Home

 › 

Entertainment

 › 

Music

 › 

Artists Whose First Album Was Released After They Died

Artists Whose First Album Was Released After They Died

The lives of famous music artists tend to all have a similar trajectory: They rise from obscurity to achieve fame and renown, which either diminishes or stays strong throughout their lives. But sadly, some artists never live to see their solo musical efforts released to the world.  

There’s a cruel twist of fate at play when an artist – musical or otherwise – dies before achieving the success they’ve worked so hard for. Otis Redding, for instance, died in a plane crash just days before his first No. 1 hit, “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay,” was released. (Accidents claim the lives of some musicians, but these famous musicians were murdered.)

Some of the artists on this list had already achieved fame in a musical group but passed away shortly before releasing their first solo album, while others had recorded music that could have potentially catapulted them to stardom, but sadly didn’t live to see it released. In some instances, their first albums came out only years after their passing, thanks to the efforts of friends and family. (Here are some examples of solo artists that were more successful than their bands.)

To compile a list of artists whose first album was released after they died, 24/7 Tempo consulted numerous websites including Rolling Stone, Insider, Loudwire, Discogs, Yardbarker, Paste, and NME. In some cases, the artist appeared on previous albums as part of a group but the posthumous release represents his or her first solo effort.

Most of these artists may have not lived to see the fame, fortune, and commercial success they wished for, but their music lives on.

Source: Courtland Bresner / Wikimedia Commons

Robert Johnson
> First album: King of the Delta Blues Singers (1961)
> Died: 1938

Robert Johnson, born in Mississippi in 1911, is perhaps the most influential of all blues singers. He wasn’t very successful in his lifetime, as he mostly performed on street corners and in juke joints, but he thankfully managed to record 29 songs across two recording sessions before passing away at age 27 in 1938. Contemporaries and musicologists kept his music alive until Columbia Records finally released a collection of his recordings in 1961, which exposed him to a wider audience and strongly influenced musicians including Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, and Keith Richards.

Source: clender / Flickr

Baby Huey
> First album: The Baby Huey Story: The Living Legend (1971)
> Died: 1970

Born James Thomas Ramey in 1944, Baby Huey (nicknamed after the giant duckling cartoon character due to his large size) was a performer who began adding spoken rhymes to his songs in the late 1960s, a precursor to the rapping that emerged in the following decade. He toured widely in the US but didn’t record an album until shortly before his death of a drug-related heart attack in 1970, at age 26. The album was released the following year, and is today considered a classic.

Source: Keystone / Hulton Archive via Getty Images

Florence Ballard
> First album: The Supreme Florence Ballard (2002)
> Died: 1976

Florence Ballard was a founding member of the Supremes (along with Diana Ross and Mary Wilson), and sang on ten of their No. 1 hits between 1963 and 1967. She was fired from the group due to her drinking in ’67, and after years away from the spotlight she began planning a comeback in 1975. Sadly, she passed away from a heart attack caused by a blood clot the following year. In 2002, a compilation album was released of her solo recordings from a 1968 session as well as earlier Supremes songs she sang lead on.

Source: Michael Ochs Archives / Michael Ochs Archives via Getty Images

Steve Gaines
> First album: One in the Sun (1988)
> Died: 1977

Steve Gaines is best known as a guitarist and backing vocalist on Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd; he had sadly only been in the band for a year and a half before he was killed (along with his sister Cassie and lead singer Ronnie Van Zant) in a plane crash in October 1977. His only solo album, “One in the Sun,” was recorded in 1975 before he joined Skynyrd; it was released in 1988, 11 years after his death.

Source: Groovindays / Wikimedia Commons

Chris Bell
> First album: I Am the Cosmos (1992)
> Died: 1978

During his lifetime, Chris Bell was best known as a guitarist and vocalist on the criminally underappreciated power pop band Big Star, alongside singer-songwriter Alex Chilton. He left the band in 1972 to focus on solo work, but died in a car crash in 1978 at age 27. Several of his solo recordings were released posthumously in the 1992 album “I Am the Cosmos.”

Source: Richard Wolff pictures / Wikimedia Commons

Chris Wood
> First album: Vulcan (2008)
> Died: 1983

British musician Chris Wood was a founding member of the rock band Traffic (fronted by Steve Winwood), and co-wrote their hit “Dear Mr. Fantasy.” After Traffic’s 1974 breakup he became an in-demand session musician, but problems with drugs and alcohol led to his death from liver disease in 1983 at age 39. Wood was working on a solo album at the time of his death; even though it was incomplete, it was released in 2008.

