The days the music died: A look at funerals of the greats, from Elvis to Prince

He died Dec. 25, 2006. Along with thousands of fans, Michael Jackson, Little Richard and Stevie Wonder were among dozens of celebrities who attended or performed at various events. There was a public memorial at New York's Apollo Theater on Dec. 28. Another memorial drew more than 8,000 fans to the James Brown Arena in Augusta, Georgia, on Dec. 30.

A private funeral was held in North Augusta, in Brown's native South Carolina.

The sudden death of Jackson himself at age 50 convulsed fans around the globe on June 25, 2009. After a private service, a public memorial on July 7 at the Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles was broadcast live around the world. The audience has been estimated at more than 1 billion.

Jackson's bronze casket, similar to Brown's, was plated with 14-karat gold and lined with blue velvet. Each of Jackson's brothers wore a single white sequined glove to honor him. The celebrities on hand included Smokey Robinson, Lionel Richie, Kobe Bryant and Magic Johnson.

The soul and gospel superstar was shot to death at a Los Angeles motel on Dec. 11, 1964. He was just 33. The details of his death have been disputed over the years and accounts of funeral and public memorials vary.

One report had thousands of fans clogging streets for a public viewing in Chicago, where he had lived as a boy and where Muhammad Ali, then known as Cassius Clay, showed up. The crowd at a church service was so big that Cooke's wife and two daughters had to be lifted over the people to get inside.

Considered one of the greatest rappers of all time, Biggie Smalls was shot to death on a Los Angeles street in a drive-by on March 9, 1997.

On March 18, thousands of fans lined the route of a hearse that carried his body from Manhattan through the streets of Brooklyn, passing his childhood home. People hung out of windows, climbed lampposts and hopped on top of cars for a glimpse.

Her family declined to hold a public service after her sudden death in Los Angeles on Feb. 11, 2012, at age 48, choosing to honor the pop icon with a televised, invitation-only funeral at New Hope Baptist Church in her hometown of Newark, New Jersey.

And what a funeral it was on Feb. 18. It lasted four hours at her childhood church that seated 1,500. Her shining casket was transported by a gold-colored hearse and topped with roses of soft purple and off-white.

It was a procession fit for a king.

Presley died at Graceland in Memphis on Aug. 16, 1977. The crowds in the aftermath got so thick that then President Jimmy Carter called out 300 National Guard troops to manage things.

Death, as in his personal life, was a private affair for Prince Rogers Nelson, but the world mourned after he was found unresponsive in the elevator of his Paisley Park home and studio complex in Chanhassen, Minnesota, on April 21, 2016. He was 57 and an autopsy revealed an accidental drug overdose from fentanyl.

Some fans continue to question the circumstances of his death, and he was quickly cremated, but at the time shock and sadness took over around the world.

The bluesy rock queen with the psychedelic Porsche joined the burgeoning 27 club on Oct. 4, 1970, the day she died of a heroin overdose. She was cremated and her ashes were scattered by plane in the Pacific Ocean and along Stinson Beach in Marin County, California.

Her funeral was tiny and very private, but she had one last party left. Her will set aside $2,500 for an all-night bash for her friends, both famous and those behind the scenes, held Oct. 26 of that year at a popular Marin club, The Lion's Share.