Classic Hits

It’s always sad to say goodbye to our favorite musicians when they pass away, and 2025 was certainly a tough year.

The music world lost a true legend on June 11 when Beach Boys founder Brian Wilson died in his sleep at the age of 82. He was living with dementia at the time and had been placed under a conservatorship in early 2024 following the death of his wife, Melinda Wilson.

Another influential artist we lost in 2025 was Sly Stone, of Sly and the Family Stone, who passed away June 9 at the age of 82. A statement revealed that he died “after a prolonged battle with COPD and other underlying health issues.”

The rock world was in shock when news broke that Prince of Darkness Ozzy Osbourne died on July 22 at the age of 76. His death came barely three weeks after he made his final onstage appearance at the 10-hour all-star Back to the Beginning concert in his hometown of Birmingham, England. He was laid to rest in Birmingham, with fans lining the city’s streets to pay their respects.

And Ace Frehley, guitarist and founding member of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame band KISS, died on Oct. 16 at the age of 64. His death came just weeks after he canceled the remainder of his 2025 tour due to health issues.

Here are some of the other music figures who died in 2025, in chronological order:

Jan. 7: Peter Yarrow, of the folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary, 86.

Jan. 10: Sam Moore, the tenor half of the iconic soul duo Sam & Dave, 89.

Jan. 21: Garth Hudson, keyboardist and multi-instrumentalist who was the last surviving member of The Band, 87.

Jan. 30: British singer Marianne Faithfull, best known for her hit “As Time Goes By” and for her association with The Rolling Stones, 78.

Feb. 23: Chris Jasper, a member of the R&B group The Isley Brothers, 73.

Feb. 24: R&B singer Roberta Flack, best known for such songs as “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face,” “Killing Me Softly with His Song” and “Where Is the Love,” 88.

Feb. 24: Robert John, best known for the #1 single “Sad Eyes,” 79.

Feb. 28: David Johansen, lead singer and last surviving original member of the New York Dolls, who also found fame in the ’80s and ’90s as the throwback crooner Buster Poindexter, 75.

March 16: Jesse Colin Young, the voice heard on the Youngbloods‘ iconic hit “Get Together,” 83.

April 6: Clem Burke, drummer and founding member of Blondie, 70.

April 29: Mike Peters, frontman of Welsh rock band The Alarm, 66.

June 18: Lou Christie, best known for the 1966 #1 hit “Lightin’ Strikes,” 82.

June 23: Mick Ralphs, guitarist and founding member of Mott the Hoople and Bad Company, 81.

June 24: Former teen idol Bobby Sherman, 81.

July 16: Connie Francis, singer of such hits as “Pretty Little Baby” and “Who’s Sorry Now?,” 87.

July 22: Chuck Mangione, Grammy-winning jazz bandleader best known for 1978’s “Feels So Good,” 84.

Aug. 4: Terry Reid, the British musician who’s most famously known for turning down offers to front Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple, 75.

Aug 10: Bobby Whitlock, pianist, guitarist and songwriter who formed Derek and the Dominoes with Eric Clapton, 77.

Sept. 5: Mark Volman, founding member of the rock band The Turtles, 78.

Sept. 6: Rick Davies, founding member of Supertramp who wrote and sang lead on their top-40 hit, “Goodbye Stranger,” 81.

Sept. 19: Sonny Curtis, a member of Buddy Holly‘s Crickets, who also wrote The Mary Tyler Moore Show theme song, 88.

Sept. 25: Chris Dreja, a co-founder of the Yardbirds, 78.

Oct. 10: John Lodge, bassist and vocalist of the progressive rock band Moody Blues, 82.

Oct. 22: David Ball, the multi-instrumentalist who, along with singer Marc Almond, rose to fame as the ’80s synth pop group Soft Cell, 66.

Nov. 2: Donna Jean Godchaux-MacKay, vocalist for the Grateful Dead from 1971 to 1979, 78.

