Sam Cooke, was a gospel, R&B, soul, and pop singer/ songwriter. He is considered to be one of the pioneers and founders of soul music. Sam is commonly known as The King of Soul for his unmatched vocal abilities, impact and influence on the modern world of music. Cooke had 29 top-40 hits between 1957 and 1964. Hits like You Send Me, Chain Gang, and Wonderful World are some of his most popular songs.

Dolly Rebecca Parton , is a singer-songwriter, author, multi-instrumentalist, actress and philanthropist, best-known for her work in country music. In the four-and-a-half decades
since her national chard debut, she remains one of the most-successful female artists in the history of country music with twenty-five number-one singles, and a record forty-one
top-ten country albums. She has the distinction of having performed on a top-five hit in each of the last five decades and is tied with Reba Mc Entire as the only country artists with number- one singles in four consecutive decades. In 1967, country star Porter Wagner, seen above with Dolly, invited Parton to join him on his weekly syndicated
TV program The Porter Wagner Show,and also to become a part of his road show.

Janis Lyn Joplin was a singer, songwriter and music arranger. She rose to prominence in the late 1960s as the lead singer of Big Brother and the Holding Company and later as a solo artist. Rolling Stone magazine ranked Joplin number 46 on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time in 2004, and number 28 on its 2008 list of 100 Greatest Singers of All Time.

A business associate says rock promoter Don Kirshner has died of heart failure at a Florida hospital at age 77.

Promoter Jack Wishna tells The Associated Press in Las Vegas that the man Time magazine once dubbed the "Man With the Golden Ear" died Monday at a Boca Raton hospital where he was being treated for an infection.

Wishna calls Kirshner an icon who touched many lives in the music industry.

Kirshner was behind the TV show "Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert" in 1972, and gave national exposure to many musicians. (AP)

LOUIE, LOUIE by The Kingsmen went to the top spot on The
Cash Box music chart and sold over one million copies.