Welcome to Pop Pantheon, the podcast, where we completely overanalyze all of your favorite

pop stars and then rank them in the official Pop Pantheon.

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So this year, as we come to a close, Russ and I thought it would be nice to take a moment to think

about some of the towering pop figures who we lost in the year 2023.

This episode is going to focus on three of them in particular, and each will have its own

guests that can speak particularly to this artist, their work, their legacy, why they

mattered in pop music.

Annie Zaleski is here to talk about Shanei O'Connor.

Brian Newman is here to talk about Tony Bennett, and Melissa Vincent is here to talk about

the great Tina Turner.

Before we get into those discussions, I want to acknowledge a series of other important

pop figures that have passed this year that we didn't have time to get into in depth,

but feel worth mentioning as we look back on the year in pop and who is no longer with us.

And I'm thinking about here, Harry Belafonte, of course, Lisa Marie Presley, David

Crosby, Jeff Beck, Brian Gillis from LFO, Paul Catamol from S Club 7, Sheldon Reynolds from Earthwind

and Fire, Gangstaboo, Rudolph Isley from the Isley Brothers, Jimmy Buffett, Steve Harwell from

...