Deaths
- January 1 – Michael Mann, violinist, son of Thomas Mann, 57 (suicide)
- January 2 – Errol Garner, jazz pianist, 53 (heart attack)
- January 16 - Tom Archia, jazz saxophonist, 57
- January 23 – Dick Burnett, folk songwriter, 94
- February 8 – Eivind Groven, microtonal composer and music theorist, 75
- February 10 – Grace Williams, composer, 70
- February 12 – Ernst Mehlich, German-Brazilian conductor and composer, 89
- February 23 - Margaret Daum, operatic soprano, 70
- February 26 – Bukka White, blues guitarist and singer, 67
- February 28 – Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, comic actor and singer, 71
- March 10 – E. Power Biggs, organist, 70
- May 6 - Joseph Hislop, operatic and concert tenor, 93
- May 22 – Hampton Hawes, jazz pianist, 48 (brain haemorrhage)
- May 30 – Paul Desmond, jazz saxophonist, 52 (lung cancer)
- June 5 – Sleepy John Estes, blues guitarist and singer, 78
- June 13 – Matthew Garber, former child star of Mary Poppins, 21 (pancreatitis)
- July 2 - Gert Potgieter, South African operatic tenor and actor, 47 (car accident)
- July 26 – Gena Branscombe, composer and conductor, 95
- August 16 – Elvis Presley, singer, 42 (heart attack)
- August 19 – Groucho Marx, comedian, actor, singer and performer, 86
- September 1 - Ethel Waters, American blues, jazz and gospel singer, 80
- September 5 – George Barnes, swing jazz guitarist, 56
- September 13 – Leopold Stokowski, conductor, 95
- September 16
- Marc Bolan, singer-songwriter, 29 (car crash)
- Maria Callas, operatic soprano, 53 (heart attack)
- September 30 – Mary Ford, guitarist and vocalist, 53 (diabetes-related)
- October 13 – Shirley Brickley, the Orlons, 32 (shot)
- October 14 – Bing Crosby, singer and actor, 74
- October 20 – Ronnie Van Zant, 29, Steve Gaines, 28, and Cassie Gaines, 29, members of Lynyrd Skynyrd (plane crash)
- November 5 – Guy Lombardo, violinist and bandleader, 75
- November 14 – Richard Addinsell, Warsaw Concerto composer, 73
- December 5 – Rahsaan Roland Kirk, jazz saxophonist, flutist, composer, 42 (stroke)
- December 24 - Salvatore Papaccio, Canzone Napoletana tenor, 87
- December 25 – Charlie Chaplin, actor and composer, 88
- December 28 – Sam Brown, jazz guitarist, 38
- December 30 – St. Louis Jimmy Oden, blues singer, 74
- date unknown – Jimmy Cooper, hammered dulcimer player, 70
Read more about this topic: 1977 In Music
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