The results are in and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has their newest class of inductees which include a legendary songwriter, sounds of Motown, music innovators, a country music legend, and the best of British pop music.
The 38th annual Hall of Fame induction ceremony will be held on November 3 at the Barclays Center in Brookly, New York.
Kate Bush, Sheryl Crow, Missy Elliott, George Michael, Willie Nelson, Rage Against the Machine, and The Spinners have all been selected in the Performer Category.
DJ Kool Herc and Lin Wray are being inducted as Musical Influences. Chaka Khan, Al Kooper, and Sir Elton John’s songwriting partner Bernie Taupin are all being inducted with the Musical Excellence Award and “Soul Train” creator Don Cornelius is being presented with the Ahmet Ertegun Award.
Chairman of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation John Sykes spoke on the new inductees saying, “this year’s incredible group of inductees reflects the diverse artists and sounds that define rock and roll.” He added, “we are honored that this November’s Induction Ceremony in New York will coincide with two milestones in music culture; the 90thbirthday of Willie Nelson and the 50th Anniversary of the birth of Hip Hop.” Nelson turned 90 over the weekend.
Artists become eligible for the Hall of Fame 25 years after their first recording release. Performers are selected for creating music that not only has originality and impact; but also, has changed the course of rock and roll.
The Musical Influence Award is presented to artists “whose music and performance style have directly influenced, inspired, and evolved rock and roll and music impacting youth culture.”
The Musical Excellence Award is presented to “artists, musicians, songwriters and producers whose originality and influence creating music have had a dramatic impact on music.”
The Ahmet Ertegun Award is presented to an industry professional who while not a performer has still had a major impact on music and has impacted youth culture.
Meet the 2023 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame class of inductees…
The multi-faceted Kate Bush is a singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer who carved her own path in the world of rock; even creating her own recording studio in order to control her own career. Over the years she has influenced numerous musicians.
She was the first female artist to have a number one song on the music charts in the United Kingdom with one of her own compositions. Her Hammersmith Apollo concert sold out in 15 millions and spawned eight of her albums to appear on the music charts at the same time – another first.
After her song “Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)” appeared on the hit television show “Stranger Things”, she saw another resurgence of her music including a number one single and a 9,000 percent increase in streaming.
Sheryl Crow’s break came singing backup for Michael Jackson and then doing session work with Stevie Wonder, Belinda Carlisle, and Don Henley. She has also written songs for Celine Dion, Tina Turner, and Wynonna Judd.
Since her 1993 debut “Tuesday Night Music Club” Crow has earned nine Grammy Awards, played before the President of the United States; and has collaborated with Keith Richards, Prince, Johnny Cash, and Loretta Lynn.
In her first year of eligibility Missy Elliott is a ground breaking musical artist and producer who burst onto the music scene in the ‘90’s. She has been an in demand songwriter and producer. The record label executive has helped to blaze the trail for other female musicians. She is the first female rapper – and only the third Hip-Hop artist) to be inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Her accomplishments include two honourary doctorate degrees, an MTV Video Vanguard Award, four Grammy Awards, has the most platinum albums by a female rapper with six, and was presented the inaugural United Nations Woman’s Entrepreneurship Day Msic Pioneer Award.
A posthumous induction, George Michael burst on the British music scene with Andrew Ridgeley as the duo Wham. After garnering over one million votes in the fan voting, Michael is inducted on his first year on the ballot. An incredible songwriter with an angelic voice, Michael was the most played artist on British radio for 20 years (1984-2004). He is one of the best selling artists of all time.
His duet of “I Knew You Were Waiting” with Aretha Franklin made him the only white male to perform with the Motown legend. When the Apollo Theatre reopened in 1985 after renovations, George Michael was invited to join the cast of performers and even sang a duets with Stevie Wonder and Smokey Robinson.
His Diamond Award solo debut album “Faith” spawned four hit singles including “Father Figure” which made Michael the first white artist to top the Billboard Top Black Albums chart.
George Michael has left behind an incredible treasure trove of music for generations to come.
Now 90 years old, Willie Nelson has been making music for over 60 years and in that time he has released a whopping 73 albums!
Long called a Country music artists, Nelson has crossed the genre lines many times to leave his mark on Rock, Pop, Jazz, and Blues. Over the course of his career, he has collaborated with numerous artists including Sheryl Crow, Wynton Marsalis, and Snoop Dogg.
Before becoming a household name who was always “On the Road Again”, Nelson was penning songs for his fellow Country artists including Patsy Cline and Ray Price.
A member of the “outlaw” music culture, Nelson formed the group “The Highwaymen with Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash, and Kris Kristofferson.
After the release of the Christmas charity single “Do They Know it’s Christmas?” and the single “We are the World”, Nelson co-founded Farm Aid to help struggling American farmers.
