David McCoy Franklin
DOB Unknown – September 7, 2008
David McCoy Franklin was an entertainment lawyer whose clientele included Miles Davis and Peabo Bryson. In recent years he was a key advisor to Maynard Jackson, the former mayor of Atlanta. He passed away at the age of 65.
Kyle Woodring
February 7, 1967 – September 7, 2009
Kyle Woodring was a concert and studio drummer who has been playing since he was four years old. In the late ’80s, Woodring began drumming for Survivor, playing on their 1988 hit, “Didn’t Know It Was Love.” In later years, he played or toured with John Mellencamp, Deana Carter and for one-time Styx lead singer, Dennis DeYoung. Cause of death was not immediately released.
Thanks to Craig Rosen at Number1Albums for the assist.
Luciano Pavarotti
October 12, 1935 – September 6, 2007
Luciano Pavarotti was an immensely popular operatic singer who successfully crossed over to pop music during the 1990s. In the early part of the decade, he joined Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras to perform and record as The Three Tenors. Their album together went on to become the biggest selling classical album in history. Over the years he has sung with such pop acts as U2, Vanessa Williams and Mercedes Sosa. He is the only opera singer to ever perform on Saturday Night Live. Pavarotti was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer while in the midst of his “farewell tour” of 2006. He died of the disease on September 6, 2007.
Tom Wilson
March 25, 1931 – September 6, 1978
Working as a record producer through the late ’50s and most of the ’60s, Tom Wilson earned a place alongside such better-known contemporaries as Phil Spector and George Martin. After graduating from Harvard, Wilson started up Transition Records, where he signed Sun Ra and Cecil Taylor. In the early ’60s, he moved over to Columbia Records as house producer. While there, he produced such masterpieces as Bob Dylan’s The Times They Are A-Changin’, Another Side Of Bob Dylan, and Bringing It All Back Home. He also produced seminal albums by the likes of Simon and Garfunkel, Frank Zappa, Eric Burdon and the Velvet Underground. Tom Wilson suffered a fatal heart attack on September 6, 1978. He was 47.
Nicky Hopkins
February 24, 1944 – September 6, 1994
Keyboardist Nicky Hopkins has been called one of the greatest rock session players of all time. Because he suffered from Chron’s disease since childhood, it was difficult for Hopkin’s to be part of a touring band, so he decided he make his mark as a studio musician instead. After cutting his chops with Screaming Lord Sutch and Cyril Davies during the hay day of British R&B of the ’60s, went on to become one of the most favored session men in London. Over the course of his career, he’s played on records by the likes of the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Jeff Beck, the Kinks, and John Lennon, as well as those by such American artists as Steve Miller and Jefferson Airplane. Nicky Hopkins died at the age of 50 due to complications from intestinal surgery.
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