Nov. 5: Gilson Lavis, former drummer for the band Squeeze, 74.

Nov. 24: Jimmy Cliff, Grammy Award-winning reggae singer and actor, 81.

Dec. 3: Steve Cropper, guitarist for Booker T. and the M.G.’s, 84.

Dec. 14: Carl Carlton, singer of hit tracks “Everlasting Love” and “She’s a Bad Mama Jama (She’s Built, She’s Stacked),” 72.

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Elton John and Brandi Carlile released their Grammy-nominated joint album, Who Believe In Angels?, in 2025, but 2026 may bring us some Elton John solo music — and maybe even more than expected.

In a holiday video message to members of his Rocket Club fan club, Elton said, “I’ll be going to the studio next April to make a record. But I’ve already made one, which is fantastic. So I’m teasing you with that one.”

It’s not clear which projects Elton is referring to. In November, he told Variety, “I just can’t wait to go into the studio now and write some new songs and go from there.” He also mentioned he had “seven new lyrics” from Bernie Taupin to write music for.

Despite his retirement from touring, Elton revealed in his message that he has continued performing. “I’ve done 11 private shows this year,” he said, adding that he’s in “great voice and I enjoy playing with the band and on my own.” He also made a plug for his headlining appearance at the Rock in Rio festival in September. “Who would’ve thought?” he asked.

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Billy Joel’s 2025 didn’t start out so hot. In January, the Piano Man postponed a show in order to have a medical procedure. He did perform two shows in February and continued to announce more concerts for 2025, including co-headlining dates with Sting, Rod Stewart and Stevie Nicks. But issues with his health halted his touring plans.

-Joel announced in March he was postponing shows for four months to allow himself time to recover from recent surgery and to undergo physical therapy under the supervision of his doctors.

-Then in May, Joel canceled all scheduled concert dates after revealing he had been diagnosed with normal pressure hydrocephalus, a disorder in which fluid builds up in the brain. According to a statement, Joel’s brain condition, “exacerbated by recent concert performances,” led to issues with his hearing, vision and balance.

-In an interview on Bill Maher’s Club Random podcast in July, Joel gave fans a health update, saying his condition was “not fixed” and “still being worked on,” but assured fans, “I feel fine.”

-And it wasn’t all bad news for Billy in 2025. In May, a new two-part documentary on the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer, Billy Joel: And So It Goes, debuted at the Tribeca Festival.

-The documentary, directed by Susan Lacy and Jessica Levin, debuted on HBO Max in July to critical acclaim and earned a nomination for best music documentary at the 10th annual Critics Choice Documentary Awards.

-Joel released a digital 100-track album, also called Billy Joel: And So It Goes, describing it as a “companion” piece to the documentary. It included eight never-before-heard songs. He also launched a yearlong YouTube series, dropping archival performances on the video-sharing platform.

In other Billy Joel news …

-Joel’s signature tune, “Piano Man,” hit 1 billion streams on Spotify. It was his second song to reach such a milestone, following “Uptown Girl.”

-20th Century Cycles, the motorcycle shop Joel opened in 2010 that housed his collection of more than 75 vintage motorcycles, closed. Joel auctioned off the bike collection.

-Joel was announced as the subject of New York City entrepreneur Michael Dorf’s annual Music Of charity concert series, with the tribute set for March 12, 2026, at Carnegie Hall.

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The Zombies have announced the dates for their third annual Begin Here festival. The 2026 event, which takes place in their hometown of St. Albans, U.K., will run from Oct. 30 to Nov. 1.

The Begin Here festival, which launched in November 2023, usually features a whole host of Zombies-related events. In the past, that has included record signings, special screenings of their documentary Hung Up On A Dream, a Zombies tour of St. Albans, Q&As and performances.

