seem recent-ish to those of us who lived through them, and with celebrities of the '50s and '60s still running - or power-walking - around, it's hard to fathom, but a huge number of predominantly '80s pop stars are already gone, and not just the ones you immediately think of: She had been suffering severe headaches but failed to get medical attention and her cause of death was reported as a brain aneurysm. Sadly, In August 2004 she passed away in her sleep at home in New York. She eventually recovered and landed the role portraying Janis Joplin in an off-Broadway musical, Love, Janis. Her comeback was cut short after she broke both legs when she fell off a ladder at home whilst she was hanging Wisteria out of her window. She struggled to come to terms with his death and it took five years until she felt ready to make a return. In 1996 today’s singer retired from the music industry to spend more time with her husband after he was diagnosed with colon cancer, he died later the same year. Today’s song earned her a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female, but She lost to Melissa Manchester.
(CLIP) That one was ALSO a cover of an Italian song!
She had an impressive run of hits over the next few years, including "Self Control," which went to #4. Today’s singer debuted with a song called "All Night With Me," (CLIP) but it stalled at #69 in the US, but her next single, today’s song was a winner peaking at number 2 on the US Charts. "Are the voices in your head calling." today’s singer asks. She seems to be on the verge of insanity. In the original Italian version, the singer is longing for the person named in the song, but in today’s version, she is singing TO the song’s namesake, whose head is scrambled over a guy. When they worked it up with English lyrics, she came around, and the song became a huge hit, this time in many English-speaking territories. When today’s singer, who was a backup singer for Leonard Cohen, started work on her first album, her producer suggested she cover this song, but she was skeptical. Are you keeping track of this week's songs? Tomorrow we'll ask you to call in to name the 5 songs and their common theme to win a $25 Jersey Mike’s gift card!Ī smash single from 1982, today’s song was first released in 1979 by the Italian pop singer Umberto Tozzi (Anyone?) His version was a hit in his home country and popular in other non-English-speaking countries in Europe.