Conway Twitty

Harold Lloyd Jenkins (September 1, 1933 – June 5, 1993), better known by his stage name Conway Twitty, was an American singer and songwriter. Initially a part of the 1950s rockabilly scene, Twitty was best known as a country music performer. From 1971 to 1976, Twitty received a string of Country Music Association awards for duets with Loretta Lynn. He was inducted into both the Country Music and Rockabilly Halls of Fame.

Twitty was known for his frequent use of romantic and sentimental themes in his songs. Due to his following being compared to a religious revival, comedian Jerry Clower nicknamed Twitty "The High Priest of Country Music", the eventual title of his 33rd studio album. Twitty achieved stardom with hit songs like "Hello Darlin'", "You've Never Been This Far Before" and "Linda on My Mind". Twitty topped Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart 40 times in his career, a record that stood for two decades until it was surpassed by George Strait, and topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart once with "It's Only Make Believe". He wrote eleven of his Billboard Hot Country Songs chart-topping hits.[3]

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Fats Domino

Antoine "Fats" Domino Jr. (February 26, 1928 – October 24, 2017) was an American pianist and singer-songwriter. One of the pioneers of rock and roll music, Domino sold more than 65 million records.[2] Between 1955 and 1960, he had eleven Top 10 hits.[3] His humility and shyness may be one reason his contribution to the genre has been overlooked.[4]

During his career, Domino had 35 records in the U.S. Billboard Top 40, and five of his pre-1955 records sold more than a million copies, being certified gold.[5] His musical style was based on traditional rhythm and blues, accompanied by saxophones, bass, piano, electric guitar, and drums.[5]

His 1949 release "The Fat Man" is widely regarded as the first million-selling rock and roll record. Two of his most famous songs are "Ain't That A Shame" and "Blueberry Hill".
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Buddy Holly

Charles Hardin Holley (September 7, 1936 – February 3, 1959), known as Buddy Holly, was an American singer and songwriter who was a central and pioneering figure of mid-1950s rock and roll. He was born to a musical family in Lubbock, Texas, during the Great Depression, and learned to play guitar and sing alongside his siblings. Holly's style was influenced by gospel music, country music, and rhythm and blues acts, which he performed in Lubbock with his friends from high school.

During his short career, Holly wrote and recorded many songs. He is often regarded as the artist who defined the traditional rock-and-roll lineup of two guitars, bass, and drums. Holly was a major influence on later popular music artists, including Bob Dylan, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, the Hollies, Elvis Costello, Dave Edmunds, Marshall Crenshaw, and Elton John. Holly was among the first artists inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, in 1986. Rolling Stone magazine ranked him number 13 in its list of "100 Greatest Artists" in 2010.

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CHUCK BERRY

Charles Edward Anderson Berry (October 18, 1926 – March 18, 2017) was an American singer, guitarist and songwriter who pioneered rock and roll. Nicknamed the "Father of Rock and Roll", he refined and developed rhythm and blues into the major elements that made rock and roll distinctive with songs such as "Maybellene" (1955), "Roll Over Beethoven" (1956), "Rock and Roll Music" (1957) and "Johnny B. Goode" (1958).[1] Writing lyrics that focused on teen life and consumerism, and developing a music style that included guitar solos and showmanship, Berry was a major influence on subsequent rock music.[2]

Berry was among the first musicians to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on its opening in 1986; he was cited for having "laid the groundwork for not only a rock and roll sound but a rock and roll stance."[8] Berry is included in several of Rolling Stone magazine's "greatest of all time" lists; he was ranked fifth on its 2004 and 2011 lists of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time and 2nd greatest guitarist of all time in 2023.[9][10] The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll includes three of Berry's: "Johnny B. Goode", "Maybellene", and "Rock and Roll Music".[11] "Johnny B. Goode" is the only rock-and-roll song included on the Voyager Golden Record.[12]

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Fat's Domino

Antoine Dominique Domino Jr.[1] (February 26, 1928 – October 24, 2017), known as Fats Domino, was an American pianist, singer and songwriter. One of the pioneers of rock and roll music, Domino sold more than 65 million records.[2] Born in New Orleans to a French Creole family, Domino signed to Imperial Records in 1949. His first single "The Fat Man" is cited by some historians as the first rock and roll single and the first to sell more than 1 million copies.[3][4] Domino continued to work with the song's co-writer Dave Bartholomew, contributing his distinctive rolling piano style to Lloyd Price's "Lawdy Miss Clawdy" (1952) and scoring a string of mainstream hits beginning with "Ain't That a Shame" (1955). Between 1955 and 1960, he had eleven Top 10 US pop hits.[5] By 1955, five of his records had sold more than a million copies, being certified gold.[6]

Four of Domino's records were named to the Grammy Hall of Fame for their significance: "Blueberry Hill", "Ain't That a Shame", "Walking to New Orleans" and "The Fat Man".[3] He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as part of its first group of inductees in 1986. The Associated Press estimates that during his career, Domino "sold more than 110 million records".[10] Biography

Gordon Lightfoot

Gordon Meredith Lightfoot Jr. CC OOnt (November 17, 1938 – May 1, 2023) was a Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist who achieved international success in folk, folk-rock, and country music. He is credited with helping to define the folk-pop sound of the 1960s and 1970s.[1] He has been referred to as Canada's greatest songwriter[2] and his songs have been recorded by some of the world's most renowned musical artists.[3] Lightfoot's biographer Nicholas Jennings said, "His name is synonymous with timeless songs about trains and shipwrecks, rivers and highways, lovers and loneliness."[4]

Lightfoot's songs, including "For Lovin' Me", "Early Morning Rain", "Steel Rail Blues", "Ribbon of Darkness"—a number one hit on the U.S. country chart[5] with Marty Robbins's cover in 1965—and "Black Day in July", about the 1967 Detroit riot, brought him wide recognition in the 1960s. Canadian chart success with his own recordings began in 1962 with the No. 3 hit "(Remember Me) I'm the One", followed by recognition and charting abroad in the 1970s. He topped the US Hot 100 or Adult Contemporary (AC) chart with the hits "If You Could Read My Mind" (1970), "Sundown" (1974); "Carefree Highway" (1974), "Rainy Day People" (1975), and "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" (1976), and had many other hits that appeared in the top 40.[6]

Several of Lightfoot's albums achieved gold and multi-platinum status internationally. His songs have been recorded by many notable artists.[7] The Guess Who recorded a song called "Lightfoot" on their 1968 album Wheatfield Soul; the lyrics contain many Lightfoot song titles.

