Blender's 50 Most Awesomely Dead Rock Stars

Life After Death: The youngest Bee Gee left an estate valued at over $60 million after his unexpected death, a figure due to be bumped up significantly in 2006. A Bee Gees stage musical, You Win Again, is scheduled to open simultaneously in London and New York. In addition, the Bee Gees' back catalogue reverts to their ownership in 2006: Expect to be lavished with reissues. There's also talk of a $30 million Hollywood remake of Saturday Night Fever -- a successful stage version is still running in London. Meanwhile, Gibb's paintball store, Commander Mo's, continues to do brisk business in Miami.

Fraternal Disharmony: It briefly seemed as if Maurice Gibb would be the recipient of two separate tribute events: Brother Barry claimed that he had been "deliberately disinvolved" in brother Robin's plans for a concert and a tribute album featuring Paul McCartney, Snoop Dogg and Beyoncé, and was planning his own separate homage. However, in December, Robin claimed that reports of the feud were untrue and that Barry would be included in any tributes.

Life After Death: The success of the kings of Southern rock was barely interrupted by the plane crash that killed Van Zant and devastated his band three days after the release of their sixth album. Dozens of releases followed, ranging from an excellent box set to a screed of shoddy compilations; 26 million albums have been sold and "Freebird" has been played on the radio more than two million times; this year, Skynyrd will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Double Trouble: Skynyrd re-formed in 1987 with Van Zant's younger brother, Johnny, on vocals. This incarnation's albums are middling at best, but fans remain keen to hear the Ronnie-era hits live, reportedly to the tune of $100,000 a night -- of which Van Zant's estate receives a cut. Despite a legal agreement with the widows of Ronnie and guitarist Steve Gaines that the band must have at least three original members in order to use the name, after bassist Leon Wilkeson died in 2001 they continued with just two from the classic lineup.

Peer Plaudits: Van Zant's life was the basis of the Drive-By Truckers' 2001 concept album Southern Rock Opera.

We're a Happy Family: Death came as blessed relief for the Ramones, cursed to tour forever thanks to perennially poor album sales and Johnny's bullying drive. Even as Da Brudders were being feted at a Thirtieth Anniversary Tribute at L.A.'s Avalon ballroom in 2004, rockdoc End of the Century was exposing the squabbling reality of life in the band.

Hey Ho! Let’s Grow! Their debut album cost only $6,200 to make, but the three-CD box set Weird Tales of the Ramones has sold 10,000 copies at $65 a pop. The money now accrues to widows Barbara Zampini and Linda Cummings and to the estate of Joey Ramone, while surviving drummers Tommy Erdelyi and Marc "Marky Ramone" Bell earn a smattering of royalties.

Peer Plaudits: A 10-foot Johnny statue unveiled by celebrity friends Lisa Marie Presley and Vincent Gallo looms over Dee Dee's remains at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery; Joey was honored when the corner of Bowery and Second Street in Manhattan was renamed Joey Ramone Place.

That’s a Nasty Cough: Screw, a.k.a. Robert Earl Davis Jr., pioneered Houston's slo-mo "screwed" production style, tailor-made for the Houston rap scene's high of preference: chugging codeine. These days, every Dirty South record comes in a "chopped and screwed" version—and so did the last Transplants album, too...

Nix on the Mix: Incredibly prolific, Screw created hundreds of mixtapes, which he sold out of both his record store and home. These highly influential recordings provided the DNA for the current Houston rap explosion -- Mike Jones? Paul Wall? They’d be nowhere without his woozy, downtuned experiments. His cousins continue to sell his music through the record store, Screwed Up Records and Tapes, on the city's south side.

Fame Without Fortune: While Screw's bank account may be static, his legend nevertheless continues to grow: Protégés like Big Moe, Big Pokey and Lil' Flip continually sing his praises, and several of them participated in the tribute album Forever and a Day, while the DVD documentaries Soldiers United for Cash and The DJ Screw Legacy have brought in a little income for his family.

Life After Death: More than a decade after being gunned down by her fan club president, Yolanda Saldivar, Selena’s global sales and celebrity have been eclipsed by another Latino singer-cum-filmstar—Jennifer Lopez, whose big break came when she played the slain singer in the biopic Selena. But she remains a major figure in Latin music.

The Show Must Go On: This year, 50,000 fans attended the Selena Vive! tribute concert in Houston, Texas, featuring Glorian Estefan and Paulina Rubio. At more than three hours long, it became the highest-rated and most-viewed Spanish-language show in U.S. television history, adding a substantial boost to sales of her back catalogue (around 20 posthumous collections have been released to date) and other merchandise, which includes a Selena doll, Selena perfume and Selena baseball caps in rhinestone and leopard-print.

Mas Selena: There are plans for a Selena stage musical to open in Mexico City, and while the Selena boutique in San Antonio has closed and plans to open another in Monterrey were shelved, the branch in her Texas hometown of Corpus Christi—and the Selena museum there—continue to do business.

