Abe Vigoda, best known to audiences as the backstabbing Tessio in The Godfather and as Fish, the world weary yet witty and haggard cop on television’s Barney Miller, has died at the age of 94. Vigoda died at his daughter’s house in Woodland Hills, California in his sleep.

Because of such two high profile roles in his career, it seemed as if Vigoda had done a lot more than he actually did, but it was on the strength of those two aforementioned roles and also a memorable stint in the 1980s cult classic Joe Versus the Volcano, that made Abe Vigoda a household name. He also had obvious elements that helped create his legend, his colorful name for one and then his rubber faced, tall and limber physicality, with a voice straight out of Italy’s old country mixed in with that New York kind of flavor.

Jimmy Bain, a Scottish bass player who was right in the thick of the entire hard rock/heavy metal scene of the 1970s and 80s, collaborating in an early version of Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow and with Ronnie James Dio‘s 1980s lineup, has died at the age of 68 of undisclosed causes, although some reports have stated that Bain had been suffering from pneumonia the last few months.

More below.

David Bowie, rocker, chameleon, progenitor of glam and punk in many ways, and all around creative renaissance man, has died at the age of 69.

There are many generations and legions of fans, some of whom have followed the man since his debut as (using his real name) David Jones and the Lower Third in the mid 1960s, when he employed a sort of Syd Barrett/Donovan pagan style in his music, using the vogue of the British psychedelic folk sounds of the time. Once he hooked up with people like the late legendary guitarist Mick Ronson and the producer Tony Visconti and started doing the kind of sounds fellow sonic countrymen T-Rex were doing, biting guitars out of the Stooges playbook with a kind of androgyny outer shell to them, did the legend of David Bowie start to spout.

Peter Frampton‘s Frampton Comes Alive!, undisputedly one of the greatest rock and roll live albums of the 1970s, turns 40 today.

Originally released on January 6, 1976 as a 2-record set, Frampton Comes Alive!, unexpectedly catapulted the young musician into the success stratosphere. The British-born former Humble Pie guitarist had previously released solo albums to no fanfare in America, but his double-live album saw radio and chart hits with “Show Me the Way,” “Baby, I Love Your Way,” and the lengthy, guitar de force “Do you Feel like We Do,” replete with voice box and axe histrionics which sent the live audience into a frenzy.

In Memoriam 2015: Music”¦

Another year has come to an end. While 2015 was full of life in so many vivid ways — creatively, intensely, and tragically — it also presented its own set of challenges and obstacles to overcome in the new year. And as a year also brings, we also lost many shining figures in the music world, among other fields.

Here’s a look of some of those figures who touched our lives and will continue to do so always as we remember some of the key people in music, people who are legends, pioneers, luminaries, inspirations, and above all, timeless.