Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: Rock's Top Ten The brand-new foundation inducts its first members
At last, rock & roll — the sound heard round the world for three decades — has its own hall of fame. Rock history is full of innovators, superstars and unsung heroes who transformed this primitive, propulsive devil music into a force for major cultural and social change. Now the establishment of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the induction this year of its first ten members enables fans, musicians and the music industry to pay formal tribute for the first time to rock's pioneer artists and their historic achievements. Rock & roll is a living art, one that is refined and reinvented every day in big arenas, tiny clubs, sophisticated studios and cold, damp garages all over the world. It is fitting then that of the initial inductees to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame — Chuck Berry, James Brown, Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, Fats Domino, the Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard and Elvis Presley — all but three are still alive and, in some cases, actively performing. And certainly Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly and Sam Cooke, long after their passing, continue to inspire, in style and spirit, new rock & roll generations.
More News 20 Best Moments at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 2014 Induction 10 Amazing Backstage Moments From the Rock Hall All Stories The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation was established in 1984 "to recognize these artists and their achievements in a dignified, uncommercial way," according to foundation chairman Ahmet Ertegun. The first step was the creation of the hall of fame itself. The foundation — a nonprofit group led by prominent music-industry executives whose president is Sire Records chief Seymour Stein — created a list of forty-one hall-of-fame nominees. From that list, approximately 200 pop-music experts (among them, top critics and record producers) voted to select the first ten inductees. The foundation also inaugurated special awards to acknowledge the contributions of important nonperformers and early influential blues, country and gospel artists. Initial inductees in these categories are Sun Records producer Sam Phillips, DJ Alan Freed, country singer Jimmie Rodgers and bluesmen Robert Johnson and Jimmy Yancey. In the near future, the foundation plans to house a permanent hall-of-fame display in the first proper rock & roll museum. Ideally, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame museum will also feature a complete archive of rock & roll recordings and print material as well as films and videos. Cities under consideration for the museum include Cleveland, Memphis, Philadelphia, Chicago and New Orleans. "We're not going to make this a rock & roll Disneyland," says Ertegun, the chairman of Atlantic Records. "We have an obligation to the world of rock & roll, the artists and the fans, to make this a dignified place they can be proud of."
Elvis Presley
Born January 8th, 1935, East Tupelo, Mississippi Died August 16th, 1977, Memphis On July 5th and 6th, 1954, at Sun Records studio in Memphis, Elvis Presley called to life what would soon be known as rock & roll with a voice that bore strains of the Grand Ole Opry and Beale Street, of country and the blues. At that moment, he ensured—instinctively, unknowingly—that pop music would never again be as simple as black and white. Between 1954 and 1958, Elvis was transformed into the world's first rock & roll star—heartthrob, rebel, trendsetter, threat. He was simultaneously deified and denounced. Life magazine called him a "howling hilbilly." Ed Sullivan vowed never to book him, but not long after "Heartbreak Hotel" topped the pop, C&W and R&B charts, Presley made the first of three appearances on the show. After serving a hitch in the army and making nearly thirty movie Evis staged a musical comeback on a legendary TV special aired December 3, 1968. What viewers saw and heard was the real Elvis, the archetypal rock & roll singer, working up a seat before the first lieve audilience he had faced since 1961. On the occasion of Elvis' passing, August 16th, 1977, President Jimmy Carter declared, "Elvis Presley's death deprives our country of a part of itself."
Chuck Berry
Charles Edward Berry Born October 18th, 1926 or 1931, St. Louis On a trip to Chicago in 1955, the young St. Louis bluesman Chuck Berry got to know Muddy Waters. Impressed by Berry's guitar playing, Waters introduced Berry to Leonard Chess, who was impressed not so much by his blues numbers as by "Ida Red," a chugging tune with wryly enunciated lyrics that put a country & western guitar over a rhythm & blues beat Suggesting a title change, to "Maybellene," Chess released the song—and Berry shifted gears into the simple and stunning sound that gave shape and style to rock & roll. Between 1955 and 1959, Berry charted the course for the burgeoning sound of rock & roll and its ever-growing audience. He described the basic attitude ("Roll Over Beethoven"), the roots of the style ("Rock and Rol Music"), the secret life of the typical fan ("Sweet Little Sixteen") and the lay of the land ("Back in the U.S.A.").And he gave rock & roll its central character in the autobiographical "Johnny B. Goode." Little Richard
Richard Penniman
Born December 25th, 1932 or 1935, Macon, Georgia It was while washing dishes at the Greyhound bus station in Macon, Georgia, that Richard Penniman (a.k.a. Little Richard) was struck with the inspiration for his most legendary songs. By his own account, he wrote "Good Golly, Miss Molly" and "Long Tall Sally" in that kitchen as he scrubbed the pots and pans. Art Rupe of the Specialty label was attracted by the hard edges of Richard's voice, which he thought would jibe well with the New Orleans R&B sound. One of the first songs Little Richard cut for Specia...
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