Music Vehicular Deaths #5 - Eddie Cochran

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While some of the car crash deaths I've written about these last few days were not as highly publicized as the plane crashes I recently covered, #5 in my Music Vehicular Deaths series was: Eddie Cochran. Rock and roll/rockabilly legend Eddie Cochran's career lasted just eight years, from 1952 to 1968, when a taxi in which he was riding crashed near Bath, England. Eddie Cochran was just 21 when, after a performance, a taxi carrying him, singer Gene Vincent, Sharon Sheely (Cochran's fiancé, who wrote "Hurry Up" for Ritchie Valens,) and tour manager Patrick Thompkins crashed while traveling 60 mph through a dark and winding village, blew a tire and ran into a light post. All survived but Cochran, who was ejected from the vehicle after attempting to shield Sheely with his body. He suffered severe head injuries and died the next day at St. Martin's Hospital in Bath. The driver, George Martin, was convicted of dangerous driving, fined £50, and had his license suspended for 15 years (it was reinstated in 1969.) It is unclear if he served any time. In both the Rock and Roll and Rockabilly Halls of Fame, Cochran was one of the first rock artists to write his own songs, and was a pioneer in overdubbing tracks. As a guitarist, he is credited with being one of the first to use an unwound third string in order to 'bend' notes up to a full tone, a common practice today. The Beatles as you know them existed because of Cochran: John Lennon let Paul McCartney into his band, The Quarrymen, because McCartney knew the lyrics to Cochran's song "Twenty Flight Rock." Cochran was also considered a major influence on early (Info verified by Wikipedia)