JON O’BRIEN

Death isn’t automatically a barrier to a musician’s career longevity. Tupac has famously released more albums since he was fatally shot than he did while alive; Roy Orbison and Elvis Presley have both headed out on tour as holograms and a new Whitney hologram tour of the UK is coming soon; Eva Cassidy only became a household name years after her untimely passing.

Of course, the majority of posthumous releases are compiled from material that was left in the vaults for a reason.

However, these 20 official singles from dearly-departed Classic Popfriendly artists have all helped to extend rather than taint their legacy.

2O BOYZONE GAVE IT ALL AWAY

• Perhaps surprisingly, Boyzone paid tribute to the late Stephen Gately with a reggae-tinged up-tempo number penned by flamboyant mid-00s hitmaker Mika. Gave It All Away, therefore, isn’t as mawkish as you might expect from a boyband who paved the way for the ‘stand up for the key change’ ballads of Westlife. But with Gately’s distinctive falsetto opening the track with “I will learn to live before I die,” this 2010 single, released just six months after his death from a congenital heart defect, still brings a sense of poignancy.

19 TEENA MARIE LUV LETTER

• Best known in the UK for her 1980 Top 10 hit Behind The Groove, Rick James protégée Teena Marie wrapped up her 14th studio effort just days before her premature death on Boxing Day in 2010 – she had a legacy of health problems after a large picture frame fell on her head in 2006. With help from her only child Alia Rose, the Beautiful LP eventually saw the light of day three years later. And the entirely self-penned Luv Letter, a vibrant funk throwback to her Motown heyday, showed once again why she was hailed as the Ivory Queen of Soul.

18 MEL & KIM WHERE IS LOVE

• Released almost 30 years after her tragic passing, Where Is Love was actually the track that set Mel Appleby and older sister Kim on the path to chart-topping success. The previously unheard demo helped the streetwise pop duo land a deal with Supreme Records and ultimately attract the attention of a certain Pete Waterman. Produced by regular SAW engineer Phil Harding, this crowdfunded 2019 single brings the classic Mel & Kim sound into the 21st Century while retaining the pure sassiness that captivated us all back in the late 80s.