It’s Never Too Soon to Discuss This Year’s Possible Nominees for the Class of 2025 for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame

After a couple of years of intermittent posts, I have decided to make a concerted effort to get back to writing. Three months ago, I lost my stepfather. Even though I was not close to the man, none of his three legitimate sons would step up to take care of the man. Sure, he made mistakes with his sons and first two wives, but who hasn’t made potentially catastrophically poor decisions in his or her life? Since he had been so good to my mother down the homestretch of her life, I decided to step up to take care of him. At this stage of life, I am fortunate to still have my biological father still alive for me to aid, along with his wife. Both are in their early 90s but relatively healthy. My stepfather, like my mother, had Alzheimer’s and decline was pretty fast. But, he did take much of my time over these couple of years during which I was relatively quiet on here. Fortunately for him, he has crossed the finish line of his life and is hopefully enjoying the fruits of his life on the other side.

Fortunately for you, my readers, I am not here to spout my feelings about the deaths of my mother and her husband in the past six years, nor am I here to celebrate my father and his wife. Oddly enough, I feel like I still have a good five more years with Dad being around since he has taken good care of his once athletic body over the years. On the other hand, his wife has become more frail as the weeks go by. Still, I am not going to dwell on those two either.

Instead, I would love to write about the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. In the whole realm of rock & roll, I perhaps enjoy nothing more than discussing all aspects of this entity. There is so much history tied into that museum that it actually takes a huge bite out of the uniqueness of ALL Hard Rock Cafés and Hotels that, in my mind, the chain has become something of a minor league celebration of the Boomer and Gen X-eras’ favorite form of music and pop culture. If you have not been to Cleveland to visit this structure and are a huge fan of rock music and a bit of a history nut as I am, then you need to put the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame on your bucket list. Personally, I have visited the place three times, once when my now adult boys were in high school and middle school, once when they were in college and high school and finally when my wife and I visited right as we were coming out of the pandemic in 2021. Each and every time we went, all of us were blown away with the artifacts and how they were displayed, in addition to the music soundtrack provided to us as we walked through the beautifully designed museum.

But, perhaps, the most significant aspect of the RRHoF is that there is much to critique about it, especially when it comes to whom is inducted each year. What we do know is that there is a period of time, maybe even right now, when the members of the nominating committee, of which we know little about the membership and the committee’s criteria for membership. But, somehow, the power has been invested into this mix of what I understand is musical experts/critics/writers/professors, industry insiders, musicians (both inductees and non-inductees) and others will come down from their Mount Olympus (probably some high rise in New York City) and present to us, the public, a list of 15-17 names of rock legends as the Nominees for The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s Class of Inductees for the current year. I expect the announcement of this years Nominees to be announced anytime between now and early February.

As soon as the Hall announces this year’s list of Nominees, they will open voting for the public to see who this group of you, me and any other person who bothers to log into the Hall’s website in order to cast your five votes for the five acts you feel are most deserving. Now, whenever the Hall decides to end the public voting, our millions of votes will earn our musical heroes a total of one vote for each of the top 5 vote-getters. Our collective vote will be added to those of the Induction Committee, whose membership is also top secret, and those votes from each previous living inductee. Somehow, from all of that data, the Hall will select around five to eight names to be inducted as the Hall’s Class of 2025. Additionally, the committee will add the names of artists, songwriters, producers, engineers, etc., for induction through Musical Excellence and Musical Contributions. That allows for important sidemen and sidewomen who played on a multitude of historical albums and songs to received recognition, along with songwriters who are not artists themselves, the technical people in the studio who helped shape the albums and careers of various inducted artists, artists who played an important role in the evolution of rock & roll as an art, as well as anyone else deemed worthy. Finally, there is an award for musical executives in which they can find their way into the Hall. This award is known as the Ahmet Ertegun Award. Who gets chosen for the self-congratulatory award is not spelled out clearly by the Hall.

Although rock & roll may have seemed like the most democratic of all musical forms in history, I find the Hall stunningly elitist in its induction strategy. That may be due to the fact that Rolling Stone magazine’s founder and longtime editor Jann Wenner was perhaps more impressed with whom he was rubbing elbows than he was public opinion. This nepo baby was elitist to begin with so why not expect to attempt to put that stamp on the Hall, of which he was a founder. But since the controversial circumstances surrounding his ouster as the leader of the Hall, the current management, most of whom came to prominence within the music industry via the initial rise of MTV, are attempting to make the Hall more representative of it’s original vision: to immortalize those musical stars who have been an influence on music and/or gained commercial clout through their body of work. In that respect, the Hall is attempting to change course of a cruise liner, which as you can imagine is a long and tedious process.

