Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 2010 Class Named

Yesterday (December 15, 2009), the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation announced its 2010 inductees. They include ABBA, Genesis, Jimmy Cliff, the Hollies and the Stooges. (of this list ABBA and the Stooges have been previously nominated). Missing out on the class of 2010 were Donna Summer, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Laura Nyro, KISS, the Chantels, Darlene Love and LL Cool J.

Here is the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame press release with more information on the inductees:

December 15, 2010—New York— Today, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation announced ABBA, Genesis, Jimmy Cliff, The Hollies and The Stooges as its 2010 artist inductees. Also being inducted this year as individual recipients of the Ahmet Ertegun Award will be David Geffen and songwriters Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil, Elle Greenwich, Jeff Barry, Jesse Stone, Mort Shuman and Otis Blackwell. The ceremony will take place on March 15, 2010 at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City and will air live on Fuse, Madison Square Garden’s national music television network, as part of the three-year broadcast deal between the Foundation and Fuse.

“We are very happy to present this year’s inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as they represent a great cross-section of artists that define the broad spectrum and history of rock and roll and people that have contributed immeasurably to our business” says Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation President & CEO Joel Peresman.

The performer inductees are:

ABBA
GENESIS
JIMMY CLIFF
THE HOLLIES
THE STOOGES

Ahmet Ertegun Award (nonperformers):

DAVID GEFFEN
BARRY MANN & CYNTHIA WEIL
ELLIE GREENWICH & JEFF BARRY
JESSE STONE
MORT SHUMAN
OTIS BLACKWELL

The 2010 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame performer inductees were chosen by over 500 voters of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation. Artists are eligible for inclusion in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twenty-five years after their first recording is released.

All inductees are ultimately represented in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, Ohio. Through approaches as creative and diverse as the music itself, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum tells the story of rock music with its exhibits, education programs and Library and Archives, which will open to the public in downtown Cleveland in late 2010.

Presenters and performers at the induction will be announced at a later date. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony will be televised live on Fuse; more information can be found at fuse.tv.

More about the inductees:

ABBA

They are one of the biggest-selling acts in pop-history – and if Stockholm is now a hit making mecca, it’s because ABBA first put Sweden on rock’s global map. The four members came together in enchanting, late-1960s post-Euro-hippie fashion – initialed for the two couples, Agnetha ‘Anna’ Fältskog and Björn Ulvaeus; and Benny Andersson and Anni-Frid ‘Frida’ Lyngstad. ABBA was a dominant music force throughout the 70’s, and world¬wide licensing deals made Polar Music the second biggest corporation in Sweden. Bjorn and Benny’s studio finesse over the course of ABBA’s eight studio LPs drew wide praise from pure pop punks and New Wavers for whom ABBA became a guilty pleasure. They went their solo ways in 1982, but tribute albums and the boffo musical Mamma Mia are keeping ABBA on permanent display.



GENESIS

Almost no group in rock history has had such a long and varied career as Genesis, who began as a cult art-rock band in England in the late 1960’s and went on to pack stadiums across the globe in the 1980’s, 1990’s and on their 2007 reunion tour. In the early 1970’s frontman Peter Gabriel shocked audiences and grabbed headlines by taking the stages in outrageous costumes and occasionally even levitating above the audience. Their music was equally innovative, and early albums Selling England By The Pound and The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway are two of the most acclaimed prog-rock albums in the history of the genre. In 1975 Gabriel left the band to pursue a solo career and drummer Phil Collins stepped out from behind the kit to take over. The band experienced many more hits and successful worldwide tours over the next 30 years.


JIMMY CLIFF

Very few single albums can be said to have changed music forever. Jimmy Cliff’s The Harder They Come is one. The album – and the movie that spawned it – introduced reggae to a worldwide audience and changed the image of the genre from cruise ship soundtrack to music of rebellion and inspiration. “Sitting in Limbo,” “The Harder They Come,” “You Can Get It If You Really Want,” and “Many Rivers to Cross” made Jimmy Cliff the first international reggae superstar and created the model that Bob Marley would soon follow. A beautifully gifted singer and a uniquely influential songwriter, Jimmy Cliff has made a profound impact on rock and pop music all over the world for 40 years.