Source: Image Source / Getty Images

Guy McDonough
> First album: My Place (1985)
> Died: 1984

Guy McDonough was a singer and rhythm guitarist with the influential Aussie rock band Australian Crawl, which achieved renown in its native country but had limited success elsewhere. He died of drug-related illness at age 28 in 1984. He had recorded a series of demos before his death, which were compiled into an album and released the following year.

Source: RB / Getty Images

Richard Manuel
> First album: Whispering Pines: Live at the Getaway (2002)
> Died: 1986

Richard Manuel was best known as the pianist and one of three lead vocalists in the Canadian-American rock band The Band. He struggled with substance abuse throughout his life, and died by suicide in 1986. Manuel never recorded a proper solo album, but in 2002 recordings from two intimate live shows performed in 1985 at a club in Saugerties, New York, were released.

Source: Alexander Bashlachev 1987 / Wikimedia Commons

Alexander Bashlachev
> First album: Time of Bells (1989)
> Died: 1988

A Russian singer-songwriter and poet, Alexander Bashlachev was a rock musician who performed at parties and music festivals in the Soviet Union. He died in 1988 after falling from a window; his cause of death, though unverified, was ultimately ruled a suicide. The following year, an album of his songs, which were recorded at a friend’s apartment in 1986, was released.

Source: OliverLudwig / Getty Images

Gerry Groom
> First album: Once in a Blue Moon (1993)
> Died: 1992

A protege of legendary Allman Brothers slide guitarist Duane Allman, Gerry Groom recorded an album, titled “Once in a Blue Moon” with one time Rolling Stones guitarist Mick Taylor in 1992, but passed away before it could be released. After his label dropped the project, an independent label named Shattered Music picked it up. It remains a rarity.

Source: David Redfern / Redferns via Getty Images

Michael Hutchence
> First album: Michael Hutchence (1999)
> Died: 1997

The Australian co-founder, songwriter, and frontman of hugely popular rock band INXS, Michael Hutchence killed himself in 1997 at age 37. He had started working on a solo album in 1995 in-between INXS sessions and continued working on it up to three days before his death. The self-titled album was released two years after his passing.

Source: Keystone / Getty Images

Joey Ramone (Jeffrey Hyman)
> First album: Don’t Worry About Me (2002)
> Died: 2001

Joey Ramone was the lead vocalist for the seminal punk rock band The Ramones. He died of lymphoma in 2001, shortly before turning 50. His solo debut, “Don’t Worry About Me,” released less than a year later, features a notable cover of Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World.”

Source: Johnny Nunez / Getty Images

Chinx (Lionel Du Fon Pickens)
> First album: Welcome to JFK (2015, August)
> Died: 2015 (May)

Lionel Du Fon Pickens, also known as Chinx Drugs and later Chinx, was a Queens-born rapper born in 1983 who was a member of the Rockaway Riot Squad and appeared on French Montana’s Coke Boys mixtapes. He was killed in a drive-by shooting in May 2015, and his debut record, “Welcome to JFK,” was released less than three months later. A second posthumous album, “Legends Never Die,” dropped the following year.

Source: OSM Vision / Wikimedia Commons

Cadet (Blaine Cameron Johnson)
> First album: The Rated Legend (2020)
> Died: 2019

British rapper Cadet ( Blaine Cameron Johnson) released a number of freestyles on YouTube and other streaming platforms, but is best known for his platinum-certified single “Advice,” which peaked at No. 14 on the U.K. Singles Chart. He died after being hit head-on by a drunk driver at age 28 in February 2019. His debut album, “The Rated Legend,” was released the following year, and included several previously-released singles as well as previously unreleased material.

Source: Jamie McCarthy / Getty Images Entertainment via Getty Images

Pop Smoke (Bashar Barakah Jackson)
> First album: Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon (2020, July)
> Died: 2020 (February)

Brooklyn-born rapper Pop Smoke shot to fame with the release of his breakout singles “Welcome to the Party” and “Dior” in 2019, and he collaborated with several notable U.K. drill rappers and released celebrated mixtapes in 2019 and 2020. Less than two weeks after the second mixtape release, he was murdered during a home invasion in Los Angeles, passing away at age 20. 50 Cent produced his debut album, which was released posthumously in July 2020 and debuted at No.1 on the Billboard 200.

To top