If you have been a long-time reader of this blog, you are familiar with my lists of worthy inductees. Honestly, there is such a logjam of brilliant artists who are at least 25 years into a career from the release of their debut single/album that it will take perhaps two decades of big classes to undo the damage Wenner had made to the Hall.

I will be giving you several lists of possible inductees under various categories. I have included the names of rock journalists whom have played an important part in the dissemination of information about each of our favorite artists and disc jockeys and on-air personalities who introduced us to these artists, as well as prominent songwriters, studio wizards, side-musicians, executives and the like, whom I feel should be immortalized for their contributions to this art form known as rock & roll.

At the very end, you will find my 16 artists who I believe will be the nominees for the Class of 2025 for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Then, out of those 16 artists, I will choose MY Class of 2025.

Musical Excellence or Musical Influence:

1. Afrika Bambaataa (hip hop pioneer)
2. Alan Hunter (one of MTV’s original VJs)
3. Amos Milburn
4. Ben E. King
5. Bing Crosby
6. Blind Lemon Jefferson
7. Brian Eno (electronic soundscape & noise provocateur)
8. Buchanan & Goodman (pioneers of the cut-in record)
9. Cab Calloway
10. Cameron Crowe (rock journalist, movie scriptwriter and film director)
11. Casey Kasem (the original voice of ‘American Top 40’)
12. Celia Cruz
13. Charlie Parker
14. Chubby Checker
15. Chuck Willis
16. Cliff Richard & the Shadows (the first big stars from the UK)
17. Connie Francis
18. Count Basie
19. Dave Marsh (American rock journalist)
20. Dick Dale (surf guitarist who pioneered a distorted power chord sound)
21. Dizzy Gillespie
22. Django Reinhart
23. Duke Ellington
24. Eddie Lang
25. Ella Fitzgerald
26. Emmylou Harris
27. Esther Phillips
28. Fanny (first all-female band to write their own songs and hit the Top 40)
29. Fela Kuti (African funkateer)
30. Frank Sinatra
31. George Jones
32. Giorgio Moroder (disco producer)
33. Glen Campbell
34. Glenn Miller Orchestra
35. Gram Parsons/The Flying Burrito Brothers (the originator of the country rock sound of the 70s)
36. Greil Marcus (American rock journalist)
37. Harry Nilsson (the songwriter’s songwriter)
38. Herbie Hancock
39. Ivory Joe Hunter
40. Jaan Uhelszki (one of the first female rock journalist)
41. Jacques Brel
42. Jan & Dean (surf sound pioneer duo)
43. JJ Jackson (one of MTV’s original VJ’s)
44. John Cage
45. John Coltrane
46. Johnny Ace (rock’s first headline causality by playing Russian roulette backstage before his show)
47. Johnny Burnette & the Rock & Roll Trio
48. Karlheinz Stockhausen
49. Kris Kristofferson
50. Kurt Loder (American rock journalist and MTV News anchor)
51. Kurtis Blow (hip hop pioneer)
52. Lester Bangs (THE original rock journalist)
53. Lightin’ Hopkins
54. Lisa Robinson (one of the first women to break the all-male barrier in rock journalism)
55. Lonny Donegan
56. Loretta Lynn (one of the greatest country singer/songwriters)
57. Love Unlimited Orchestra (the backing band for the great Philly soul artists)
58. Mark Goodman (one of MTV’s original VJs)
59. Martha Quinn (one of MTV’s original VJs)
60. Mary Wells (Motown’s first big star who is being kept out of the Hall by Motown founder Barry Gourdy Jr.)
61. Memphis Minnie
62. Merle Haggard
63. Mississippi John Hurt
64. Muscle Shoals (the house band for Stax Artists)
65. Nina Blackwood (one of MTV’s original VJs)
66. Odetta
67. Patsy Cline
68. Paul Revere & the Raiders (despite their dopey stage uniforms, these guys invented punk rock)
69. Paul Weller (The Jam, The Style Council, solo; known as The Modfather for his role in the birth of Britpop)
70. Procol Harum
71. Ravi Shankar
72. Robert Christgau (America’s academic rock journalist)
73. Ronnie James Dio (lead singer of Rainbow, Black Sabbath, Dio)
74. Roy Acuff
75. Roy Brown
76. Sarah Vaughan
77. Scott Joplin
78. Screamin’ Jay Hawkins (rock’s first shock artist in the 50s)
79. Serge Gainsbourg
80. Son House
81. Sonny Boy Williamson II
82. Sun Ra
83. The Carter Family (invented much of country music)
84. The Clovers
85. The Crew Cuts
86. The Crystals
87. The Dominos
88. The Four Freshmen
89. The Funk Brothers (the band responsible for the Motown sound)
90. The Kingston Trio
91. The Marvelettes
92. The Mills Brothers
93. The Monkees (the first rock stars of the TV age)
94. The Ravens
95. The Shangri-La’s (rock’s first bad girls singing group)
96. The Sonics (60s punk rockers and proto-grunge group)
97. The Turtles
98. The Weavers
99. The Wrecking Crew (the West Coast musicians who backed everyone from Frank Sinatra to the Phil Spector groups to The Beach Boys, Grass Roots, Bread and all the rest)
100. Thelonious Monk
101. Tom Lehrer
102. Tommy James & the Shondells (considered to be a bubblegum group, but were so much more; a huge influence on 80s artists like Joan Jett, Billy Idol and Tiffany)
103. Townes Van Zandt
104. C. Handy
105. Wanda Jackson
106. Waylon Jennings
107. Wendy Carlos (an electronic music pioneer)
108. Wynonie Harris

