Author: Jeremy Simmonds

Publisher:

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 571

ISBN-13: 9780141022871

Number One In Heaven is the bible of pop's dead - the ultimate record of all those who arrived, rocked and pegged-out over the last forty-odd years of fast cars, private jets, hard drugs, lethal weapons and reckless living. Music writer Jeremy Simmonds draws on a lifetime's obsession to match the industry's biggest departed stars - Buddy, Elvis, Ian, Janis, Jeff, Jimmy, Kirsty, Marc, Sid et al - with more than a few lesser-known tales of rock tragedy. His book's compulsive chronology sprinkles those with strange and short lives (from G G Allin to Jimmy Zambo via Frankie Lymon) with some truly shocking demises (cue `pure' soul legend Sam Cooke). Mortality can be a tricky subject, so should the register of deaths get a little gloomy, relief is at hand with a smorgasbord of lighter-hearted facts and figures (Dead Interesting!), plus some lucky escapes (Close . . . Closer!) and a selection of the author's favoured death-discs in Top Ten form (The Death Toll).