STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
As we finish this year, let's listen to some of the musicians we lost in 2024.
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Liam Payne was a member of the hugely successful boy band One Direction. His death at the age of 31 shocked fans back in October.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "STORY OF MY LIFE")
ONE DIRECTION: (Singing) Seems to me that when I die these words will be written on my stone.
INSKEEP: We also have to tell you about a member of a boy band from a different era, Tito Jackson of The Jackson 5. He died in September.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "I'LL BE THERE")
THE JACKSON 5: (Singing) And I'll be there (I'll be there). Oh.
FADEL: The last original member of the Four Tops passed away. Duke Fakir was 88.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "REACH OUT I'LL BE THERE ")
FOUR TOPS: (Singing) Hah. I'll be there.
INSKEEP: And she may be known as the mother of Whitney, but Cissy Houston was a marvelous singer in her own right, and we lost her in October.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "I'LL BE THERE")
CISSY HOUSTON: (Singing) Deep down in my heart I'm going to miss you.
FADEL: One of the great guitarists of the Allman Brothers Band, Dickey Betts, passed away this April.
(SOUNDBITE OF THE ALLMAN BROTHERS BAND SONG, "RAMBLIN' MAN")
INSKEEP: And let's hear another guitarist, Wayne Kramer of the MC5, who also helped to inspire the punk movement.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "INTRO 2/KICK OUT THE JAMS")
MC5: (Singing) Kick out the jams.
INSKEEP: And the MC5 also lost drummer Dennis Thompson and manager John Sinclair in 2024.
FADEL: And in May, one of the architects of alternative rock died. Engineer Steve Albini produced acts like the Pixies, PJ Harvey and Nirvana.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HEART-SHAPED BOX")
NIRVANA: (Singing) Hey. Wait. I got a new complaint.
INSKEEP: The influential rock band from Germany, Can, lost the singer of some of their most important work, Damo Suzuki.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "VITAMIN C")
CAN: (Singing) You're losing. You're losing. You're losing. You're losing your vitamin C.
FADEL: Bassist Phil Lesh was a founding member of the Grateful Dead, and he wrote one of their signature songs, "Box Of Rain." He passed away in October.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BOX OF RAIN")
GRATEFUL DEAD: (Singing) What do want me to do to watch for you while you were sleeping?
INSKEEP: Oh, and for many people, this one hurt. Kris Kristofferson was a Rhodes scholar, a movie star and in his spare time wrote some damn fine songs. He was 88.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HELP ME MAKE IT THROUGH THE NIGHT")
KRIS KRISTOFFERSON: (Singing) Help me make it through the night.
FADEL: And the death of Toby Keith took a lot of fans by surprise. He was one of the top-selling country artists of his day. He was only 62.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HOW DO YOU LIKE ME NOW?!")
TOBY KEITH: (Singing) How do you like me now, now that I'm on my way?
INSKEEP: If you're just joining us, we're hearing some of the musicians we lost in 2024.
FADEL: Ella Jenkins was called the first lady of children's music. She was 100 years old when she passed away.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "YOU'LL SING A SONG AND I'LL SING A SONG")
ELLA JENKINS: (Singing) You'll sing a song, and I'll sing a song. And we'll sing a song together.
INSKEEP: With his band, Maze, Frankie Beverly turned out plenty of party music and one song that is the soundtrack to backyard cookouts.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BEFORE I LET GO")
MAZE: (Singing) I got to make sure I'm right before I let go.
FADEL: And one of the masterminds of Southern hip-hop died in April. Producer Rico Wade helped craft the sounds of Goodie Mob, Future and OutKast.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "PLAYER'S BALL")
OUTKAST: (Rapping) I made it through another year. Can't ask for nothing much more. It's OutKast for the boots. I thought you knew, so now you know. Let's go.