In the meantime, frontman Colin Blunstone‘s next performance is happening on the high seas. He’s booked to perform on the Flower Power Cruise happening March 28 to April 4. The cruise starts in Ft. Lauderdale and hits St. Thomas, St. Kitts and Nevis, with The Beach Boys, Micky Dolenz of The Monkees, Max Weinberg’s Jukebox and Blood, Sweat & Tears among the other acts on the lineup.

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It was another big year for Bruce Springsteen, which culminated in the New Jersey rocker’s life being depicted on the big screen.

Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere premiered at the New York Film Festival in September and opened in theaters in October. The Bear’s Jeremy Allen White starred as The Boss, and did his own singing, while Succession’s Jeremy Strong playing the rocker’s manager, Jon Landau. The film followed Springsteen’s efforts in making his 1982 solo album, Nebraska. White earned a Golden Globe nomination for his portrayal of the New Jersey rocker. 

Springsteen also celebrated a big anniversary in August 2025: the 50th anniversary of his iconic third studio album, Born to Run. To mark the occasion he released “Lonely Night in the Park” for the first time, a track that was recorded during the Born to Run sessions and was considered for the album, but was ultimately left off.

He also made a surprise appearance at the Bruce Springsteen Archives and Center for American Music’s Born to Run 50th anniversary celebration in New Jersey, performing two songs from the album — the title track and “Thunder Road” — joined by current and former members of the E Street Band.

But those were only some of the many Springsteen-related highlights this year. Among the others:

– Springsteen made a surprise appearance at a Patti Smith tribute concert, People Have the Power – A Celebration of Patti Smith, at New York’s Carnegie Hall. He performed “Because the Night,” the song he wrote that became a hit for Patti.

– In May, Springsteen and the E Street Band kicked off a European tour, and he stirred up controversy by criticizing President Donald Trump. He said America was “in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent and treasonous administration.” That prompted a response from Trump, who called Springsteen “highly overrated.”

– The tour also featured a surprise appearance by Paul McCartney at The Boss’ show in Liverpool. They teamed up for two songs: The Beatles‘ classic “Can’t Buy Me Love” and a cover of the Leiber & Stoller tune “Kansas City,” which The Beatles recorded in 1964.

– Springsteen’s tour, which launched in 2023 and wrapped in 2025, became the highest-grossing tour of his career, bringing in $729.7 million to surpass his previous highest-grossing tour, the 2012-13 Wrecking Ball World Tour, which brought in $347 million. It also sold 4.9 million tickets, more tickets than any previous Springsteen tour.

– Springsteen released the long-awaited follow-up to 1998’s box set Tracks. Tracks II: The Lost Albums featured seven previously unheard Springsteen records.

– The Boss was honored by the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures with the inaugural Legacy Award, which “honors an artist whose body of work has inspired generations of storytellers and deeply influenced our culture.”

– To coincide with the release of Deliver Me From Nowhere, Bruce released Nebraska: Expanded Edition, a box set featuring previously unreleased material. It included the long-rumored Electric Nebraska, a present-day recording of Springsteen performing Nebraska in its entirety at New Jersey’s Count Basie Theatre.

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Paul McCartney has landed on top the Billboard Boxscore for November thanks to his Got Back tour.

The Beatles legend tops the chart after bringing in $51.7 million from sales of 150,000 tickets for 11 shows. The latest leg of the tour kicked off Sept. 29 in Palm Desert, California, and wrapped Nov. 25 in Chicago.

This is the second time McCartney’s Got Back tour earned him the #1 spot on the list. The tour previously topped the Billboard Boxscore in May of 2022.

McCartney’s Got Back tour, which initially launched in April of 2022 and has included shows in 2023, 2024 and 2025, has brought $410.7 million overall, with 2.4 million tickets sold.

In other news … The Beatles are helping fans get in the Christmas spirit with the YouTube release of The Beatles Holiday Yule Log (Merry Crimble) featuring classic Beatles tracks. The video features an image of roaring fire, with Christmas stockings hung on the mantel for McCartney, George Harrison, John Lennon and Ringo Starr. There’s also a turntable with pictures of the band members and presents wrapped in Beatles wrapping paper.

