Died On This Date (November 2, 1996) Eva Cassidy / Respected Pop Singer
themusicsover Eva Cassidy
February 2, 1963 – November 2, 1996
Eva Cassidy was an American guitarist and vocalist who was equally adept at interpreting jazz, blues, country, folk, and pop standards. Without much more than a cult following outside of her hometown of Washington DC, Cassidy never failed to wow audiences with her remarkable technical ability and passion with which she sang. Unfortunately, and at no fault of her own, record companies ignored her, but only because of their own confusion on how to best market her. In 1993, Cassidy had a malignant mole removed from her back, and her health seamed fine from that point on, but roughly three years later, she began feeling stiffness and pain in her hips. Further tests revealed that she was suffering from advanced stages of melanoma. Eva Cassidy was 33 when she died from the cancer on November 2, 1996. Ironically, after spending her entire adult life trying to get her music heard, it took her death to finally expose her beyond her local fan base. In the years following her passing, collections of her recordings started coming out, leading to critical praise and several charting singles in the UK. In 2005, nearly 10 years after her death, amazon.com ranked her as their 5th best-selling musician behind the Beatles, U2, Norah Jones, and Diana Krall.
What You Should Own
Rich Cronin was the lead singer and main songwriter for the successful boy band, LFO. Formed in 1995, the group released its first album, LFO, in 1999. Over the next few years they scored hits with such singles as “Can’t Have You,” “Every Other Time,” “Girl On TV, and their biggest, “Summer Girls,” which hit #3 on the US pop charts. The single, which Cronin wrote sold over 1 million copies. LFO broke up in 2002 and Cronin soon resurfaced on the VH-1 reality show, Mission: Man Band. Over the next few years, Cronin continued to record and perform both solo and as part of Loose Cannons. LFO briefly reformed in 2009 for a tour. Cronin learned he had leukemia in 2005, and when it went into remission the following year, he embarked on raising awareness and funds to help fight the disease. But during the summer of 2010, his health once again took a turn for the worse. While in a rehab hospital on September 8, 2010, Rich Cronin suffered a fatal stroke. He was 35.
Phil Seymour was a singer, songwriter and musician who gained a following during the new wave era thanks to such power pop classics as “Precious To Me” as well as “I’m On Fire” from his days fronting the Dwight Twilley Band. Seymour grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma where he met Dwight Twilley, another aspiring musician at a 1967 screening of the Beatles’ A Hard Day’s Night. The struck up a friendship and a musical partnership that would eventually get them signed to Shelter Records who in 1975, released their first single, “I’m On Fire” which reached #16 on the Billboard singles chart. They would record just two classic albums together before Seymour went of on his own. Before the release of the first of his two solo albums, Seymour did session work, playing drums on power pop icons 20/20’s debut album, as well as singing backing vocals on 
