Eddy Arnold, one of the pioneers of 'the Nashville Sound,' died Thursday morning, just days before his 90th birthday. The legendary country singer was second only to George Jones in the number of songs that made the country charts, with 145 radio hits -- 28 of those making it all the way to No. 1. Some of his many classics include 'Make the World Go Away,' 'Bouquet of Roses,' 'Lonely Again' and 'Cattle Call,' just to name a few. Many of those hits also made it onto the pop charts, as Arnold became one of the first crossover successes to come out of Nashville, paving the way for future country-pop acts like Kenny Rogers and Charlie Rich.

Arnold, nicknamed the 'Tennessee Plowboy,' was inducted to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1966. The following year, he was named the Country Music Association's first-ever Entertainer of the Year. And in a career that spanned almost 60 years, he boasted sales of more than 85 million records.

Neil Aspinall, who started out in the Beatles' employ in 1961 as their road manager, later rising though the ranks to become chief executive of Apple Corps, has died in New York, where he was receiving treatment for lung cancer. He was 66. His 46-year association with the Beatles is among the longest, predating even Ringo Starr.

Introduced to the Beatles through his friendship with then-drummer Pete Best, he began his association with them by driving the not yet world-famous beat combo from gig to gig in his shabby old van during their early days in Liverpool. Trained as an accountant, Aspinall was given the reins to the Beatles' fledgling Apple Records venture in 1968, where he stayed until his retirement last year. During his recent tenure at Apple Corps, his most notable achievement was as executive producer of 'The Beatles Anthology' documentary series and CD releases, which told the Fab Four's story in their own words.

The husband of British soul star Corinne Bailey Rae has been found dead from a suspected drug overdose. The body of Jason Rae, a 31-year-old saxophonist, was discovered Saturday in a Leeds apartment by the West Yorkshire police.

A postmortem exam performed Saturday night reaped inconclusive results, with toxicology tests pending. Police have arrested a 32-year-old man on suspicion of supplying controlled drugs to Rae. He has since been released on bail pending further inquiries.

Said to be devastated, Corinne Bailey Rae, through her record company, EMI, urged the media to "give her time to come to terms with the tragedy." An inquest into Rae's death is expected to begin immediately.

Jason Rae was a member of the Haggis Horns, who released their debut album, 'Hot Damn!,' in September. The Haggis Horns have backed stars including Bailey Rae, Amy Winehouse and Mark Ronson. Bailey Rae, 29, met her husband while working as a cloakroom attendant at a Leeds jazz club. They married in 2001.

Jamaican radio DJ and producer Mikey Dread – perhaps best known to rock fans for his work with the Clash – succumbed to a brain tumor on Saturday at his sister's home in Connecticut . He was 54.

Born Michael Campbell, Dread played an important role in the sonic evolution of the Clash, producing their 'Bankrobber' single in 1980 and appearing on several cuts (including 'Junco Partner') of the band's subsequent sprawling, three-disc release, 'Sandinista!'

"I remember going into the studio to make this track ['Bankrobber']," Dread said in 2006. "And when I heard the track, I wasn't sure about it, because it was too fast. I couldn't understand what Joe [Strummer] was saying. So I told him to slow it down, and we could make it reggae style. And I showed him the beat. And then they didn't have a keyboard player, so I said, 'Reggae has to have a keyboard' -- it can't just have two guitars and drum and bass. And they get Mickey Gallagher."

Dread, who helped introduce underground reggae to mainstream Jamaican radio as a respected disc jockey on the Jamaican Broadcasting Corporation via his 'Dread at the Controls' program, also recorded reggae hits as an artist, including 'African Map' and 'Barber Saloon.'

In late 1979, Dread did a press junket to England, which reaped stories in U.K. music papers of the day such as the NME, Sounds and 'Melody Maker. "I guess [the Clash] may have read about me being there," Dread explained in July 2006. "But by the time they contacted me, I was back in. I never know what punk was."

