Deaths
- January 7 – Jimmy Van Heusen, composer and songwriter, 77
- January 18 – Melanie Appleby of British duo Mel and Kim, 23 (liver cancer)
- January 19 – Semprini, pianist and broadcaster, 81
- January 23 – Allen Collins, Lynyrd Skynyrd guitarist, 37 (complications from pneumonia)
- February 1 – Peter Racine Fricker, composer, 69
- February 2 - Mel Lewis, drummer and bandleader, 60 (cancer)
- February 8 – Del Shannon, singer-songwriter, 55 (suicide by shotgun)
- February 14 – Tony Holiday, German singer, 38 (AIDS-related illness)
- February 24 – Johnnie Ray, singer, 63 (liver failure)
- February 26 - Cornell Gunter, R&B singer, 53 (gunshot wound)
- March 6 – Mala, singer, 50
- March 11 – Muriel Dickson, operatic soprano, 86
- March 16 – Andrew Wood, singer (Mother Love Bone), 24 (heroin overdose)
- March 17 – Ric Grech, bassist (Family, Blind Faith), 43 (brain haemorrhage)
- April 3 – Sarah Vaughan, American jazz singer, 66 (lung cancer)
- April 25 - Dexter Gordon, jazz saxophonist, 67
- May 1 - Sergio Franchi, Italian-American tenor/actor, 64 (brain cancer)
- May 8 – Luigi Nono, composer, 66
- May 16 – Sammy Davis, Jr., American entertainer, 64
- June 6 – Joe Loss, English bandleader, 80
- June 3 - Stiv Bators, punk musician, 40 (concussion)
- June 14 – Erna Berger, operatic soprano, 89
- June 16 – Dame Eva Turner, operatic soprano, 98
- June 21
- June Christy, American singer, 64 (renal failure)
- Elizabeth Harwood, operatic soprano, 52 (cancer)
- June 25 – Peggy Glanville-Hicks, composer, 77
- July 7 – Cazuza, singer and composer, 32 (AIDS-related)
- July 15 – Trouble T Roy, hip-hop dancer, 22 (fall from stage)
- July 16 – Sidney Torch, pianist, cinema organist, conductor, orchestral arranger and composer
- July 26 - Brent Mydland, keyboardist (Grateful Dead), 37 (drug overdose)
- August 14 – Lafayette Leake, blues and jazz pianist, organist, vocalist and composer, 71
- August 15 – Viktor Tsoi, Russian singer of Kino, 28 (car accident)
- August 17 – Pearl Bailey, singer, 72
- August 27 – Stevie Ray Vaughan, American blues guitarist performer, 35 (helicopter crash)
- September 2 – Sari Biro, pianist, 78
- September 6 – Tom Fogerty (Creedence Clearwater Revival), 48 (AIDS-related)
- September 13 – Phil Napoleon, jazz trumpeter, 89
- October 3 – Eleanor Steber, operatic soprano, 76
- October 4 – Ray Stephens, a onetime member of The Village People, 35
- October 6
- Asser Fagerström, pianist, composer and actor, 78
- Danny Rodriguez, Christian rap artist, 22 (shot)
- October 8 – B. J. Wilson, drummer of Procol Harum, 43
- October 14 – Leonard Bernstein, American composer and conductor, 72 (pneumonia and a pleural tumor)
- October 16
- Art Blakey, jazz drummer, 71
- Jorge Bolet, pianist, 75
- October 27 – Xavier Cugat, violinist, bandleader and arranger, 90
- October 31 - M. L. Vasanthakumari, Carnatic musician and playback singer, 62
- November 3 – Mary Martin, US singer and actress, 76
- November 10 – Ronnie Dyson, soul singer and actor
- December 2 – Aaron Copland, American composer
- December 7 – Dee Clark, singer, 52 (heart attack)
- December 18 – Paul Tortelier, cellist, 76
Read more about this topic: 1990 In Music
Famous quotes containing the word deaths:
“On almost the incendiary eve
Of deaths and entrances ...”
—Dylan Thomas (1914–1953)
“I sang of death but had I known
The many deaths one must have died
Before he came to meet his own!”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“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)