Backing Bands

Most of the time, the Hall has inducted the leader of a band with the backing people left out in the cold. The best example of this is the induction of Smokey Robinson without The Miracles. However, in 2012, the Hall did induct some backing bands as well as one other backing band in 2014. Those backing bands inducted in 2012 were The Blue Caps (Gene Vincent), The Comets (Bill Haley), The Crickets (Buddy Holly), The Famous Flames (James Brown), The Midnighters (Hank Ballard) and The Miracles (Smokey Robinson), while The E Street Band (Bruce Springsteen) was inducted in 2014. It has now been a decade since the Hall has inducted a backing band. The following is a list of backing bands awaiting their moment.

1. Big Brother and the Holding Company (Janis Joplin)
2. Crazy Horse (Neil Young)
3. Patti Smith Group (Patti Smith)
4. The Attractions (Elvis Costello)
5. The Belmonts (Dion)
6. The Imposters (Elvis Costello)
7. The JB’s (James Brown)
8. The Mothers of Invention (Frank Zappa)
9. The New Power Generation (Prince)
10. The Revolution (Prince)
11. The Silver Bullet Band (Bob Seger)
12. The Spiders from Mars (David Bowie)
13. The Tennessee Three (Johnny Cash)
14. The Wailers (Bob Marley)
15. Wings (Paul McCartney)

I have ranked the artists who deserve to be inducted as performers, though I would continue to *argue that Judas Priest should have been inducted as a /performer instead of being given induction for Musical Excellence. And I am sick and tired of The Hall not having the band that was WAY MORE THAN DISCO Chic in as performers all because the leaders inducted co-leader/guitarist Nile Rodgers for Musical Excellence. In those two cases The Hall did the artists an injustice. There! I said it! And it probably won’t be the last time.

I have ranked these artists by whom I feel should be inducted quickly. Of course, this list will lose some as they are inducted, then gain others as they become eligible for induction. Finally, I have underlined my seven artists who I think should be inducted this year. Rock & roll has always been about the people (fans), so let’s make The Hall hear our roar!

