Frankie Lymon

In 1956, at age 14, Frankie Lymon, the pint-sized rhythm & blues singer with the famous fluttering falsetto led the doo-wop group the Teenagers up the charts with "Why Do Fools Fall in Love?" The song beat back a cover by the lily-white Diamonds and would become an early rock standard. The five-member group's rich harmonies would lead to further hits such as "I Want You To Be My Girl" and "Goody Goody." Sadly, one of music's great tragedies began to unfold the following year when Lymon's trademark voice dropped an octave. Stripped of its centrepiece, the act dissolved and by age 25, after a spiral of heroin addiction and hasty marriages in an attempt to cope with fame's fleetness, Lymon lay dead, a syringe inches from his body.