Pearl Jams: The tortured 28-year-old was still working on her solo debut, Pearl, when she OD'd in Hollywood's Landmark Hotel. Her will left her estate to her family and $2,500 for her friends to "have a ball." Released four months later, Pearl topped the charts for nine weeks and yielded her biggest hit, the No. 1 single "Me and Bobby McGee." Since Joplin’s death, her music has been remastered and collected on numerous greatest-hits collections and a couple of box sets; she received a Lifetime Achievement Award Grammy in 2005.

The Show Must Go On: Two biopics are currently in production. One has Pink as Janis; the other, more improbably, stars Renée Zelwegger.

Like the ’60s Never Happened: Joplin's back catalogue is no great money-spinner, but the throwaway anti-consumerism song "Mercedes Benz" was licensed to Mercedes for a 1995 commercial ("A hoot," said Janis's sister). Early last year, Joplin's estate announced plans for The Search for the Pearl, an unappealing-sounding reality TV show casting for a modern Janis along the lines of INXS's Rock Star, but since then things have been quiet.

Get Rich or Die Trying: In 1990, Queen's worth stood at $25.9 million; in the wake of the publicity following Mercury's widely mourned demise, that figure rose to $44 million for 1993.

The Show Must Go On: In 2002 the Queen musical We Will Rock You debuted in London and grossed $60 million in its first two years, with subsequent productions following in Australia, Russia, Germany, Spain and Las Vegas. That success prompted the release of "new" Queen product, as have the live activities of the current Paul Rodgers–fronted version of the band. While the latter diminishes Queen's brand value, the personal reputation of Mercury has been enhanced, with critical opinion generally agreeing that Rodgers is unfit to wear his predecessor's crown, metaphorical or otherwise.

Peer Plaudits: Playing a Queen cover is a surefire way to please a crowd while allowing them a moment of unabashed stadium-rock flamboyance -- Green Day routinely encore with "We Are the Champions"; a 2005 tribute album, Killer Queen, featured Sum 41 and Flaming Lips. Finally, without Freddie Mercury, the Darkness's Justin Hawkins would probably be working as a plumber.

His Way: Death only enhanced the appeal of a man who had been a household name throughout his career. Most of his estimated $200 million estate is held in private trust funds, but the rights to his music and image are split between the children from his first marriage and his fourth wife, Barbara, a former model and dancer who took issue with some of the children's sanctioned merchandising, such as the "singing" souvenir plate.

Life After Death: A seemingly endless stream of reissues has kept interest in Sinatra's music alive, but his name can sell anything: Sinatra, an $8.7 million production featuring video projections of Frank in action accompanied by a 24-piece orchestra, is due to open in London in spring 2006, while an Oris Frank Sinatra watch retails at $2,850.

Peer Plaudits: The aura of suited cool that Sinatra perfected in the early '60s continues to endure -- through HBO's The Rat Pack and the London stage production The Rat Pack: Live From Las Vegas -- regardless of recent, legend-tarnishing Sinatra books, including former valet George Jacobs's sex-and-Mafiosi tell-all Mr. S and 2005's unflattering Sinatra: The Life.

From the Vault: Gaye's 23-year, velvet-voiced legacy was well-served by his death—coming in the early days of the CD revolution, it gave both Motown and CBS/Columbia all the more reason to launch a complete remaster program; in 1995, Motown followed this with the box set The Master 1961–1984.

Debts Get It On: Gaye's sudden, shocking murder threw his already dicey finances into further disarray. Not only did he not have a will at the time of his death but he also still owed ex-wife Anna Gordy $293,000 from their divorce settlement, and was $2 million in arrears for back taxes—later repaid from royalties. In 2000, Gaye's three children issued bonds against his future recording royalties, generating an eight-figure payday for the estate.

Peer Plaudits: 10,000 attended a funeral that featured Stevie Wonder singing and a reading from Smokey Robinson; many songs have been dedicated to Gaye, including Diana Ross’s "Missing You" and the Commodores' "Night Shift." With no fewer than six Gaye biographies and a recent Hennessy campaign using Gaye’s image from "What's Going On" as an imprimatur of urban sophistication, he remains as iconic as ever.

Wallow in the Mire: Morrison’s memory has sustained considerable abuse since his interment in Paris’s Père Lachaise cemetery. Nonetheless, Doors drummer John Densmore has refused multimillion-dollar offers for use of Doors music in ads—against protests from keyboardist Ray Manzarek and guitarist Robby Krieger, who enlisted ex-Cult singer Ian Astbury to fill Morrison’s leather trousers in a 2002 tour as Doors of the 21st Century. A suit from Densmore and Morrison’s estate (the parents of Morrison and of his late wife Pamela Courson) forced a name change—to “D21C.”

Touch Me, Jay-Z: The Doors didn’t become massive until 1979, when “The End” was featured in Apocalypse Now. After 1980, Morrison bio No One Here Gets Out Alive became a bestseller, and a greatest-hits album sold 2 million copies. Interest remained steady until spiking at Oliver Stone’s Val Kilmer–starring The Doors, which dealt a near-lethal blow to Morrison’s dark aura by co-starring Meg Ryan. Redemption came in 2001, when Jay-Z’s “Takeover” built its ominous momentum on a sample of the Doors’ “Five to One.”