This playlist is the third and last of my playlists covering the best music released in 2025. It features newly released songs recorded long ago, that are now released or, in some cases, released for the first time. You can find my first two 2025 playlists, covering the best overall songs and best cover versions, on my website.
All through the year, I put reissue and archival songs I like into a folder. At the end of the year, I had more than 3 hours of music that I had to narrow down to a manageable amount of music. It was heartbreaking having to eliminate so many great songs.
I had three absolute, unbreakable rules in making this playlist:
- All songs must have been released in 2025
- Only one song per artist is allowed on this list
- I can fudge any of the absolute, unbreakable rules I want, because this is my damn playlist.
The list is not in order of my favorites. I do not have particular favorites among the songs on the list. I love all the songs. Here is the playlist:
- Carlo Savina – Una Vergine in Famiglia. Horror film director Eli Roth released a collection of songs from 1970s Italian sexploitation films. The rare soundtrack songs are from CAM Sugar, founded in 1959, which has a catalogue of over 2000 Italian original soundtracks, winner of over 500 international awards. The whole 2 LP collection is great — it was hard to pick just one song for this playlist, so check out the whole album. This song is from the 1976 film “A Virgin in the Family” (“Una Vergine in Famiglia”) about a family living “under the influence of intrigue and debauchery.”
- Prince – Free (Acoustic Version). 2025 was a disappointing year for Prince fans, as the estate’s only new release was the album “Around the World in a Day” with no previously unreleased alternate versions or new songs. Luckily for us, they also released as a single this great alternate version of the song from the album 1999.
- Bob Dylan – (I Heard That) Lonesome Whistle Blow. Unlike the Prince estate, Bob Dylan and his people did not disappoint fans in 2025. They released “Through the Open Window: The Bootleg Series Vol. 18,” an 8-CD collection of outtakes, alternate versions, and live cuts from Dylan’s earliest years, 1956 (when Dylan was 15 years old) through 1963’s Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, before he “went electric.” The whole set is worth the cost, expensive though it is. This song is a cover of a Hank Williams classic.
- The Wilson Lewes Quartet – Holly Golly. It is hard to find information about the Wilson Lewes Quartet. It appears that there is no Wilson Lewes, that the band is a studio creation in the 1960s by Peter Pan Records, which released mostly children’s records, but also some knockoff pop records, like this Ramsey Lewis knockoff jazz instrumental.
- J.D. Crowe & the New South – Why Don’t You Tell Me So. J.D. Crowe & the New South’s 1975 eponymous album – more commonly known by its Rounder Records catalogue number 0044 — was a hugely influential record, both for its musicianship and for its mix of the traditional bluegrass repertory with rock and pop songs. J.D. Crowe was the elder statesman of the group, born in 1937 and having played with Jimmy Martin. The other, younger musicians were in their early 20s or teens. They were amazing instrumentalists who later became stars in their own right: Tony Rice on guitar, Ricky Skaggs on mandolin, and Jerry Douglas on dobro (resonating guitar). This 2025 release has an unreleased song and an alternate version.
- Denise LaSalle – Trapped in a Thing Called Love. LaSalle has been singing and writing great soul and blues songs from her twenties up until her death in 2018 at 83 years old. This song was a hit in 1971. It is from her first album, which shared the single’s title, recorded at Memphis’ HI Studios, where the great Al Green’s records were made. While this album was released in 2025, let’s hope her next two, Hi-Studios-recorded albums will also be rereleased soon.
- Charley Pride – It’s Just a Matter of Time. This song is from “Endlessly”, a lost tribute album to soul singer Brook Benton (most famous for the song “Rainy Night in Georgia”). Pride recorded this tribute album in the 1980s, but it was not released until 2025.
- Peggy Lee – Please Mr. Sun. At Last: The Lost Radio Recordings features 44 rare solo performances from CBS Peggy Lee’s radio series in 1951-52, never before available on digital release. This song was a number 6 hit for Johnny Ray in 1952.
- John Prine – Hey Ah Nothin’. We are still mourning the loss of John Prine to COVID in 2020. In 2025, his estate released his great 1995 album Lost Dog + Mixed Blessings, with five alternate versions and this new song.
- Ray Charles – Don’t Set Me Free. This 1963 single was included in “No One Does It Like …Ray Charles,” 2025’s collection of Charles’ 1960s singles and B-sides, most receiving their first digital release.
- Joyce Street – Mississippi Moonshine. From Numero Group’s great collection of songs by obscure female country singers from the 1960s and 1970s. Joyce wrote more than 300 songs and recorded several while raising a family. She never got much attention for her music back then, but this release shows she deserved more than that.
- Alick Nkhata – Kalindawlo Ni Mfumu. Alick Nkhata was a Zambian musician, freedom fighter and broadcaster from the 1950s to the mid-1970s. This song was reissued in 2025 on the collection “Radio Lusaka.”
- The Mavericks — All Night Long. We lost Raul Malo, the lead singer for The Mavericks, in 2025 after a battle with cancer. This song comes from the classic Mavericks’ album “Mono,” released in stereo for the first time in 2025. Hopefully, there is more unreleased music from Malo available soon.
- Gypsy Caravan – Soweto Mujibha. Don’t miss the great 2025 collection “Roots Rocking Zimbabwe – The Modern Sound of Harare’ Township 1975-1980,” where this song comes from. Gypsy Caravan were teenagers at the time of this recording.
- Francesco De Masi – Jerry’s Theme. We end this playlist as we began it, with a song from a collection of Italian soundtrack recordings from CAM Sugar, chosen by a film director. This song is from a collection of Spaghetti Western songs chosen by Jeymes Samuel, director of Netflix’s “The Harder They Fall.” This song is from the movie “Seven Dollars on the Red” (“7 Dollari Sul Rosso”), an early and uneven Spaghetti Western from 1966, which redeems itself with a “truly memorable” last 20 minutes (according to spaghetti-western.net).