19. Eddie Cochran
All eras had their teen idols, musicians who broke barriers and who knew what the teens felt. These days we have the Biebers and such and back in the 50s, the American youth had Eddie Cochran. With hits like “C’mon Everybody”, “Summertime Blues” and “Somethin’ Else” and with a persona that appealed to the teens, he was the man of hour.
He was also incredibly talented and his experimentation with overdubbing and multitrack recording was years ahead of time. His untimely death only contributed to the myth that was Eddie Cochran.
Namely, in 1960, when he was only 21, he was involved in a one-car accident in England when the taxi he was in blew a tire and crashed into a lamp post. He tried to protect his fiancée when he was thrown out of the car and suffered fatal injuries.