Video: '"Memphis Soul Stew" (live) King Curtis & The Kingpins'

(Friday, August 13, 1971, 11:30 p.m. EDT) — American saxophonist King Curtis, 37, was fatally stabbed tonight during an argument with a pair of drug dealers on the stoop of a brownstone he owned at 50 West 86th Street on the Upper West Side neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City.

Curtis was attempting to carry an air conditioner into his apartment when a man named Juan Montanez refused to move from the entrance. A fight ensued and Montanez stabbed Curtis.

Video: 'Memphis Soul Stew'

Curtis was rushed to nearby Roosevelt Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 11:57 p.m. EDT.

Born Curtis Montgomery, he played rhythm and blues, jazz, and rock and roll. A bandleader, band member, and session musician, King Curtis was also a musical director and record producer.

Adept at tenor, alto, and soprano saxophone, he played riffs and solos on hit singles such as “Respect” by Aretha Franklin, and “Yakety Yak” by The Coasters and his own “Memphis Soul Stew.”

Video: 'It's So Hard (Evolution Documentary)' (July 5, 1971, at 2:46-6:50)

One of Curtis’ final performances was as a session musician for John Lennon’s Imagine album (released Sept. 7, 1971, 25 days after Curtis’ murder) on the tracks “It’s So Hard” and “I Don’t Wanna Be a Soldier.”

Lennon had met Curtis when his band appeared as an opening act (backing Brenda Holloway) for Lennon’s old group, The Beatles, at Shea Stadium in Queens, New York City, on Aug. 15, 1965.

Video: 'I Don’t Wanna Be A Soldier Mama I Don’t Wanna Die (Evolution Documentary)' (July 5, 1971, at 3:09-7:06)

Curtis’ session for Lennon’s Imagine album was held on July 5, 1971, with Lennon present, at the Record Plant on W. 44th Street in Midtown West — the very same studio that Lennon would spend his final hours before his 1980 assassination.

Curtis was murdered on (Friday, August 13, 1971) the very same day that Lennon (with his wife, Yoko Ono) arrived in New York City from London, never to return to his native Britain (Lennon arrived in New York during the early morning hours of Aug. 13, 1971).

Curtis was also murdered just 14 blocks due north of where Lennon would be assassinated by a deranged fan on Dec. 8, 1980, in front of The Dakota apartment building where the former Beatle lived on W. 72nd St.

Lennon was also murdered late at night (he was shot at 10:50 p.m. EDT). He was also declared dead at nearby Roosevelt Hospital minutes after he was mortally wounded (11:07 p.m. EDT).