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.”


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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.