- Dec 3 Grady Martin, American country music guitarist (The Nashville A-Team), dies at 72
- Dec 13 Chuck Schuldiner, American heavy metal singer-songwriter and guitarist (Death; Control Denied), dies of brain cancer at 34
- Dec 14 (Secondo) "Conte" Candoli, American jazz, big band, and session trumpeter (Woody Herman; Stan Kenton; The Brothers Candoli; The Tonight Show, 1967-92), dies of prostate cancer at 74
- Dec 15 Rufus Thomas, American vaudevillian, singer-songwriter, and R&B musician known as "Mr. Swing" ("Walking the Dog", "Do the Funky Chicken"), dies of heart failure at 84
- Dec 16 Stuart Adamson, Scottish rock vocalist and guitarist (The Skids, Big Country), dies at 43
- Dec 18 Dimitris Dragatakis, Greek composer, dies at 87
- Dec 18 Gilbert Bécaud [François Gilbert Léopold Silly], French singer, pianist, composer and actor (Nathalie) known as "Monsieur 100,000 Volts" for his energetic performances, dies at 74
- Dec 19 Marcel Mule, French classical saxophonist, composer, and teacher, dies at 100
- Dec 21 Felix Guerro Diaz, Cuban composer, dies at 84
- Dec 23 Leonid Wīgner, Latvian conductor (Latvian Opera and Ballet Theater, 1936-49; LPSR Radio Symphony, 1949-75), composer, and pedagogue, dies at 95
- Dec 29 Takashi Asahina, Japanese conductor (b. 1908)
- Dec 30 Ralph Sutton, American stride and Dixieland jazz pianist and composer, dies at 79
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