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Elvis has become even more famous in death as an icon of American music and TV-era celebrity. Presley hit the charts as a rock 'n roll rebel in the 1950s. His 9 September 1956 appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show (with Presley shown only from the waist up to hide his swivelling hips) turned him into one of the era's biggest stars. His many hits included "Jailhouse Rock," "Hound Dog" and "Blue Suede Shoes." He also appeared in dozens of lighthearted movies designed to let him cavort and play the guitar onscreen, including King Creole (1958, with Walter Matthau) and Blue Hawaii (1961, with Angela Lansbury). In the late 1960s, after a period of declining fame, he remade himself into "The King," a melodramatic icon known for his sequined karate-style jumpsuits and megaconcerts. The loyalty of his fans is famous; though he died in 1977, sightings of a supposedly surviving Elvis became a kind of international running joke. Elvis's Memphis home, Graceland, has become a permanent shrine to the singer.
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Dylan is one of the towering figures of late 20th century popular music, responsible for such songs as "All Along The Watchtower" (made into a hit by Jimi Hendrix), "Like a Rolling Stone," "Tangled Up in Blue," "The Times They Are A-Changin'" and "Lay Lady Lay." Dylan has been recording and performing since 1962, mixing folk, country, blues and rock and sometimes startling his fans but almost always pleasing the critics. Although Dylan was an influential pop figure during the youth movement of the 1960s, his first number one hit, "Knocking on Heaven's Door," didn't come until 1973. During the '80s he toured extensively, and in the '90s his songs found a new audience and more acclaim from the music industry: in 1991 he was given a Lifetime Achievement Grammy; his 1997 album Time Out of Mind won three Grammys; and in 2001 Dylan won an Oscar for "Things Have Changed," from the movie Wonder Boys (2000).
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During their brief but phenomenal period of fame, The Doors defined a sound which was a true melting-pot of influences - from psychedelic and avant garde rock, to improvised jazz with spoken word vocals - all thoroughly steeped in Morrison's colourful literacy and mysticism. When Light My Fire earnt the band a number one chart spot, accusations of commercialism and "selling out" dogged Morrison, and his rock'n'roll excesses notoriously reached Dionysian levels - he was the first musician ever to be arrested on stage. He died aged 27, apparently suffering a heart attack in the bath. His enduring legacy is acknowledged in Oliver Stone's biopic The Doors, and Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now immortalised one of his most controversial songs, The End.
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Born in jail to a former member of the Black Panther gang, rapper Tupac Shakur forged a prolific career in both music and cinema - releasing five albums and starring in five films before he was murdered in 1996, aged just 25. Tupac Shakur was a member of the hip-hop group Digital Underground, whose 1990 album featured the hits "Humpty Dance" and "Doowutchyalike." In 1992 he began his solo career. His debut album, the melodramatically entitled 2pacalypse Now, revealed a charismatic young artist at work, stirring controversy with its gun-toting violence, but offset by the sympathetic and thoughtful nature of his lyricism. Although his shooting remains a mystery, it is widely believed to be the result of an East Coast / West Coast rap feud sparked by Tupac's long-running battles with fellow rapper Notorious B.I.G.
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Jimi Hendrix, like Paul McCartney, was a left-handed guitar player. During his painfully shortlived career, Hendrix blazed a trail through the Sixties music scene, leaving behind a legacy quite unlike any other guitarist. His innovative techniques and kaleidoscopic blend of rock, jazz and blues found their home with his ensemble The Jimi Hendrix Experience, whose first album - the psychedelic masterpiece Are You Experienced? - is still regarded as one of the greatest rock albums of all time. Sadly the group were to split after three years together, and although Hendrix went on to form the Band Of Gypsies, it was only a year later that he died whilst overdosing on barbiturates. He grabbed electric guitar by the neck and wrestled it into a new era. His feedback-heavy solos and hallucinogenic tunes helped define the psychedelic '60s. Hendrix was one of the featured performers at the Woodstock music festival. He's also one of a series of rock stars who famously died young; he was 27 when he suffocated after ingesting wine and sleeping pills in 1970.
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A legend whose political convictions shone as brightly as his music, Bob Marley spread the message of "one love" on an almost global level. With his vocal group The Wailers in tow, he embraced Jamaican reggae, ska and soul through the mid-Sixties, later moving towards the emerging rocksteady sound and a lyricism preoccupied with justice, independence and peace. It was to be a few years later, during collaborations with Lee Perry, that his sound reached its full maturity - and in 1975 he achieved his first UK chart hit with No Woman No Cry. After surviving an assassination attempt in 1976, a minor football injury initiated cancer which continued to spread throughout his body, claiming his life in 1981. He was just 36 years old.
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