1998 in Music - Deaths

Deaths

• January 2 – Nick Venet, record producer, 61 (Burkitt's Lymphoma)
• January 4 – Mae Questel, singer and actress, the voice of Betty Boop, Olive Oyl, Little Audrey & Little Lulu, 89
• January 5 – Sonny Bono, singer and songwriter, 63
• January 7 - Owen Bradley, record producer, 82
• January 8 – Sir Michael Tippett, composer, 93
• January 11 – Klaus Tennstedt, conductor, 71
• January 15 – Junior Wells, harmonica player, 64
• January 17 – Junior Kimbrough, blues guitarist and singer, 67
• January 19 – Carl Perkins, singer 65, complications following a series of strokes
• January 22 - Anselmo Sacasas, jazz pianist and bandleader, 85
• January 24 – Justin Tubb, country music singer and songwriter, 62
• January 26
  • Orlando DiGirolamo, jazz accordionist, pianist, composer, and teacher, 73
  • Shinichi Suzuki, violinist and inventor of the international Suzuki method of music education, 99
• February 3 – Fat Pat, American rapper (shot)
• February 5
  • Tim Kelly, guitarist (Slaughter), 35 (car accident)
  • Nick Webb, jazz guitarist, 43 or 44 (pancreatic cancer)
• February 6
  • Carl Wilson, The Beach Boys, 51 (lung cancer)
  • Falco, rock star, 40 (car accident)
• February 10 – Alex Kramer, Canadian songwriter, 94
• February 13 – Thomas Chapin, composer and saxophonist, 40 (leukemia)
• February 17 – Bob Merrill, songwriter, 76 (suicide)
• February 19 – Grandpa Jones, star of Hee Haw, comedian and musician, 84
• February 25 – Rockin' Sidney, soul musician, 59
• February 28 – Todd Duncan, first Porgy in Porgy and Bess, 95
• March 8 – Roger Christian, The Christians
• March 13 – Judge Dread, ska and reggae performer, 52 (heart attack on stage)
• March 29 - Nada Tončić, operatic soprano, 88
• March 31 - Joel Ryce-Menuhin, pianist, 64
• April 1 – Rozz Williams, founder of Christian Death, suicide (hanging)
• April 2 – Rob Pilatus, member of Milli Vanilli, 32
• April 4 - Pierre Lantier, pianist and composer, 87
• April 5 – Cozy Powell, drummer for Rainbow and Black Sabbath, 50 (car accident)
• April 6 – Tammy Wynette, country singer, 55
• April 7 – Wendy O. Williams, The Plasmatics, 48 (suicide)
• April 9 – Tom Cora, cellist and composer, 44
• April 11 – Lillian Briggs, US singer and trombonist, 65 (lung cancer)
• April 15 – Rose Maddox, country singer, 72
• April 17 – Linda McCartney, Wings, 56 (breast cancer)
• May 2 – Hideto "Hide" Matsumoto, Japanese rock artist, 33, (hanging, apparently accidental)
• May 5 – Tommy McCook, Jamaican saxophonist, 71
• May 7 – Eddie Rabbitt, country singer, 56, lung cancer
• May 9 – Alice Faye, actress and singer, 83
• May 10 – Lester Butler, blues harmonica player and singer, 38 (drug overdose)
• May 14 – Frank Sinatra, singer and actor, 82 (heart attack)
• May 19 - Dorothy Donegan, jazz pianist, 76
• May 22 – Royce Kendall, country musician, 62
• June 2 - Ricky Hyslop, violinist, conductor, composer, and arranger, 83
• June 8 - Harry Lookofsky, jazz violinist, 84
• June 10 – Steve Sanders, the Oak Ridge Boys, 45, suicide
• June 25 – Lounès Matoub, assassinated
• July 6 – Roy Rogers, actor and singer, 86
• July 14 - Herman David Koppel, pianist and composer, 89
• July 21 – O'Landa Draper, O'Landa Draper and the Associates (gospel choir), 34 (renal failure)
• July 23 – André Gertler, violinist, 90
• August 3 – Alfred Schnittke, composer, 63
• August 11 – Benny Waters, jazz saxophonist and clarinetist, 96
• August 19
  • Ilva Ligabue, operatic soprano, 66
  • Sylvia Stahlman, operatic soprano, 69
• August 22 - Sergio Fiorentino, pianist, 70
• August 24 – Gene Page, arranger, producer and conductor, 58
• August 25 - Lamar Crowson, pianist, 72
• August 29 – Charlie Feathers, country blues musician, 66
• September 14 – Johnny Adams, blues, jazz and gospel singer, 66
• September 18 – Charlie Foxx, R & B and soul musician, 58 (leukemia)
• September 26 – Betty Carter, jazz singer, 69
• September 30 - Pavel Štěpán, pianist, 73
• October 2 – Gene Autry, actor and country singer, 91
• October 5 - Jacques Abram, pianiast, 83
• October 14 – Frankie Yankovic, America's "Polka King," 83
• October 17 - Antonio Agri, violinist, conductor and composer, 66
• October 25 – Warren Wiebe, "Soulful Rain Man", vocalist and session artist, 45 (suicide)
• November 8
  • Consuelo Villalon Aleman, pianist, 91
  • Lonnie Pitchford, blues musician, 43 (AIDS)
• November 12 – Kenny Kirkland, jazz keyboardist, 43 (congestive heart failure)
• November 20 – Roland Alphonso, saxophonist, 67
• November 27 – Barbara Acklin, soul singer, 55
• December 11 – Lynn Strait, (Snot), 30 (car accident)
• December 21
  • Avril Coleridge-Taylor, pianist, conductor and composer, 95
  • Karl Denver, Scottish singer, 67
• December 25 - Bryan MacLean, singer, guitarist and songwriter (Love), 52 (heart attack)
• December 30 - Johnny Moore, R & B singer, 64
• date unknown - Olga De Blanck Martín, pianist, guitarist and composer