Mike Smith, lead singer and keyboard player of the Dave Clark Five, passed away from pneumonia Thursday in a hospital outside London. Smith, who was paralyzed in a spinal cord injury in 2003, was 64. The sad news precedes what would otherwise be a celebratory time for the British Invasion group, as it will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 10.

Considering the DC5 were the second most popular British band in 1964, it's easy to overlook Smith's contributions as the gruff-voiced frontman and primary songwriter on hits such as 'Glad All Over,' 'Bits and Pieces' and 'Can't You See That She's Mine.' His relative anonymity both within his own group and to the rock community at large was exacerbated by the fact that drummer, bandleader and manager Dave Clark was the public face of his namesake London-based five-piece combo. Thanks in no small part to Smith, at least for a while it was not considered preposterous to utter the DC5's name in comparison to the Beatles.

Read the full story here.

Academy Award-nominated actor Heath Ledger was found dead in New York today from an apparent drug overdose. He was 28.

Though he was most well-known for roles in 'Brokeback Mountain,' 'Monster's Ball' and his hotly anticipated turn as the Joker in the upcoming Batman film 'The Dark Knight,' Ledger was also a music lover. He founded his own record label with singer-songwriter Ben Harper and played one of the many faces of Bob Dylan in 2007's 'I'm Not There.'

Watch Harper's 'Morning Yearning' video, directed by the late Ledger.

Oscar Peterson, the Canadian jazz pianist whose unmatched virtuosity placed him among the greatest in his field, has passed away on Dec. 23 at age 82 in his home outside Toronto. Born outside Montreal, the legendary musician has played alongside many of the top jazz artists, including Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie and Dizzy Gillespie, Peterson distinguished himself with his dazzling keyboard technique and speed. Fellow player Billy Taylor called Peterson one of the finest jazz pianists of his time.

In a career that has spanned seven decades and won him the unstinting admiration of jazz fans as well as his music peers, Peterson has won seven Grammys in his career as well as a Lifetime Achievement Award, and in 2005 he became the first living non-monarch to be featured on a postage stamp in Canada.

Grammy-award winning jazz producer Joel Dorn died of a heart attack on Monday in New York at age 65. Dorn most famously made his mark at Atlantic Records, signing and producing the likes of Roberta Flack and Bette Midler. He also worked with fellow jazz legends Chick Corea, David "Fathead" Newman, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Charles Mingus and Charles Lloyd, among others.

He is survived by three sons, including performing artist and producer Adam Dorn, aka Mocean Worker. "[M]y father was easily my best friend. I spoke with him daily and I loved him without question," Adam Dorn posted on his site. Having been very close to his father, he recently relocated to his dad's New York neighborhood to be closer to him. The younger Dorn also said in his memorial post, "Unlike a lot of his peers who got caught up in Grammys and making millions of dollars and career goals is the following: He really only cared about his family and our well being."

Adam Dorn plans to carry out the vision of his father's incomplete 60th anniversary box set for Atlantic Records, which the elder Dorn was preparing in tribute to longtime Atlantic jazz chief Nesuhi Ertegun."I will now be taking over that project and dedicating it to my old man, with the thought that the idea was to have it honor Nesuhi," Adam said. "But now it will honor both of them."

Singer-songwriter Dan Fogelberg died at his home in Maine on Sunday, three years after being diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer. He was 56.

"He fought a brave battle with cancer and died peacefully at home in Maine with his wife Jean at his side," a post on his Web site confirmed. "His strength, dignity and grace in the face of the daunting challenges of this disease were an inspiration to all who knew him."

Fogelberg, whose 1981 double-disc album, 'The Innocent Age,' brought him to mainstream prominence with three Top Ten singles ('Hard to Say,' 'Same Old Lang Syne' and 'Leader of the Band'), released his last album, 'Full Circle,' in 2003 -- just one year before his diagnosis.

Read the full story

Ike Turner, the R&B musician and songwriter who was one of the primary forces in shaping the development of rock 'n' roll and soul music, and was most famously half of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame duo Ike & Tina Turner, has died at age 76 in his home near San Diego. No cause of death has been announced.

