As is inevitable, a number of musical greats have passed away this year. I won't attempt to cover everyone who deserves a mention, but here are some slightly revised tributes that I posted about three of them soon after their deaths, and a brief listing of some other notable individuals, plus some representative songs that they wrote or performed (or, in many cases, both).
Two of the most significant deaths came in June, when in the space of just a few days, the world lost two incredibly influential musical greats, Sylvester "Sly Stone" Stewart and Brian Wilson, both of whom were 82 years old when they died (though Wilson was less than 10 days from turning 83). Sly and the Family Stone was probably the most influential soul/funk band of the late 1960s and early 1970s, with a string of hits like "Dance to the Music", "Everyday People", "Sing a Simple Song", "Stand!", "I Want to Take You Higher", "Hot Fun in the Summertime", "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)", "Everybody Is a Star", and "Family Affair", all written by Sly Stone himself. The composition of the group was mixed in both race and gender (including women who performed as musicians, not just vocalists), which was unusual at that time. My personal favorite is "Everyday People", which to me encapsulates all of the group's best features, both musically and in terms of their message of inclusion and universal brotherhood (a message that is if anything even more vital today).
Brian Wilson was the musical mastermind behind the Beach Boys, one of the most influential groups ever. He was responsible for writing and arranging the vast majority of their output, at least up until the late 1960s when his mental issues began to get the better of him, and he continued to sporadically create brilliant music thereafter. His artistic peak came with Pet Sounds, widely regarded as one of the best albums of all time, and the abortive Smile project, songs from which were often the highlights of the later albums they were released on. He meticulously crafted songs note by note, producing classics like "I Get Around", "California Girls", "Wouldn't It Be Nice", "God Only Knows", "Caroline, No", "Good Vibrations", "Heroes and Villains", "Surf's Up", "This Whole World", "Til I Die", "Love and Mercy" and many more. His music was a big influence on a huge number of other artists, including the Beatles and particularly his "musical twin" Paul McCartney (they were born only two days apart), who cited Pet Sounds as a big influence on Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. At some point, I hope to write a more comprehensive overview of Wilson's songs (at least from the parts of his catalog I am familiar with); I already have a list of over 25 of his best songs with the Beach Boys and as a solo artists, but they deserve a longer essay to accompany them.
While he wrote far fewer songs and had a much briefer and far less mainstream musical career (especially relative to the length of his life), in many ways Tom Lehrer, who died in July at the age of 97(!), was nearly as influential as Stone and Wilson. Lehrer, arguably the 20th century's greatest writer of satirical songs, began writing songs while a student at Harvard in the 1940s. He recorded his first record, Songs by Tom Lehrer, in one hour at a cost of $15. The initial pressing of the record, made at Lehrer's own expense, was 400 copies; it eventually sold over a hundred thousand copies (to give a conservative estimate). He recorded a second album in 1959 in two versions, live (An Evening Wasted with Tom Lehrer) and studio (More of Tom Lehrer). His 1950s output included "The Old Dope Peddler", "Be Prepared", "The Irish Ballad", "When You Are Old and Gray", "I Hold Your Hand in Mine", "Poisoning Pigeons in the Park", "The Elements" (a recitation of all the chemical elements to the tune of the "Major-General's Song" from Gilbert and Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance), "The Masochism Tango" and "We Will All Go Together When We Go". In the early 1960s, he wrote an additional batch of songs for the satirical television show That Was The Week That Was and he recorded them in a live performance as the album That Was the Year That Was. These songs included "National Brotherhood Week", "Send the Marines", "New Math", "Wernher von Braun" and "The Vatican Rag".
After 1967, Lehrer retired from live concert performances and didn't record any more albums. However, in the early 1970s, he wrote a number of songs for the children's program The Electric Company, including "N Apostrophe T" (performed by Jim Boyd and Lee Chamberlin), "The Menu Song" (performed by Rita Moreno and Morgan Freeman), "Snore, Sniff and Sneeze", "L-Y", and the highly memorable "Silent E" (the latter three performed by Lehrer himself). Even decades after hearing "Silent E" as a kid, I could still hear it in my head, so when I read that it was one of Lehrer's, I immediately recognized his voice in my mind.
For Lehrer, music was largely a sideline; he was a mathematician by training. After we was drafted into the army in the 1950s, he worked for two years at the then-secret National Security Agency, during which time, by his own account, he invented the Jello shot. He taught mathematics for decades at a university in California before retiring in 2001. He himself once stated that over a period of 20 years, he'd only performed 109 shows and written 37 songs (a later estimate is about 50 songs). Nevertheless, he attracted a wide range of fans, ranging from the UK's Princess Margaret (when she was awarded an honorary music degree in 1957, the orator mentioned Lehrer in discussing the breadth of her taste, sparking an interest in Lehrer's music in the UK) and writer and scientist Isaac Asimov (who wrote about enjoying a Lehrer performance in a nightclub in 1954) to actor Daniel Radcliffe (who once sang "The Elements" on The Graham Norton Show). The British theatrical producer Cameron Mackintosh, who went on to produce some of the most successful musicals of all time (Les Miserables and The Phantom of the Opera being just two examples), devised and produced the musical Tomfoolery based on Lehrer's songs early in his career. Musicians who have expressed great admiration for Lehrer include Randy Newman, Steely Dan's Donald Fagen, and "Weird Al" Yankovic.
One of Lehrer's most impressive actions came towards the end of his life, when he formally relinquished the rights to all of the music and lyrics he had written in his life, putting them all into the public domain. This means that anyone can perform or record any of his work without having to ask for permission or paying any royalties. If only more songwriters nearing the end of their lives would do the same....
Stone, Wilson, and Lehrer are of course hardly the only important musical figures who passed away in 2025. Among the others are, in rough chronological order of death, Peter Yarrow, Sam Moore, Marianne Faithfull, Jerry Butler, Chris Jasper, Roberta Flack, David Johansen, Joey Molland, Charles Strouse, Freddie Aguilar (Philippines), Alf Clausen, Mick Ralphs, Lalo Schifrin, Connie Francis, Ozzy Osbourne, Rick Davies, John Lodge, and 楊弦 (Taiwan).
Here is an incomplete list of notable songs written or performed by the abovementioned individuals (see the text above for more songs by Stone, Wilson, and Lehrer):
Day Is Done (Yarrow) Peter, Paul and Mary
Leaving On A Jet Plane (Denver) Peter, Paul and Mary
Torn Between Two Lovers (Yarrow/Jarrell) Mary MacGregor
Light One Candle (Yarrow) Peter, Paul and Mary
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