THE HOLLIES

Above all, it was the wide-open three-part vocal harmonies of original members Allan Clarke, Graham Nash, and Eric Haydock, inspired by the Everly Brothers, that gave the Hollies a sound apart from other British Invasion beat groups. Songwriter Graham Gouldman supplied them with “Look Through Any Window” and “Bus Stop.” And the original writing talent of Clarke, Nash, and lead guitarist Tony Hicks took over on “Stop! Stop! Stop!” and “On a Carousel,” as the Hollies went on to chart 21 consecutive Top 20 UK hits through 1970. After Nash’s departure in 1968, new hits carried them into the mid-70’s including “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother,” “Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress,” “Long Dark Road,” “Magic Woman Touch,” “The Air That I Breathe,” and others.


THE STOOGES

The “Big Bang” that became punk, alternative, heavy metal, new wave, grunge, hardcore and industrial music, could very well have been the advent of Iggy and the Stooges in Ann Arbor in the late 1960’s. Confrontational, out of the mainstream and the complete antitheses of the hippie movement, the Stooges were adopted by those on the margins of rock. Their debut Elektra LP was produced in four days by the Velvet Undergound’s John Cale and contained at least three landmarks: “I Wanna Be Your Dog,” “No Fun” and “1969.” Immediately embraced in New York, London and Los Angeles for the nuclear-powered simplicity of their music, the ironic nihilism of their lyrics, and the persona of Iggy himself, the Stooges have become icons in the history of modern music.

More about the Ahmet Ertegun Award recipients:

DAVID GEFFEN began his legendary career in the William Morris Agency mailroom, quickly becoming an agent, before leaving to form his own management and then record label. He signed artists who have now become legends, including Laura Nyro, The Eagles, Jackson Browne, Crosby Stills and Nash, Tom Waits and Linda Ronstadt. David founded Geffen Records in 1980, whose artist roster included John Lennon, Aerosmith, Peter Gabriel, Guns N Roses, Nirvana and many more iconic artists. More recently David formed the film and entertainment company SKG, along with Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg. David has been and continues to be involved in many philanthropic endeavors.

The Ahmet Ertegun Award will also be presented to an extraordinary group of songwriters who wrote some of the most classic, lasting songs of the 20th century and defined the “Brill Building sound”. Husband and wife songwriting team BARRY MANN and CYNTHIA WEIL, have had an extraordinary impact on the past five decades of popular music. Their numerous hits include: “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling” (with Phil Spector), “On Broadway” (with Leiber and Stoller), “We Gotta Get Out of this Place” and “Walking in the Rain.” Songwriting couple JEFF BARRY and ELLIE GREENWICH, wrote a countless number of classics including “Da Doo Ron Ron,” “Then He Kissed Me,” “Be My Baby” and “River Deep, Mountain High.” Additionally, songwriter MORT SHUMAN, along with his songwriting partner Doc Pomus (who was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992), wrote some of the most important songs of the late 1950’s and early 1960’s including: “This Magic Moment,” “Save the Last Dance for Me” and “Viva Las Vegas.” Prolific songwriter OTIS BLACKWELL wrote many hits including “Great Balls of Fire,” “Don’t Be Cruel,” “All Shook Up” and “Fever.” Lastly, songwriter JESSE STONE, who was an architect of the early rock and roll sound, wrote “Shake, Rattle and Roll” and “Money Honey.”


# # #


About the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation and Museum: The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation was established 25 years ago by legendary record executive Ahmet Ertegun and a group of music business executives to honor the artists that have defined rock and roll and have inspired and continue to inspire a generation. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is the nonprofit organization that exists to educate visitors, fans and scholars from around the world about the history and continuing significance of rock and roll music. It carries out this mission both through its operation of a world-class museum designed by I.M. Pei in Cleveland, Ohio that collects, preserves, exhibits and interprets this art form and through its library and archives as well as educational programs. For further information, please visit rockhall.com.

Ask Mr. Music by Jerry Osborne

I am continuing our new feature: Ask "Mr. Music." Now in its 23rd year of syndication (1986-2009), Jerry Osborne's weekly Q&A feature will be a regular post every Wednesday from now on. Be sure to stop by Jerry's site (http://www.jerryosborne.com/) for more Mr. Music archives, record price guides, anything Elvis, buy & sell collectibles, record appraisals and much more. I thank Jerry for allowing the reprints.


FOR THE WEEK OF DECEMBER 14, 2009


DEAR JERRY: The History Channel recently ran a well-produced special titled “The Beatles on Record.” However, I must challenge them on one point and need your guidance.

Which of the group's official releases is really the first to use backward tape technology?

I always thought it is “Rain,” but “The Beatles on Record” plays “Tomorrow Never Knows,” along with a audio clip of John Lennon saying it is “the first recording using backwards technology.” So which is it?

