Dear listeners,
This June, in an eerie and sad coincidence, we lost two visionaries of American popular music at exactly the same age within days.
Brian Wilson and Sly Stone were both 82, and the proximity of their deaths invited people to find some striking parallels they also shared in life. Each man was the organizing conductor of a kind of family band — the Beach Boys and the Family Stone — who had at varying times played and then retreated from the role of the charismatic frontman. Both had been heralded a kind of musical genius, and both seemed to buckle under the pressure of that weighty mantle, battling various demons and struggling to fulfill early promise. But in the greatest music they made, as Jon Pareles put it in a piece reflecting on these artists’ legacies, “both were architects of joy.”
Stone and Wilson are the bookends of this year’s annual Amplifier playlist honoring some of the musicians who died this year. It’s the longest In Memoriam playlist I’ve ever made, which attests to the sheer volume of loss experienced in 2025. You’ll hear from uncompromising rock lifers like Ozzy Osbourne and Marianne Faithfull; neo-soul luminaries like D’Angelo and Angie Stone (former romantic partners who shared a son); country-adjacent outlaws like Todd Snider and Joe Ely, and many more. Long may their legacies live.
Many thanks for reading the Amplifier in 2025! For one of our first installments in 2026, I need your help: I want you to help me make a playlist of the best music that you discovered this past year. Fill out this form to send me a song that explained your year — and tell me why. Early in 2026, I’ll send out an installment of this newsletter featuring some of my favorite submissions.
I really have enjoyed my stay, but I must be moving on,
Lindsay
Listen along while you read.
1. Sly & the Family Stone: “Dance to the Music”
At the peak of his blazing powers, Sly Stone, who died on June 9, was something exceedingly rare: a visionary who reveled in sharing the spotlight. As Jon Pareles wrote in an appraisal, “Sly constructed songs as ever-evolving conversations, with ideas arriving from all directions; they’re a constant stereo delight.” Exhibit A: this breakout hit from his band’s 1968 LP of the same name. 
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
2. D’Angelo: “Devil’s Pie”
The music world was shocked on Oct. 14 by the death of D’Angelo, 51, the neo-soul innovator whose ambitious, meticulously realized compositions updated classic R&B sounds for the hip-hop age. First released in 1998, this laid-back but lyrically vulnerable jam, produced by D’Angelo and DJ Premier, later appeared on his 2000 masterpiece “Voodoo.”
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
3. Ace Frehley: “New York Groove”
Though best known as the melodic, pyrotechnic-loving guitarist of Kiss, Ace Frehley, who died on Oct. 16 at 74, also found success as a solo artist in the late 1970s thanks in part to this infectious glam-rock cover of a Russ Ballard tune. (Mets fans such as myself experience a Pavlovian joy every time we hear this local anthem, as it now plays after every home game that the team wins.)
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4. The McCoys: “Hang on Sloopy”
As a virtuosic, highly adaptable guitarist and a prolific producer, Rick Derringer, who died on May 26 at 77, had a long career, working with artists like Johnny and Edgar Winter, Steely Dan and even Weird Al Yankovic. But it was this 1965 No. 1 hit with his teenage band the McCoys that first put him on the map — and earned him the eternal devotion of the Ohio State University marching band.
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5. Connie Francis: “Pretty Little Baby”
Effortlessly emotive vocals and era-defining hits like “Who’s Sorry Now” and “Where the Boys Are” established Connie Francis, who died on July 16 at 87, as a pre-eminent pop icon of the late 1950s and early 1960s. But it was this once-obscure B-side that introduced her to a new generation when it went viral on TikTok earlier this year. Said Francis, in a Times interview shortly before her death, “I think it has a ring of innocence in this chaotic time and it connects with people.”
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
6. Jimmy Cliff: “You Can Get It if You Really Want”
The reggae trailblazer Jimmy Cliff, who died on Nov. 24 at 81, already had quite a few hits (and searing protest songs) under his belt when he was cast in Perry Henzell’s soon-to-be-cult-classic film “The Harder They Come.” But that movie and its soundtrack, which featured this buoyant showcase of Cliff’s pure-toned tenor voice, transformed Cliff into reggae’s first global superstar — paving the way for a then-young upstart named Bob Marley.
