Starting 2026 By Remembering 2025

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Happy new year everyone! As usual, I’ll start off the month of January by looking back at my personal picks to remember the music people we lost in 2025. As always, we lost a lot of major talent…and some people you’ve probably never heard of or don’t remember. As usual, my countdown will include both. And, since last year’s expansion proved so popular, I’ll also be looking at the individuals from other walks of life who passed away in 2025 and honoring them with a tribute. These will, of course, be alphabetical for the first 21 days, with my “top” ten losses in each category at the end. You never say top ten when dealing with obituaries. We’ll call it “top ten,” but in reality it’s “people I’ll miss the most.” (That way, you’ll understand when you see #1 on the music list.) You know it was a hard year in music when someone like Ace Frehley of Kiss ends up as the teaser. He died October 16 at the age of 73 after suffering a head injury in a fall at his studio. This song, “New York Groove,” was from the solo albums in 1977 (all members of Kiss released solo albums simultaneously), and it became the only solo song from a Kiss member to hit the charts.