Born in Mississippi, Turner, who was equally accomplished on guitar and piano, got his start as the bandleader of Ike Turner's Kings of Rhythm. In 1951, he and his combo recorded, at the legendary Sun Studio in Memphis, what many consider the first rock 'n' roll song, 'Rocket 88,' released under the name Jackie Brenston and His Delta Cats. The key feature of the record, which is a boogie-woogie paean to drinking and driving in the latest -model V8 Olds, is the song's distorted guitar sound, serendipitously brought about by a faulty amplifier.

Pimp C -- one half of hip-hop duo UGK -- was found dead at the Mondrian Hotel in West Hollywood, California, according to TMZ. L.A. County Fire responded to a 911 call at the trendy hotel this morning, only to find the 33-year-old rapper, whose real name is Chad Butler, dead in his bed.

There's no official word on what caused Pimp C's death, but the rapper was last seen performing at the L.A. House of Blues with Too Short on Saturday night.

Read the full story

Jeffrey Owen Jones, the man who has been commonly identified as the primary inspiration for the character of "Mr. Jones" in Bob Dylan's scathing 'Ballad of a Thin Man,' died of lung cancer in early November, according to a report in the NME. The 63-year-old Jones, who had interviewed Dylan for Time magazine in 1965, was most recently a film professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology.

In Dylan's incisive putdown, which appeared on the 1965 album 'Highway 61 Revisited,' the singer-songwriter accuses Mr. Jones of being clueless and out of his league, with its chorus of "Because something is happening here/But you don't know what it is/Do you, Mister Jones?" It is also theorized that Dylan's protagonist may have been Melody Maker critic Max Jones, or perhaps an amalgam of several pop pundits with whom Dylan had differences of opinion.

In a voicemail message obtained exclusively by Inside Edition, Kanye West's mother, Donda, jokes about her surgery plans to her friend and hairdresser, Charlay Thomas, just one day before going under the knife:

"I am going to go have my procedure done tomorrow and I'm getting every single thing from my neck to my knees! So, anyway, call me. I'll tell you about that ..."

West died on November 10 at Centinela Freeman Regional Medical Center in Marina del Rey, the day after plastic surgeon Jan Adams performed a abdominoplasty and breast reduction. An autopsy has yet to officially confirm whether or not the 58-year-old's sudden death was due to complications from the surgery, but Dr. Adams has offered other suggestions, such as a heart attack, a pulmonary embolism or vomiting.

Adams is currently being investigated by the California medical board for recent reports of alcohol-related arrests and malpractice lawsuits.

Kevin DuBrow, the lead singer of neo-glam rockers Quiet Riot, was found dead in his Las Vegas home on Sunday. The cause of death of the 52-year-old frontman is yet to be determined. As one of the leaders of the '80s glam-metal scene, DuBrow's Los Angeles-based band scored a Top Five hit in 1983 with its cover of British rockers Slade's 1973 hit 'Cum On Feel the Noize.' Quiet Riot's third album, and first stateside release, 'Metal Health,' reached No. 1 at the same time, making them the first metal band to achieve that feat.

The band is also famous as the spawning ground of guitar wizard Randy Rhoads, who left Quiet Riot in 1979 to join Ozzy Osbourne's group, before perishing in a plane crash in 1982.

Country Music Hall of Famer Hank Thompson, who melded Western swing and honky-tonk music on such hits as 'A Six Pack to Go,' 'Humpty Dumpty Heart' and 'Wild Side of Life,' passed away Tuesday at the age of 82. In his 60-plus-year career, he had garnered 29 Top 10 country hits, and he and his band, the Brazos Valley Boys, had been voted the No. 1 country & western band for 14 years in a row by Billboard magazine.

The Texas-born-and-bred singer and guitarist, who up till his death was still an active performer, having only recently canceled an upcoming tour, succumbed to lung cancer in his Keller, Texas, home. Thompson's most well-known song, 1952's 'Wild Side of Life,' inspired an equally famous answer record, 'It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels,' which launched the career of country star Kitty Wells.
.