According to the description, “this video is made to be left on all holiday long, whether you are relaxing, seeing friends and family, or simply letting it play in the background while you do nothing at all.”

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Fine Young Cannibals recently released FYC40, a “definitive anthology” of the British group who topped the charts in the late ’80s. And while the band only released two official albums, their music still endures — especially their first #1 hit, “She Drives Me Crazy,” which has appeared in multiple movies and TV shows over the years.

Fine Young Cannibals frontman Roland Gift says one use of “She Drives Me Crazy” really stands out to him: Dua Lipa‘s Chanel handbag campaign, which came out in January of 2025. “I was very impressed with that ad,” Gift tells ABC Audio.

“There was something about it,” he continues, adding, “I even wrote to the director saying ‘Good job,’ because her sort of lip-syncing [to the song] … was very unexpected, and it was charming. And I think … it’s probably my favorite use of an FYC song.”

Given the success of that song and their album The Raw and The Cooked, many fans were disappointed when Fine Young Cannibals split, and so was Gift. 

“I think we had a little bit more in us, and it was a shame that we couldn’t keep the marriage together. You know, that’s kind of a regret that I have,” he tells ABC Audio.

“We hadn’t experienced the kind of success that we’d had. The record company hadn’t experienced that kind of success. The managers hadn’t experienced that. So nobody was really able to contain … the heat that we’d created.”

“It’s great that people still are interested and people still like the songs, but I feel like we had a bit more,” he notes. Despite that, he insists, “We wouldn’t reform.”

But if you miss Gift’s distinctive voice, he has a new holiday song called “Everybody Knows It’s Christmas,” and he still tours, albeit only in the U.K. for the moment. 

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Legendary musician Willie Nelson is the subject of a New Yorker profile, but what has everyone talking is Bob Dylan‘s contribution to the piece, where he had quite a few things to say about the 92-year-old Rock & Roll Hall of Famer.

Dylan has spent the last two summers on Nelson’s Outlaw Music Festival, and when asked by the New Yorker journalist to describe Nelson, Dylan replied with, “It’s hard to talk about Willie without saying something stupid or irrelevant, he is so much of everything.”

But apparently he somehow found the words.

“How can you make sense of him? How would you define the indefinable or the unfathomable?” Dylan shared.  “What is there to say? Ancient Viking Soul? Master Builder of the Impossible? Patron poet of people who never quite fit in and don’t much care to? Moonshine Philosopher? Tumbleweed singer with a PhD? Red Bandana troubadour, braids like twin ropes lassoing eternity?”

He added, “What do you say about a guy who plays an old, battered guitar that he treats like it’s the last loyal dog in the universe? Cowboy apparition, writes songs with holes that you can crawl through to escape from something. Voice like a warm porch light left on for wanderers who kissed goodbye too soon or stayed too long,” noting, “I guess you can say all that. But it really doesn’t tell you a lot or explain anything about Willie.”

Getting personal, Dylan explained, “I’ve always known him to be kind, generous, tolerant and understanding of human feebleness, a benefactor, a father and a friend,” adding, “He’s like the invisible air. He’s high and low. He’s in harmony with nature. And that’s what makes him Willie.”

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Sean Ono Lennon is clarifying comments he made during a CBS Sunday Morning interview in which he suggested he was worried that younger generations would forget about The Beatles and his parents, John Lennon and Yoko Ono.

In the interview, Sean talked about being the keeper of his dad’s legacy, noting, “I’m just doing my best to help make sure that the younger generation doesn’t forget about The Beatles and John and Yoko. That’s how I look at it.”

Asked whether he really thought it was “even possible” to forget them, he responded, “I do, actually, and I never did before.”

In a post on X, however, Sean is suggesting outlets that picked up the story “tried to twist my words.”