Also, is there an earlier example of this technique on a hit record?
—Michael T. Breitbach, Muskego, Wisc.


DEAR MICHAEL: You and John are both correct!

“Tomorrow Never Knows,” recorded April 6th and 7th 1966, is the first Beatles “recording” containing portions of tape playing in reverse — an effect created by flipping a full-track audio tape over, then playing it forward.

On “Tomorrow Never Knows,” the backward gimmick is used only during the instrumental riffs.

“Rain,” from a session one week later, is the first Beatles “release” with a backward tape segment. Making “Rain” more significant in this regard is the reverse portion includes John's vocal, about six seconds worth, beginning roughly 20 seconds before the music ends.

Unlike “Tomorrow Never Knows,” this tune, backed with “Paperback Writer” (Capitol 5651), is a hit single.

Finally, “Rain” came out May 27, 1966, about nine weeks earlier than the “Revolver” LP (Capitol 2576) with “Tomorrow Never Knows.”

Memories and accounts of how all of this unfolded vary, but here is producer George Martin's frequently published recollection:

“I was always playing around with tapes and I thought it might be fun to do something extra with John's voice [on “Rain”]. So I lifted a bit of his main vocal off the four track, put it onto another spool, turned it around and then slid it back and forth until it fitted.

“John was out of the studio at the time but when he came back he was amazed. It was backwards forever after that.”

Still, the Beatles are not the first ones with a hit record utilizing backward shenanigans.

A Top 3 hit 10 years before “Rain,” Buchanan & Goodman's “The Flying Saucer (Part 2)” (Luniverse 101), includes both a forward and backward playing of the words “Washington: the Secretary of Defense.”


DEAR JERRY: With so many Rock Era Christmas tunes considered classics, and played every year, I am wondering how many ranked among the Top 10 sellers overall (not a separate Christmas category) when first released.

I'd guess very few.
—Josephine Lanier, Rolling Hills, Calif.


DEAR JOSEPHINE: Very few indeed, especially by limiting the list to those times when Christmas records competed with all the other popular hits for survey positions.

Here they are, all four of 'em:

1955: “Nuttin' for Christmas” (Barry Gordon with the Art Mooney Orchestra); 1958: “Jingle Bell Rock” (Bobby Helms); “The Chipmunk Song” (Chipmunks with David Seville); and 1964: “Amen” (Impressions). Though “Amen” is not really a Christmas song, we include it because they do make one mention of “Christmas morning.”

Your question also provides an interesting reminder of how remarkable it was for “The Chipmunk Song” to leap to No. 1 over Elvis Presley, Ricky Nelson, the Everly Brothers, and other late-'50s megastars.

Incredibly, “The Chipmunk Song” is the only Christmas record since 1952 to top the Pop & Rock charts.


IZ ZAT SO? In the pre-rock 1950s, Christmas tunes frequently ranked among the Top 10. Those deserving honorable mention are:

1950: “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer (Gene Autry); “I Yust Go Nuts at Christmas” and “Yingle Bells” (Yogi Yorgesson); “White Christmas” (Bing Crosby); 1951: “Christmas in Killarney” (Dennis Day); “Frosty the Snow Man” (Nat King Cole); 1952: “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus” (by Jimmy Boyd as well as Spike Jones); “The Night Before Christmas Song” (Rosemary Clooney & Gene Autry); and 1953: “Santa Baby” (Eartha Kitt).

Jerry Osborne answers as many questions as possible through this column. Write Jerry at Box 255, Port Townsend, WA 98368, e-mail: jpo@olympus.net, or visit his Web site: http://www.jerryosborne.com/. All values quoted in this column are for near-mint condition.

Copyright 2009 Osbourne Enterprises- Reprinted By Permission

This Date In Music History-December 16

Birthdays:

Paul Butterfield - Paul Butterfield Blues Band (1942)

Tony Hicks - Hollies (1945)

Benny Anderson - Abba (1946)

Billy Gibbons - ZZ Top (1950) He plays a classic ‘59 Gibson Les Paul guitar he calls Miss Pearly Gates and uses a quarter or a peso as a pick for a distinctive sound.



Blues-Rock singer Robben Ford (1951)

Christopher Thorn - Blind Melon (1968)

Michael McCary - Boyz II Men (1972)


They Are Missed:

The late, late Ludwig von Beethoven was born in 1770

Singer-songwriter Nicolette Larson died (age 45) of complications arising from cerebral edema in 1997. Worked with Neil Young, (Comes a Time and Harvest Moon albums), Emmylou Harris, Linda Ronstadt, Michael McDonald, Willie Nelson, Jimmy Buffett, The Beach Boys and The Doobie Brothers. Best known for her 1978 cover of Neil Young's "Lotta Love."

