Saying goodbye to a beloved musician can feel like losing a close friend. We lost many musical legends in 2021: unmistakable vocalists, celebrated songwriters, over-the-top personalities, and the rhythmic backbone of one of rock ‘n’ roll’s biggest bands. These foundational figures made the world’s music landscape more funky, more harmonious, and more fun.

In this feature, we celebrate the legacies of some of the musicians who passed on in 2021. There will never be enough time to capture the breadth of their art, but we can start by taking a moment together to honor their memory and hear some of the timeless tunes they left behind.

Scroll down for a Spotify playlist featuring the music of these artists; above, listen to a one-hour remembrance special hosted by Mac Wilson.

We’ll start with the drummer who provided the heartbeat of one of the greatest bands of all time. When the Rolling Stones’ drummer Charlie Watts died in August at 80, the music world came to a halt. Everyone reached for records featuring the man Elton John called “the ultimate drummer.” While Mick Jagger pranced down the runway and Keith Richards tore into his signature riffs, Charlie Watts was hidden in plain sight as the Rolling Stones’ not-so-secret weapon: a jazz fan who added feeling and sophistication to the Stones’ strut.

This year we also said goodbye to another star of the British Invasion: Gerry Marsden, leader of Gerry and the Pacemakers and the voice behind songs like “You’ll Never Walk Alone” and “Ferry Cross the Mersey.”

Hip-hop lost several legends in 2021. One of rap’s biggest stars, DMX had five straight albums debuting at number one on the Billboard 200. At the turn of the 21st century, DMX’s trademark growl anchored hits like “Party Up” and “Ruff Ryders’ Anthem.” The artist born Earl Simmons was just 50 when he died after a heart attack in April.

Hip-hop fans also said goodbye to “Humpty Dance” vocalist Shock G of Digital Underground, to John “Ecstasy” Fletcher of Whodini, to Prince Markie Dee of the Fat Boys, and to Duke Bootee – one of the voices and writers on Grandmaster Flash’s iconic single “The Message.”

Biz Markie, the rapper and DJ known as “the Clown Prince of Hip-Hop,” died at age 57 in July. His 1989 single “Just a Friend” remains an iconic signature song.

R&B and Soul said goodbye to Mary Wilson, one of the founding members of the Supremes. In harmony with lead singer Diana Ross, Mary Wilson defined the personality of the essential ’60s girl group on several major hits.

Sarah Dash, who died this year at age 76, was a member of the hugely popular and influential Labelle, a band of Black women bridging rock and soul. We also lost Pervis Staples, founding member of the Staple Singers, who passed away at age 85; and Jim Weatherly, who released nearly a dozen studio albums but is best known as the songwriter of Gladys Knight’s hit “Midnight Train to Georgia.”

By the time ZZ Top bassist Dusty Hill died at age 72, he had spent a half-century anchoring the bearded group’s Texas blues years and then a hit-filled run during the MTV era.

Keep those lighters in the air for Mountain front-man Leslie West, the guitar hero behind “Mississippi Queen” – and to songwriter Jim Steinman, who penned Meat Loaf’s “Paradise by the Dashboard Light” and Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart.”

A member of the first class inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Don Everly formed the Everly Brothers with his brother Phil in 1956. “Wake Up Little Susie,” “Bye Bye Love,” and Don’s own composition “Cathy’s Clown” are enduring classics. Speaking about his relationship with Phil, who preceded him in death, Don said, “Everything is different about us, except when we sing together.”

Another Hall of Fame inductee gone: Lloyd “Mr. Personality” Price, who brought the beat of his hometown, New Orleans, to hits like “Stagger Lee” and “Lawdy Miss Clawdy.”

There were many stars of music’s avant-garde who passed in 2021. While metal-masked rapper MF DOOM died at age 49 in 2020, the news became widely known at the beginning of 2021. Another pathbreaker gone too soon, Scottish producer SOPHIE died in a climbing accident at age 34. Her music fueled the rise of the hyper-aware electronic music known as hyperpop, and she produced tracks for Madonna, Charli XCX, and Vince Staples. 

Pat Fish, who died this year at 64, was a British bassist and bandleader known as the Jazz Butcher – although his music was actually genre-spanning post-punk. Other musicians from his era who passed this year include English Beat drummer Everett Morton; Bush Tetras drummer Dee Pop; and the iconoclastic Richard H. Kirk of Cabaret Voltaire.

Recording innovators who died include the disgraced producer Phil Spector whose “Wall of Sound” approach produced singles including the Ronettes’ “Be My Baby” and the Crystals’ “Then He Kissed Me.” He was convicted of a 2003 murder and died behind bars at 81.