“I am not immediately worried about anyone forgetting the Beatles,” he says. “I was speaking more broadly about culture in general, and how we do forget about things when we don’t actively work to preserve them.”

“For example everyone used to know Don Giovani but now Opera Houses having been closing all over the world en masse,” he adds. “Everyone used to be able to quote Shakespeare and now not so much.”

Finally, he notes, “The Beatles music is timeless and immortal in my view. But nothing is guaranteed and we have to choose what aspects of our culture to keep thriving for future generations.”

In a separate post, he wrote, “Too many people think they are deducing when they are inferring.”

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The Beatles may have broken up in 1970, but the band continues to live on and 2025 was no exception.

-Fans of the band got a new look at their 1990s Anthology project with reissues of the documentary series, music and book.

-Disney+ debuted a restored and remastered version of the Anthology documentary series, which aired on ABC in 1995, with the eight-part series expanded to nine episodes. In addition, the music was reissued as The Anthology Collection, a box set featuring the first three Anthology albums, along with a new fourth edition, featuring 13 previously unreleased recordings. Anthology 4 was also released as a standalone.

-A 25th anniversary edition of The Beatles Anthology book, featuring more than 1,300 photos, documents, artwork and memorabilia, was also released.

-This year also brought casting news for Sam Mendes‘ four Beatles films, The Beatles – A Four-Film Cinematic Event, due out in April 2028. The project, in which each film will be told from the point of view of a different band member, will star Harris Dickinson as John Lennon, Paul Mescal as Paul McCartney, Barry Keoghan as Ringo Starr and Joseph Quinn as George Harrison. 

Among this year’s other Beatles highlights:

-Ringo released a new country album, Look Up, and as part of the promotion for his Grand Ole Opry debut. He also headlined two nights at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium, joined by some famous friends, with the shows turned into a special that aired on CBS.

-The Beatles won another Grammy, taking home best rock performance for “Now and Then.” In addition, Lennon’s son Sean Ono Lennon won the Grammy for best boxed or special limited edition package for his work on the reissue of his late father’s Mind Games album.

-McCartney surprised fans in New York City by headlining three shows at the 575-person-capacity Bowery Ballroom. The shows were a lead-up to his performance on the SNL 50 anniversary special.

-A new documentary about Lennon and wife Yoko Ono, One to One: John & Yoko, directed by Oscar-winning filmmaker Kevin Macdonald, opened in theaters in April.

-Original Beatles drummer Pete Best announced his retirement from music.

-The Lennon documentary Borrowed Time: Lennon’s Last Decade, from director Alan G. Parker, debuted in London in May. The film eventually opened in the U.S. in December.

-McCartney returned to the stage in the band’s hometown of Liverpool, joining Bruce Springsteen for The Boss’ show at Anfield Stadium. They played two songs together, The Beatles’ classic “Can’t Buy Me Love” and a cover of the Leiber & Stoller tune “Kansas City,” which The Beatles recorded in 1964.

-McCartney brought his Got Back tour back to North America in September, starting with a warm-up show in Santa Barbara, California, before officially kicking things off in Palm Desert, California.

-A new box set celebrating John and Yoko’s activism, Power to the People (Super Deluxe Edition), produced by  Sean Ono Lennon, was released to coincide with what would have been John’s 85th birthday. It featured 123 tracks, 90 of which had either never been heard before or were previously unreleased.

-McCartney released a new book, Wings: The Story of a Band on the Run, dedicated to his post-Beatles career in Wings. A new documentary focusing on that time period, Man on the Run, was acquired by Amazon MGM and will debut on Prime Video Feb. 25, 2026. It is also expected to be released in select theaters.

-The BBC announced it had picked up a new drama series, Hamburg Days, which will focus on The Beatles’ early days as a band. The six-part series is based on the autobiography by German artist, musician and longtime Beatles pal Klaus Voormann.

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