At the beginning of each month, a co-worker friend of mine sends out a list of the celebrities who have passed away in the previous month. Don’t ask why. (Cough… Celebrity Death Pool… cough, cough.)

Some of the folks who passed away this September have a direct connection to music, such as the great Buckwheat Zydeco:

 

Country trailblazer Jean Shepard:

And R& B singer Clifford Curry:

 

But a few recently deceased celebs have a connection to music that’s a bit less obvious.

Transgender actress Alexis Arquette’s first acting gig (back when she was known as Robert) was as the boy on the amusement ride in the video for “She’s a Beauty” from The Tubes:

Boxer Bobby Chacon? He features prominently in Warren Zevon’s song “Boom Boom Mancini”

And Herschel Gordon Lewis was known as The Godfather of Gore for writing and directing B-movies like Blood Feast. But two bands took their names from his films: The Gore Gore Girls (from the movie by the same name)

and 10,000 Maniacs (inspired by Lewis’ Two Thousand Maniacs flick).

(Herschel Gordon Lewis was also one of the most revered direct-response copywriters ever.)