INSKEEP: We also lost a rapper whose verses made it all the way to the Supreme Court. Brother Marquis was a member of 2 Live Crew. And its lyrics were so raunchy, they tested the limits of free speech. And we are now going to play you the lyrics. No, we're not.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ME SO HORNY")
2 LIVE CREW: (Rapping) Picked up the telephone, then dialed the seven digits. Said, yo, this Marquis, baby. Are you down with it?
FADEL: In 2024, we lost the twangy guitar skills of Duane Eddy. His sound in the 1950s helped define the surf rock of the next decade.
(SOUNDBITE OF DUANE EDDY SONG, "REBEL ROUSER")
INSKEEP: Oh, and here's another signature guitar sound from Vic Flick, known for this lick...
(SOUNDBITE OF JOHN BARRY SEVEN AND ORCHESTRA'S "THE JAMES BOND THEME")
INSKEEP: ...The original "James Bond" theme. He was 87.
FADEL: Chita Rivera was one of the great Broadway figures of all time. She's perhaps best known for originating the role of Anita in "West Side Story." She died last winter.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "AMERICA")
UNIDENTIFIED ENSEMBLE: (As characters, singing) I like to be in America. OK by me in America.
INSKEEP: Conductor Seiji Ozawa led the Boston Symphony Orchestra for almost 30 years and opened doors for Japanese classical musicians.
(SOUNDBITE OF BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, ET AL.'S "FAURE: PELLEAS ET MELISANDE, OP.80: 1.PRELUDE. QUASI ADAGIO")
FADEL: The clown prince of classical music died this year as well. Peter Schickele wrote under the pseudonym PDQ Bach, as he imagined what the least talented member of the Bach family would have written.
(SOUNDBITE OF PETER SCHICKELE'S "CONCERTO FOR HORN AND HARDAR, S.27")
INSKEEP: (Laughter) It is good to celebrate these lives. Jazz drummer Albert "Tootie" Heath played with everybody from Sonny Rollins to Nina Simone to John Coltrane. And on this recording, he's joined by Benny Golson, who also died this year.
(SOUNDBITE OF EMMET COHEN'S "IT DON'T MEAN A THING (IF IT AIN'T GOT THAT SWING)")
FADEL: We lost another pair of jazz musicians within days of each other last month, the bluesy saxophonist Lou Donaldson and the inventive drummer Roy Haynes.
(SOUNDBITE OF CHICK COREA'S "MATRIX")
INSKEEP: Here's another great percussionist, Zakir Hussain, a master of the tabla, the Indian hand drums.
(SOUNDBITE OF ZAKI HUSSAIN'S "QAIDA IN FOUR")
FADEL: I love the tabla.
INSKEEP: Yeah.
FADEL: We also lost Sergio Mendes. He helped turn Americans onto bossa nova with his band, Brasil '66.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MAIS QUE NADA")
BRASIL '66: (Singing in Portuguese).
INSKEEP: And we need to spend a moment with one of the greatest musical minds this country has produced, Quincy Jones, who died at the age of 91. He started his career as an arranger for jazz bands and for singers like Frank Sinatra.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "FLY ME TO THE MOON")
FRANK SINATRA: (Singing) Fill my heart with song. Let me sing forevermore.
FADEL: He wrote film scores. He wrote TV theme songs. And as a producer, Jones formed an historic partnership with Michael Jackson, collaborating on the albums "Off The Wall," "Bad" and one of the biggest sellers of all time.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THRILLER")
MICHAEL JACKSON: (Singing) 'Cause this is thriller, thriller night.
INSKEEP: By the 1980s, Quincy Jones had the credibility, the clout to bring together dozens of the biggest stars in the world in one room, for one night. And their charity's single, "We Are The World," raised more than $80 million for the starving in Africa.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WE ARE THE WORLD")
USA FOR AFRICA: (Singing) We are the world.
INSKEEP: Quincy Jones, who died last month.
FADEL: And those were just a few of the musicians we lost in 2024. We're sorry if we left off someone you loved.
INSKEEP: But glad to hear these songs once again. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.