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7. Angie Stone: “No More Rain (in This Cloud)”
Long before she released her debut solo album, “Black Diamond,” in 1999, Angie Stone, who died on March 1 at 63, was a member of the pioneering hip-hop group the Sequence; their infectious and oft-sampled “Funk You Up” was the first-ever rap single performed by women to chart. This single from “Black Diamond,” though, is more indicative of Stone’s work as a solo artist — sumptuous R&B cut through with a hard-won, no-nonsense outlook.
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
8. Roy Ayers Ubiquity: “Everybody Loves the Sunshine”
The vibraphonist and composer Roy Ayers, who died on March 4 at 84, developed a unique sound from elements of jazz, funk and soul — a style that helped him enjoy a long, influential career. This title track from his 1976 album with the band he dubbed Roy Ayers Ubiquity lives up to the group’s name: You still hear this song everywhere.
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
9. Roberta Flack: “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face”
A classically trained pianist with a light touch and a lush, velvety voice, Roberta Flack, who died on Feb. 24 at 88, brought sophistication to the popular music of the 1970s, in both her solo performances and her collaborations with frequent duet partner Donny Hathaway. Though it appeared on her 1969 debut, “First Take,” this finely interpreted romantic reverie didn’t become a No. 1 hit until Clint Eastwood used it in his 1971 movie “Play Misty for Me.”
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
10. Eddie Palmieri: “Azúcar”
An innovative composer and dynamic live performer who was sometimes called “the Madman of Salsa,” Eddie Palmieri, who died on Aug. 6 at 88, melded Afro-Cuban rhythms with jazz, funk and classical forms in his restless quest to expand the musical cosmos. This nine-and-a-half-minute descarga-like jam from 1965 was one of his great breakthroughs.
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
11. Chuck Mangione: “Feels So Good”
With his ear for melody and laid-back cool, the composer and fluegelhorn authority Chuck Mangione, who died on July 22 at 84, helped define what would become known as “smooth jazz.” Difficult as it is to imagine a nearly 10-minute fluegelhorn-driven jazz-pop tune becoming a megahit these days, “Feels So Good” was a sensation when it was released as a single in 1978, reaching No. 4 on the Billboard chart — and later inspiring innumerable bits on “King of the Hill.”
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
12. Sam & Dave: “Soul Man”
This track honors two musicians we lost this year: the tenor half of the fiery R&B duo Sam & Dave, Sam Moore, who died on Jan. 10 at 89; and the great rhythm guitarist Steve Cropper, who died on Dec. 3 at 84. Moore famously immortalizes Cropper’s playing on “Soul Man” with the exclamation, “Play it, Steve!” Jon Pareles compiled a playlist of some of the other essential songs Cropper played on, including “(Sittin’ on) the Dock of the Bay.”
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
13. The Turtles: “Happy Together”
Though Mark Volman, who died on Sept. 5 at 78, first came to prominence singing harmony with the short-lived pop-rock act the Turtles, he and one of the band’s other founders, Howard Kaylan, enjoyed a longer run as Flo & Eddie, a duo that started out in Frank Zappa’s Mothers of Invention and eventually released its own albums. Flo & Eddie were also prolific and in-demand backing singers; T-Rex’s “Get It On” and Bruce Springsteen’s “Hungry Heart” are just a few of the hits enlivened by their contributions.
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14. Black Sabbath: “Changes”
The softer side of the Prince of Darkness, Ozzy Osbourne, is on full display on this rare but deeply felt 1972 ballad by Black Sabbath. The heavy metal pioneer and eventual reality TV star died on July 22 at 76 — just 17 days after a triumphant farewell concert in Birmingham, England.
