The world lost influential people in 2025, and some of their deaths had significant impacts.

Steve Cropper, who co-wrote classic songs, including “(Sittin' on) the Dock of the Bay” and “In the Midnight Hour,” during his years playing guitar at the legendary Stax Records in Memphis, has died.

The Stax Music Academy in Memphis is marking its 25th anniversary with Black History Month-themed concerts on March 28.

Hitmaking record producer Richard Perry has died at 82.

Jim Stewart, the white Tennessee farm boy and fiddle player who co-founded the influential Stax Records with his sister in a Black, inner-city Memphis neighborhood and helped build the soulful “Memphis sound,” has died at age 92.

A performance by master keyboardist Booker T.