1. Iron Maiden – As one of Heavy Metal’s Mt. Rushmore of artists (along with Ozzy-fronted Sabbath, Priest and Metallica), these guys having been blowing audiences away for nearly half a century with their musical prowess, live stage show and lead singer Bruce Dickinson’s unparalleled vocal acrobatics. Plus, their studio catalog isn’t half bad either.
2. OutKast – First, OutKast breathed new life into the P-Funk catalog with their innovative samples and rearrangements. Next, they were the first hip hop band to take home the Album of the Year Grammy. Finally, they singlehandedly made the country and the world, for that matter, to take the Atlanta sound seriously.
3. Mariah Carey – How can the 12th biggest-selling artist of all-time be left out of The Hall for so long? This travesty needs to end now!
4. Joy Division/New Order – These two bands must be lumped together since New Order rose from the ashes of Joy Division after JD lead singer Ian Curtis’ untimely death on the eve of the band’s first tour of the States. Joy Division were one of the founders of the goth music scene in the UK. A year or so later, the remaining members of Joy Division grabbed a keyboardist/synthesizer player, replaced the dark soundscapes and lyrics, took a left turn into dance music and discovered even more commercial, critic and artist success than Joy Division. Still, one could not exist without the other.
5. The Smiths – Sure, lead singer Morrissey can be an a-hole most of the time these days as he entered his sixth decade on Earth. But, back when he and guitarist Johnny Marr were on the same page in the mid-80s, no one was making as music as beautifully dramatic as The Smiths. There for a while, I got real tired of all of REM/The Smiths clones that were clogging up alternative/college rock radio back then. Although the band didn’t have more than a cult following on this side of the pond, they are British royalty in their homeland. At least they would be if Morrissey would drop he “get off my lawn!” persona he is currently using.
6. Jethro Tull – I am not overly fond of Jethro Tull and their music. But, I cannot deny their place in rock history as the progressive band that successfully integrated Celtic folk into rock music with flourishes of the flute (is it “jazz flute”?). Their peak commercial moment rode in the early-Seventies, yet their were toast as punk came around to react against Tull. Still, the band is responsible for the literally snottiest song of rock history with the stellar “Aqualung.”
7. Pixies – The whole Eighties alternative scene was my thing back in the day. Hair metal never really spoke to me, but college rock had me from the start. So, I looked at Hüsker Dü, The Replacements, Big Star and some others for this spot, but I kept coming back to the fact that if the Pixies would not have existed, then neither would have Nirvana, at least in the LOUD-quiet-Loud trade between their verse and chorus in their songs. That was all the Pixies’ sound.
8. The Runaways – I am so tired of The Runaways getting snubbed! Were they Glam? Metal? Punk? Pop? Yes, all of them, yet, simultaneously, none of them. What? They were so much more. Yes, they were four teenage girls being exploited, but they had the chops to make it big, like former members Joan Jett and Lita Ford both proved. No Runaways? No Rrrrrttt girl acts, probably no Joan Jett RRHoF induction. No Lita/Ozzy late-80s power ballad duet. The world is so much better because The Runaways existed.
9. Motörhead – Todd Rundgren once rhetorically replied to an inquiry about Motörhead not being in The Hall with a simple, “They’re NOT in the Hall of Fame?” That speaks for itself. Lemmy and his mates popped handfuls of uppers and played their version of hard rock as fast as they could. In doing so, they took a punk esthetic and pushed it into the hard rock world, which was eventually used by diverse artists as Iron Maiden and the thrash metal bands like the Big Four: Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth and Anthrax, the last three of which should be in The Hall as well.
10. Styx – Now that Journey and Foreigner are in The Hall were the bands of pop-infused hard rock, Styx is next up. The Chicago band had began as something of a prog rock band whose sound went everywhere at once, but quickly streamlined their power into multiple top 10 albums and top 10 songs. At one point in time, Styx were the most popular band with my age group here in the States. I too was taken with the band at the time and still have a soft spot in my heart for them.
11. Oasis – My older son and his wife are fired up for this reunion tour, so this might be the year for what was Britpop’s most successful band. I must say that their first two LPs are stunning classics, but I am truthfully noncommittal to all of their other stuff. But those first few years were magical.
12. Eric B. & Rakim – If you blow past Kurtis Blow, Afrika Bambaataa and maybe Big Daddy Kane and induct them all through the Musical Influence moniker, then the next important artist is this duo. To this day, Rakim is held in high esteem as hip hop’s finest MC.
