Billie Holiday (Eleanora Fagan)
04/07/1915 - 07/17/1959
Billie Holiday (born Eleanora Fagan, April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959) was an American jazz singer and songwriter. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and musical partner Lester Young, Holiday had a seminal influence on jazz and pop si...
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09/26/1898 - 07/11/1937
George Gershwin (September 26, 1898 – July 11, 1937) was an American composer and pianist. Gershwin's compositions spanned both popular and classical genres, and his most popular melodies are widely known. Among his best known works are...
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01/27/1885 - 11/11/1945
Jerome David Kern (January 27, 1885 – November 11, 1945) was an American composer of musical theatre and popular music. One of the most important American theatre composers of the early 20th century, he wrote more than 700 songs, used in ove...
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06/29/1901 - 03/06/1967
Nelson Ackerman Eddy (June 29, 1901 - March 6, 1967) was an American singer and movie star who appeared in 19 musical films during the 1930s and 1940s, as well as in opera and on the concert stage, radio, television, and in nightclubs. He was one...
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11/12/1917 - 06/16/2008
Jo Elizabeth Stafford (November 12, 1917 – July 16, 2008) was an American singer of traditional pop music and jazz standards whose career ran from the late 1930s to the early 1960s. Stafford was greatl...
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03/01/1904 - 12/15/1944
Alton Glenn Miller (March 1, 1904 – missing in action December 15, 1944) was an American jazz musician (trombone), arranger, composer, and bandleader in the swing era. He was one of the best-selling recording artists from 1939 to 1943, leadi...
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05/23/1910 - 12/30/2004
Arthur Jacob Arshawsky (May 23, 1910 – December 30, 2004), better known as Artie Shaw, was an American jazz clarinetist, composer, and bandleader. He was also the author of both fiction and non-fiction writ...
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Benny Goodman (Benjamin David Goodman)
05/30/1909 - 06/13/1986
Benjamin David “Benny” Goodman (May 30, 1909 – June 13, 1986) was an American jazz and swing musician, clarinetist and bandleader; widely known as the "King of Swing
Buck Owens (Alvis Edgar Owens)
08/12/1929 - 03/25/2006
Alvis Edgar Owens, Jr. (August 12, 1929 – March 25, 2006), better known as Buck Owens, was an American singer and guitarist who had 21 No. 1 hits on the Billboard country music charts with his band,...
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Gene Vincent (Vincent Eugene Craddock)
02/11/1935 - 10/12/1971
Vincent Eugene Craddock (February 11, 1935–October 12, 1971), better known as Gene Vincent, was an American musician who pioneered the styles of rock and roll and rockabilly. His 1956 top ten hit with his Blue Caps, "Be-Bop-A-Lula...
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06/20/1924 - 06/30/2001
Chester Burton Atkins (June 20, 1924 – June 30, 2001), better known as Chet Atkins, was an American guitarist and record producer who, along with Owen Bradley, created the smoother country music style known as the Nashville sound,...
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07/08/1908 - 02/04/1975
Louis Jordan (July 8, 1908 – February 4, 1975) was a pioneering American jazz, blues and rhythm & blues musician, songwriter and bandleader who enjoyed his greatest popularity from the late 1930s to the early 1950s. Known as "The Ki...
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Bud Freeman (Lawrence Freeman)
04/13/1906 - 03/15/1991
Lawrence "Bud" Freeman (April 13, 1906 - March 15, 1991) was a U.S. jazz musician, bandleader, and composer, known mainly for playing the tenor saxophone, but also able at the clarinet. He was one of the most influential and important ja...
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