"I Will Survive" songwriter Freddie Perren died in 2004 (age 61). With the Corporation, he also co-wrote and produced "I Want You Back" and "ABC" for the Jackson 5, as well as hits for Tavares, Peaches & Herb, and G.C. Cameron.

In 2007, singer-songwriter Dan Fogelberg died at his home in Maine at the age of 56. The singer, songwriter discovered he had advanced prostate cancer in 2004. Had the 1981 album ‘The Innocent Age’, which featured the hits "Leader of the Band," "Hard to Say," and "Run for the Roses."


History:

In 1907, Eugene H. Farrar became the first singer to broadcast on radio. He sang from the Brooklyn Navy Yard in New York.

In 1958, Ritchie Valens performed a concert at the junior high school he'd attended. The show is recorded and posthumously released in 1960 as Ritchie Valens Live at Pacoima Junior High.

The soundtrack to Blue Hawaii reached #1 on the album charts in 1961, where it remained for 20 weeks. With sales of 2 million, it was Elvis Presley's best-selling album to date.

George Harrison was deported from Germany in 1960 for being too young to perform with the Beatles there.

The first Jimi Hendrix Experience single "Hey Joe," was released in the UK on Polydor records in 1966, the track had been rejected by the Decca label. It went on to be a #6 hit in the UK, but failed to chart in America.



In 1967, the Rolling Stones announced that Marianne Faithfull was the first signing to their 'Mother Earth' record label.

The Lemon Pipers released the cut "Green Tambourine" in 1967.

John Lennon and Yoko Ono traveled to Toronto in 1969 to perform at the Peace Festival. During their stay they stayed on Ronnie Hawkins' farm. Billboards reading "War Is Over! If You Want It" go up in 11 cities as part of the Lennons' own peace campaign.

On this date in 1970, five singles and five albums by Creedance Clearwater Revival were certified gold: "Down on the Corner," "Lookin out My Back Door," "Travelin' Band," "Bad Moon Rising," "Up around the Bend" and the LPs Cosmo's Factory, Willy and the Poor Boys, Green River, Bayou Country and Creedance Clearwater Revival.

Don McLean’s eight-minute-plus version of "American Pie" was released in 1971.

Billy Paul started a three week run at #1 in 1972 with "Me and Mrs Jones."

In 1974, guitarist Mick Taylor announced he was leaving The Rolling Stones, saying he felt that now was the time to move on and do something new.

UK group Mott The Hoople announced they had split up in 1974.

The Bay City Rollers earned their first gold record in 1975 for their first US hit single, "Saturday Night." It would make it to #1 on the pop chart early next year. On the 31st of this month, the album "Bay City Rollers" went gold. They will go on to have five more Top Forty hits in the US.

In 1977, the Bee Gees received a gold record for "How Deep is Your Love," the fourth of their seven #1singles. The song will become the subject of a copyright infringement suit five years later, when an amateur songwriter claims the brothers Gibb lifted the melody from a composition he'd written.

The Who announced that they were splitting up in 1983.

Billy Joel went to #1 on the album chart in 1989 with Storm Front.

Chubby Checker filed a lawsuit against McDonald's in Canada in 1991 seeking $14million for it's alleged use of an imitation of his voice. The song "The Twist" had been used on a French fries commercial.

MTV aired Nirvana's 'Unplugged' session for the first time in 1993.

In 1999, it was announced that Celine Dion has sold more than a 100 million albums around the world. Her albums Let's Talk About Love and Falling Into You have also shipped more than 10 million copies each.

In 2003, a Web site offered up for auction an audio tape of five songs that the Beatles allegedly recorded in 1976 during a reunion at an L.A. studio. Paul McCartney's spokesperson says, "I am not aware of any Beatles reunion during the '70s."

A Detroit studio where Eminem recorded ‘My Name Is’ went up for auction on the website eBay in 2004. Studio 8, in the Detroit suburb of Ferndale was to be listed in eBay's commercial property section for 30 days, with a minimum bid is $215,000 (slow news day)

In 2005, the surviving Beatles and relatives of the band's late members began legal action against EMI to get royalties allegedly worth 40m. Sir Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and relations of George Harrison and John Lennon claimed EMI owed record royalties to their company Apple Corps.

Incubus started a two-week run at #1 on the album chart in 2006 with ‘Light Grenades’ the bands sixth album.