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
Read more about this topic: 1998 In Music
Famous quotes containing the word deaths:
“There is the guilt all soldiers feel for having broken the taboo against killing, a guilt as old as war itself. Add to this the soldiers sense of shame for having fought in actions that resulted, indirectly or directly, in the deaths of civilians. Then pile on top of that an attitude of social opprobrium, an attitude that made the fighting man feel personally morally responsible for the war, and you get your proverbial walking time bomb.”
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—Alison Hawthorne Deming (b. 1946)