13. Wu-Tang Clan – I love to call this ensemble the P-Funk of hip hop. There’s just so many guys that a man with ADHD, like me, just has all kinds of trouble attempting to figure out who is spitting the lyrics right now. But they sure know how to find a good beat and drive that sucka all over NYC, and the world.
14. Weezer – Everyone’s favorite nerd rock band this side of Cheap Trick is long overdue for their induction. The blue album and Pinkerton are 90s classics. And the rest are all solid. Hell, you can even find something worthwhile on their worst LPs Raditude and Hurley.
15. Cyndi Lauper – If Cyndi’s career were ONLY “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun,” she just might have swept into The Hall on it alone. But, here first two albums are must-own, while the rest of her catalog is solid and interesting. If nothing else, Cyndi invented Girl Power that was co-opted by the Spice Girls and so many others. Sorry ladies! But you are standing on the shoulders of the great Cyndi Lauper. Don’t believe me? Go watch her nail her line in “We Are the World” time after time in the Netflix documentary about the song’s recording session, with each take improving upon the previous one. Lauper is just otherworldly.
16. Soundgarden – The third of the Big 4 of grunge, Soundgarden was actually the first to get signed to a major label and to taste a little success. The best singer in Seattle was their own Chris Cornell, God rest his soul. They were so good yet so underappreciated during the grunge years that they are easy to forget if you only listen to Pearl Jam and Nirvana.
17. Tracy Chapman
18. Sonic Youth
19. Smashing Pumpkins
20. New York Dolls
21. Sinéad O’Connor
22. War
23. Los Lobos
24. The Replacements
25. Mötley Crüe
26. Boston
27. The B-52’s
28. Devo
29. Hüsker Dü
30. Thin Lizzy
31. Supertramp
32. King Crimson
33. Big Star
34. The Jam
35. Chic
36. Diana Ross
37. Suzi Quatro
38. Raspberries
39. INXS
40. Alanis Morissette
41. Jane’s Addiction
42. Rick James
43. Daft Punk
44. Beck
45. Barry White
46. Buzzcocks
47. Little Feat
48. Television
49. X
50. Phish
51. Iggy Pop
52. Commodores
53. Phil Collins
54. Badfinger
55. The J. Geils Band
56. The Guess Who
57. Warren Zevon
58. Stone Temple Pilots
59. Salt N Pepa
60. Alice in Chains
61. Emerson, Lake & Palmer
62. Bad Company
63. Dead Kennedys
64. The Carpenters
65. Black Flag
66. blink-182
67. Lauryn Hill
68. De La Soul
69. Sleater-Kinney
70. The White Stripes
71. KC & the Sunshine Band
72. Blue Öyster Cult
73. Sting
74. Slayer
75. Sade
76. Marilyn Manson
77. (The) Sweet
78. REO Speedwagon
79. Slade
80. Coldplay
81. Lenny Kravitz
82. Blur
83. The Chicks
84. Captain Beefheart
85. Joe Cocker
86. Grand Funk Railroad
87. Squeeze
88. XTC
89. Faith No More
90. Three Dog Night
91. Dre
92. Tool
93. Pantera
94. Kansas
95. Steppenwolf
96. Mott the Hoople
97. Nick Drake
98. Snoop Dogg
99. Björk
100. Stone Roses
101. Living Colour
102. Pet Shop Boys
103. Gloria Estefan
104. Suede
105. PJ Harvey
106. No Doubt
107. Scorpions
108. Bob Mould/Sugar
109. Don Henley
110. The Pointer Sisters
111. Peter Tosh
112. Wilco
113. Liz Phair
114. Huey Lewis & the News
115. Billy Idol
116. “Weird Al” Yankovic
117. Gorillaz
118. Ice-T
119. Culture Club
120. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds
121. P!nk
122. Nas
123. Tears for Fears
124. The Black Crowes
125. The Psychedelic Furs
126. My Morning Jacket
127. Joe Jackson
128. Siouxsie & the Banshees
129. John Mayer
130. DMX
131. No Doubt
132. D’Angelo
133. Korn
134. Fiona Apple
135. Queen Latifah
136. Annie Lennox
137. Hole
138. Teenage Fanclub
139. Zapp
140. Midnight Oil
141. Selena
142. Rickie Lee Jones
143. White Zombie
144. Drive-By Truckers
145. Bad Brains
146. The Jesus and Mary Chain
147. Violent Femmes
148. Roberta Flack
149. Steve Winwood
150. Boyz II Men
151. Bryan Adams
152. John Prine
153. Labelle
154. The Breeders
155. Boz Scaggs
156. Britney Spears
157. Linkin Park
158. Jeff Buckley
159. Usher
160. Boogie Down Productions
161. 50 Cent
162. My Bloody Valentine
163. Garth Brooks
164. Destiny’s Child
165. Blood, Sweat & Tears
166. GAP Band
167. Limp Bizkit
168. The Roots
169. The Specials
170. Meat Loaf
171. The Cult
172. The Cranberries
173. Bauhaus
174. Marilyn Manson
175. En Vogue
176. Ashford & Simpson
177. Interpol
178. Echo & the Bunnymen
179. Jennifer Lopez
180. Ministry
181. Pulp
182. Dinosaur Jr.
183. Sparks
184. The Misfits
185. Arrested Development
186. Christina Aguilera
187. The Human League
188. Garbage
189. Kylie Minogue
190. N-SYNC
191. 10,000 Maniacs
192. Luther Vandross
193. Ryan Adams
194. Grace Jones
195. Queens of the Stone Age
196. Gang of Four
197. Crowded House
198. Sublime
199. Jewel
200. Ted Nugent

Author: ifmyalbumscouldtalk

I am just a long-time music fan who used to be a high school science teacher and a varsity coach of several high school athletic teams. Before that, I worked as a medical technologist at three hospitals in their labs, mainly as a microbiologist. I am retired/disabled (Failed Back Surgery Syndrome), and this is my attempt to remain a human. Additionally, I am a serious vinyl aficionado, with a CD addiction and a love of reading about rock history. Finally, I am a fan of Prince, Cheap Trick, Tom Petty, R.E.M., Hall & Oates, Springsteen, Paul Weller & his bands and Power Pop music. View all posts by ifmyalbumscouldtalk