When not making music, Nelson has long been an advocate for the legalization of cannabis.
Rockers Rage Against the Machine have rattled the cage when it came to what was expected of rock artists. Going beyond the typical rock format: Rage Against the Machine fused Hip-Hop, punk, metal, and funk into their music.
Rock music’s answer to the hippie counter culture of the ‘60’s, Rage Against the Machine took on the establishment with their music.
The California quartet formed in Los Angeles in 1991 and released their self-titled debut the following year; wasting no time in striking to make their mark on the world of rock music…their way.
DJ Kool Herc is credited as being the father of Hip-Hop when 50 years ago the Bronx came alive with a new sound – sounds from a turntable other then the music spinning on the record.
Armed with a massive sound system that included two turntables, the Jamaican native began throwing block parties where he developed his “Merry-Go-Round” that extended the songs and allowed the onset of break dancing.
Fifty years later Hip-Hop music has become a culture, not just music, and is outselling rock music.
Creating a list of the greatest rock guitarists is a topic of great discussion…and sometime aggressively…
But Native American rocker Link Wray is sure to be among many of them.
Like the scene out of “Back to the Future” when Marty McFly is shredding on the guitar at the school dance, Wray was ahead of his time; introducing techniques as distortion, fuzz, tremolo, and the wah-wah effect.
Born Fred Lincoln Wray Jr, Wray laid the ground for the later influx of punk and metal music. Playing Country and Rockabilly with his brothers, Wray broke the mold in q958 with “Rumble”. The rebellious piece cut across all barriers – including distance” to reach across the Atlantic and spawn a group of guitarists that would become part of the British Invasion.
He continued his rebellious rocker ways until his death in 2005.
Getting her start as a part of the group Rufus and Chaka Khan, Chaka was at home in a variety of genres including funk, rock, jazz, and disco. In 1978 she struck out on her own with “I’m Every Woman”. With her range and powerful voice, Kahn continues to influence generations of artists including Mary J Blige, Eryka Badu, Janelle Monae, and Sam Smith.
Getting his start as a lyricist for a record company in England, Bernie Taupin was paired with a young upstart piano player and fellow songwriter named Elton Hercules John. Tired of writing songs for others, John began to sing the works he and Taupin composed and in 1970, “Your Song” became their first hit and a collaboration that exists still today. Over their 50 plus year partnership, the duo has brought 14 top 10 hits in the seventies alone. After the death of Princess Diana, Taupin reworked the lyrics of “Candle in the Wind” as a tribute to the Princess. It sat on top if the Billboard Hot 100 chart for 14 weeks and remains the second highest selling song in history with eleven million records sold (in 1997, streaming id not exist; the number is pure sales).
But Sir Elton and Taupin have not limited their talents to just themselves; they have also penned songs for other artists including Alice Cooper, Brian Wilson, Starship, and Heart.
As a composer, singer, arranger, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Al Kooper began his musical journey as a session player while still in his teens. Over the years he has collaborated with some of the biggest names in rock and roll including Bob Brass, Irwin Levine, Bob Dylan, Gary Lewis, Stephen Stills, Mike Bloomfield, the Rolling Stones, John Lee Hooker, Jimi Hendrix, Alice Cooper, Cream, Tom Petty B.B. King, Lynrd Skynrd, and Joe Walsh.
The 2023 Ahmet Ertegun Award recipient Don Cornelius created the African-American answer to “American Bandstand” with “Soul Train”. For over 20 years he produced and hosted the show that became known as the “hippest trip in America”. Each week he brought some of the biggest names in R&B, Soul, and Hip-Hop to Americans via the television. Guests included James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, LL Cool J, the New Edition, and Mariah Carey.
Under the guise of “Black is Beautiful”, Cornelius showed that “Black Lives Matter” long before the phrase even existed.
Also on the list of nominees but did not make it into the Hall of Fame were Iron Maiden, Cyndi Lauper, A Tribe Called Quest, The White Stripes, Warren Zevon,Joy Division/New Order, and Soundgarden.
The Spinners are among Motown legends with it comes to R&B music. Over 60 years later, The Spinners continue to be one of the most beloved R&B vocal groups in the world. The five man group released their debut single “That’s What Girls are Made For” in 1961 but it would be another three years before they would see one of their songs hit the music charts when “I’ll Always Love You” reached number eight.
After leaving Motown for Atlantic, The Spinners became a hit making machine that saw the group reaching the number one spot on the music chart four times in just a year and a half – part of a 12 top 10 singles in five years. The Disco era didn’t slow them down, they just crossed over and continued churning out hit songs…including the hit “Then Came You” with Dionne Warwick.
In 2021, The Spinners were still putting out a new album with “Round the Block and Back Again”.
