Deaths
- January 1 – Maurice Chevalier, 83, French singer and actor
- January 16 – David Seville, 52, voice of the Chipmunks
- January 19 – Michael Rabin, 35, violinist (fell downstairs)
- January 20 - Jean Casadesus, 44, French pianist (car accident)
- January 23 - Big Maybelle, 47, singer and pianist
- January 24 – Gene Austin, 69, singer-songwriter
- January 27 – Mahalia Jackson, 61, gospel singer
- January 29 - Margherita Grandi, 77, operatic soprano
- February 8 - Markos Vamvakaris, 66, Greek composer
- February 19 - Lee Morgan, 33, hard bop trumpeter
- February 21 – Marie Dubas, 77, French music-hall singer
- March 2 - Erna Sack, 74, coloratura soprano (cancer)
- March 17 – Linda Jones, 27, soul singer (diabetic coma)
- March 27 – Sharkey Bonano, 67, jazz musician and bandleader
- April 4 – Stefan Wolpe, 69, composer
- May 2 – Les Harvey, 25, guitarist (Stone the Crows) (electrocuted on stage)
- May 5 - Reverend Gary Davis, 76, blues and gospel singer and guitarist
- May 12 - David Hughes, 43, operatic tenor (heart failure)
- June 8 - Jimmy Rushing, 70, blues and jazz singer
- June 13 - Clyde McPhatter, 39, R&B singer
- July 3 – "Mississippi" Fred McDowell, 68, blues musician
- July 9 - Robert Weede, 69, operatic baritone
- July 24 – Bobby Ramirez, drummer (Edgar Winter's White Trash)
- July 28 - Helen Traubel, 73, operatic soprano
- August 2
- Brian Cole, 29, bass player in The Association (drug overdose)
- Rudolph Ganz, 95, Swiss pianist, conductor and composer
- August 14 – Oscar Levant, 65, pianist and composer
- August 21 - Yvonne Gall, 87, operatic soprano
- August 29 – Lale Andersen, 67, Danish singer
- August 31 - Dalva de Oliveira, 55, Brazilian singer (internal bleeding)
- September 28 - Rory Storm, 33, English singer (appendicitis)
- September 30 - Grigore Cugler, 69, Romanian riter, artist, composer and violinist
- October 24 - Thelma Votipka, 67, operatic mezzo-soprano
- November 3 – Harry Richman, 77, US singer, actor and composer
- November 6 – Billy Murcia, 21, drummer of New York Dolls (suffocation)
- November 11 – Berry Oakley, 24, bass player (The Allman Brothers Band) (motorcycle accident)
- November 12 – Rudolf Friml, 92, Rose-Marie composer
- November 18 – Danny Whitten, 29, guitarist (Crazy Horse) (drug overdose)
- November 28 – Havergal Brian, 96, composer
Read more about this topic: 1972 In Music
Famous quotes containing the word deaths:
“Death is too much for men to bear, whereas women, who are practiced in bearing the deaths of men before their own and who are also practiced in bearing life, take death almost in stride. They go to meet death—that is, they attempt suicide—twice as often as men, though men are more “successful” because they use surer weapons, like guns.”
—Roger Rosenblatt (b. 1940)
“You lived too long, we have supped full with heroes,
they waste their deaths on us.”
—C.D. Andrews (1913–1992)
“On almost the incendiary eve
Of deaths and entrances ...”
—Dylan Thomas (1914–1953)