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Jimmy Buffett

James William Buffett (December 25, 1946 – September 1, 2023) was an American musician and singer-songwriter.[10] He was best known for his tropical rock music,[2] which often portrayed a lifestyle described as "island escapism"[11] and promoted enjoying life and following passions.[12] Buffett recorded hit songs known as "The Big 8":[13] "Margaritaville" (1977), which is ranked 234th on the Recording Industry Association of America's list of "Songs of the Century"; "Come Monday" (1974); "Fins" (1979); "Volcano" (1979); "A Pirate Looks at Forty" (1974); "Cheeseburger in Paradise" (1978); "Why Don't We Get Drunk" (1973); and "Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes" (1977). His other popular songs include "Son of a Son of a Sailor" (1978), "One Particular Harbour" (1983), and "It's Five O'Clock Somewhere" with Alan Jackson (2003).[14] He formed the Coral Reefer Band in 1975.[15] 

His other popular songs include "Son of a Son of a Sailor" (1978), "One Particular Harbour" (1983), and "It's Five O'Clock Somewhere" with Alan Jackson (2003).[14] He formed the Coral Reefer Band in 1975.[15] Of the over 30 albums released by Buffett, eight are certified gold and nine are certified platinum or multiplatinum.[16] In total, Buffett sold over 20 million albums.[3]

​Buffett also parlayed the "island escapism" lifestyle of his music into several business ventures, including Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville restaurant chain, the now-defunct Cheeseburger in Paradise restaurant chain, and ventures in hotels, casinos, liquor, and retirement communities. Buffett was one of the world's richest musicians, with a net worth of $1 billion.[17] He was also a bestselling author. His devoted fan base, composed mostly of baby boomers, are known as "Parrotheads".[18]

Illness and death

In May 2023, Buffett was hospitalized to "address some issues that needed immediate attention" and rescheduled tour dates.[169] In late August, he entered hospice care[170] and had a final meeting with family and friends.[171]

​Buffett died on September 1, 2023, at age 76, at his home in Sag Harbor, New York, due to complications from Merkel-cell carcinoma, a rare and aggressive skin cancer, with which he had been diagnosed four years earlier.[3][34] ​

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The Bee Gees

The Bee Gees were a musical group formed in 1958 by brothers Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb. The trio were especially successful in popular music in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and later as prominent performers in the disco music era in the mid- to late 1970s. The group sang recognisable three-part tight harmonies: Robin's clear vibrato lead vocals were a hallmark of their earlier hits, while Barry's R&B falsetto became their signature sound during the mid- to late 1970s and 1980s. The group wrote all their own original material, as well as writing and producing several major hits for other artists, and are regarded as one of the most important and influential acts in pop-music history.[4] They have been referred to in the media as The Disco Kings, Britain's First Family of Harmony, and The Kings of Dance Music.[5][6][7]

The Bee Gees have sold over 250 million records worldwide[8][9][10]placing them among the best-selling music artists of all time, as well as the most successful trio in the history of contemporary music.[11] They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997;[12] the Hall's citation says, "Only Elvis Presley, the Beatles, Michael Jackson, Garth Brooks and Paul McCartney have outsold the Bee Gees."[13] With nine number-one hits on the Billboard Hot 100, the Bee Gees are the third-most successful band in Billboard charts history behind only the Beatles and the Supremes.[14]

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Percy Faith

Percy Faith (April 7, 1908 – February 9, 1976) was a Canadian-American bandleader, orchestrator, composer and conductor,[1] known for his lush arrangements of instrumental ballads and Christmas standards. He is often credited with popularizing the "easy listening" or "mood music" format. He became a staple of American popular music in the 1950s and continued well into the 1960s.[1] Though his professional orchestra-leading career began at the height of the Swing Era, he refined and rethought orchestration techniques, including use of large string sections, to soften and fill out the brass-dominated popular music of the 1940s.

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Neil Young

​Neil Percival Young OC[1][2] (November 12, 1945) is a Canadian-American[3] singer and songwriter. After embarking on a music career in Winnipeg in the 1960s, Young moved to Los Angeles, joining the folk-rockgroup Buffalo Springfield. Since the beginning of his solo career, often with backing by the band Crazy Horse, he has released critically acclaimed albums such as Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere (1969), After the Gold Rush (1970),  Harvest (1972), On the Beach (1974), and Rust Never Sleeps (1979). He was also a part-time member of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, with whom he recorded the chart-topping 1970 album Déjà Vu

Young has received several Grammy and Juno Awards. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted him twice: in 1995 as a solo artist and in 1997 as a member of Buffalo Springfield.[11] In 2000, Rolling Stone named Young No. 34 on their list of the 100 greatest musical artists. According to Acclaimed Music, he is the seventh most celebrated artist in popular music history.[12] 21 of his albums and singles have been certified Gold and Platinum in U.S. by RIAA certification.[13] Young was awarded the Order of Manitoba in 2006[2] and was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2009.[1]

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