The New York Times called engineer Rupert Neve “the father of modern studio recording.” Neve’s sophisticated studio equipment was paramount for celebrated albums by Fleetwood Mac, Nirvana, and countless others. He was 94.

Miles Davis collaborator and jazz fusion pioneer Chick Corea died in February at age 79. Corea founded the group Return to Forever, melding Latin music with rock and jazz. This year jazz fans also lost Liston Smith, who also played with Miles and went on to record a string of classic albums with his own band, in fusion and other styles. George Wein, who died at 95, helped to put jazz on a pedestal by founding the Newport Jazz Festival.

The revered Jamaican artist Lee “Scratch” Perry died in August at 85. His dub production style took reggae into a new dimension with surreal, even eerie effects. If people called him a madman, he didn’t mind, he said: “When they think you are crazy, they don’t come around and take your energy.”

2021 also saw the death of U-Roy, a Jamaican vocalist who pioneered the rhythmic speak-singing style known as toasting, as well as the passing of Bunny Wailer, one of the original Wailers with Bob Marley. Bunny Wailer passed away from a stroke in March 2021.

This year, funk soldiers saluted the fallen B.B. Dickerson of War. Dickerson helped develop War’s signature sound, co-writing and performing on songs like “Why Can’t We Be Friends,” “The Cisco Kid,” and “Low Rider.” He passed away in April at age 71.

Melvin Van Peebles was not just a filmmaker and an actor but also the composer for films like the 1971 blaxploitation landmark Sweet Sweetback’s Badasssss Song.

Known for hard-hitting funk of “You Dropped a Bomb On Me,” the Gap Band’s multi-instrumentalist co-founder Ronnie Wilson died this year at age 73. The Gap Band dominated the R&B charts in the 1980s with hit songs like “Early in the Morning,” “Outstanding,” and “Burn Rubber On Me.”

Robert Bell may have had the official “Kool” nickname in Kool and the Gang, but in a statement after saxophonist Dennis Thomas’s death, the band said they’d lost their “quintessential cool cat.”

The world of Americana lost the distinctive voice of singer-songwriter Nanci Griffith. She wrote “Love at the Five and Dime” and beautifully covered Julie Gold’s “From a Distance.” She passed away in August, at age 68.

Another folk artist we lost this year was Rusty Young, of Poco, a virtuoso who could make a pedal steel guitar sound like a Hammond B3 organ. Fiddler Byron Berline was a member of the Flying Burrito Brothers and was tapped by the Rolling Stones for an early version of “Honky Tonk Women.”

And another fiddler, Peter Ostroushko, was a Minnesota music legend whose very first recording session was playing mandolin on Bob Dylan’s “If You See Her, Say Hello.” We also lost folk favorite Bill Staines this year.

“I think the melodies are actually fairly easy to write,” Staines told Radio Heartland in 2010. “They, in fact, they kind of fall out of me. But really having something to say — and saying it well — is the tough part.”

Greg Tate, who died in December, was “one of the most incisive, insightful, and influential cultural critics of the past 35 years,” wrote Rolling Stone. In addition to his writings on music and other subjects, Tate was also a musician himself, founding the ensemble Burnt Sugar.

As the year waned, we marked the deaths of music giants including Stephen Sondheim, who died in December at age 91. One of the most influential composers and lyricists in Broadway history, Sondheim brought his subtle wit and boundless creativity to musicals including West Side Story, Sweeney Todd, and Into the Woods. His most famous song as a composer may have been “Send in the Clowns,” from 1973’s A Little Night Music.

Glaswegian keyboardist Steve Bronski, who died at 61, was co-founder of the group that bore his name: Bronski Beat. All three members of the synthpop group were openly gay and used their music to challenge stereotypes; they broke through in the U.S. with “Smalltown Boy” becoming a number one hit on the Billboard dance chart.

Bassist Robbie Shakespeare died in December at age 68. With drummer Sly Dunbar, he was half of the duo Sly and Robbie, who were tireless collaborators and producers from the 1970s onward, fusing reggae with a wide range of other genres on recordings by artists including Grace Jones, Bob Dylan, and Serge Gainsbourg.

Finally, we remember Michael Nesmith - who, as NPR put it, was “considerably more than a Monkee.” He was a successful songwriter before joining the Beatles-inspired quartet, and sang lead on Monkees hits including “What Am I Doing Hangin’ Round.” After the Monkees’ heyday, his production projects included a music video show that was a key inspiration for MTV. Shortly before his death at age 78, Nesmith completed a Monkees farewell tour with bandmate Mickey Dolenz, who said, “I'm so grateful that we could spend the last couple of months together doing what we loved best – singing, laughing, and doing shtick.”