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15. Jeannie Seely: “Don’t Touch Me”
When she emerged in the mid-1960s, the soulful country singer-songwriter Jeannie Seely, who died on Aug. 1 at 85, helped introduce the Nashville establishment to the modern woman. She won a Grammy for her smoldering performance of this 1966 ballad, on which she urged with knowing sensuality: “Don’t open the door to heaven if I can’t come in / Don’t touch me if you don’t love me, sweetheart.”
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
16. Joe Ely: “Boxcars”
The prolific Texas troubadour Joe Ely, who died on Dec. 15 at 78, was a student of country tradition with a maverick’s sensibility. In 1978, the year he released one of his greatest achievements as a singer-songwriter — the richly observed country-rock LP “Honky Tonk Masquerade” — he also began a long friendship with members of the Clash. (That’s him and Joe Strummer hollering in Spanish in the background of “Should I Stay or Should I Go.”) Though Ely is now recognized as an early practitioner of what would come to be called Americana or alt-country, his independent-minded approach transcended genre.
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
17. Todd Snider: “Play a Train Song”
Todd Snider, a self-proclaimed “Nashville antihero” who died on Nov. 14 at 59, earned respect from John Prine and Kris Kristofferson for his sharply funny songwriting, which blended mordant wit with a stubborn kind of optimism. This track from his 2004 album “East Nashville Skyline” showcases his evocative storytelling and the cracked warmth of his voice.
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
18. Supertramp: “Goodbye Stranger”
At its best, the British rock juggernaut Supertramp was driven by the disparate creative personalities of its two chief songwriters, Roger Hodgson and Rick Davies. Davies, the one responsible for its signature Wurlitzer sound, penned several of the band’s most enduring hits, including this bittersweet tune from Supertramp’s blockbuster 1979 album “Breakfast in America.” He died on Sept. 6 at 81.
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
19. Marianne Faithfull: “The Ballad of Lucy Jordan”
Though she was discovered at 17, it took Marianne Faithfull several decades to grow into the true power of her voice, which evinced a survivor’s grit after she triumphed over a long battle with addiction. This stirring interpretation of a Shel Silverstein composition appeared on her great 1979 comeback album “Broken English,” which kicked off a defiant and fruitful second half of her career. Faithfull died on Jan. 30 at 78, and if you’d like to hear more of her music, check out this Amplifier playlist I compiled in her honor.
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
20. The Beach Boys: “God Only Knows”
Finally, we lost a giant of American popular music on June 11, when the Beach Boys’ maestro Brian Wilson died. At their most exalted and ambitious (which definitely includes this immaculate “Pet Sounds” highlight, a song that Paul McCartney once called the greatest ever written), Wilson’s compositions always felt immortal. I have no doubt, then, that their impact will long outlive their creator.
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
The Amplifier Playlist
“The Musicians We Lost in 2025” track list Track 1: Sly & the Family Stone, “Dance to the Music” Track 2: D’Angelo, “Devil’s Pie” Track 3: Ace Frehley, “New York Groove” Track 4: The McCoys, “Hang on Sloopy” Track 5: Connie Francis, “Pretty Little Baby” Track 6: Jimmy Cliff, “You Can Get It if You Really Want” Track 7: Angie Stone, “No More Rain (in This Cloud)” Track 8: Roy Ayers Ubiquity, “Everybody Loves the Sunshine” Track 9: Roberta Flack, “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” Track 10: Eddie Palmieri, “Azúcar” Track 11: Chuck Mangione, “Feels So Good” Track 12: Sam & Dave, “Soul Man” Track 13: The Turtles, “Happy Together” Track 14: Black Sabbath, “Changes” Track 15: Jeannie Seely, “Don’t Touch Me” Track 16: Joe Ely, “Boxcars” Track 17: Todd Snider, “Play a Train Song” Track 18: Supertramp, “Goodbye Stranger” Track 19: Marianne Faithfull, “The Ballad of Lucy Jordan” Track 20: The Beach Boys, “God Only Knows”
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Lindsay Zoladz is a pop music critic for The Times and writes the subscriber-only music newsletter The Amplifier.
The post The Musicians We Lost in 2025 appeared first on New York Times.
