Why the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame sucks

[Jolly Blue Giant]

The R&RHOF has become a joke. Whilst leaving out highly successful rock and roll bands, they manage to induct old-school country twangers, like Willie Nelson and Dolly Parton, or rappers like Eminem and pop singers like Donna Summers. They even inducted one-hit wonder Percy Sledge  Don't get me wrong, "When a Man Loves a Woman" was a classic, but it's still his ONLY hit. I'm surprised they don't have "Snoop Dog" in there  They even have a huge section dedicated to Taylor Swift (not in the HOF...yet) and she does not sing rock and roll. What's going on? I think it's time to remove the words, "Rock and Roll" from the name and call it "Music Hall of Fame" with a caveat in parentheses ("many far more popular and successful musicians are excluded")



Country music stars already have their own hall of fame, the Grand Ole Opry, and it inducts actual country stars, and fans of country music go there to pay homage to their favored genre's superstars

Willie Nelson gets in the Rock and Roll HOF by singing off key through his nose, "On the Road Again" and is forever enshrined as a "rock and roll superstar"  WTF

Who isn't good enough to ever get in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame...the list seems endless:

Three Dog Night - had 21 consecutive Top 40 hits, including 3 #1 singles, 11 Top 10s, 18 straight Top 20s, 7 million-selling singles and 12 straight RIAA Certified Gold LPs. They sold more records and had more hits than R&B group, Temptations. Not knocking the Temptations, as I love them. But they aren't rock and roll. Three Dog Night and Tommy James and the shondells had more hits and sold more records in '68 and '69 than any other singer or group...including the Beatles

Tommy James and the Shondells - 23 gold records, 9 platinum albums and over 100 million records sold worldwide, in addition to their 32 Billboard hot 100 charting hits, many have been covered by artists around the world including Bruce Springsteen, Prince, REM, Joan Jett, Billy Idol, Dolly Parton, Carlos Santana and even The Boston Pops. Tommy James and the Shondells sold more than twice as many records as Three Dog Night and ruled the billboards for the last 3 years of the 60s. The Doobie Brothers got inducted and sold a third as many records and had a much shorter and less glamorous run

Monkees - With international hits, four chart-topping albums and three chart-topping songs ("Last Train to Clarksville", "I'm a Believer", and "Daydream Believer"), they sold more than 80 million records worldwide...more than the combined record sales of the Temptations and Willie Nelson (two non-rock and rollers in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame)

Boston - Dominated charts from '76 - mid-80s and sold more than 75 million records worldwide, including 17 million were the band's debut album and seven million copies of the band's second studio album, Don't Look Back (1978), placing the group amongst the world's best-selling music artists. Their song "Amanda" alone sold more records than many top singers in the HOF

Pat Benatar - has 15 top 40 hits, 5 platinum albums, 2 multi-platinum albums, and four Grammys to her credit. She was nominated for induction in 2020, but the HOF said "nope, not worthy" (My bad, she was inducted last year after being snubbed before. Apparently, a lot of fans went nuts on the inside team of people who make decisions)

There are so many others more worthy of being in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, so I'll just start listing them, without comment:

Paul Revere and the Raiders
Procol Harum
Bad Company (Paul Rogers - favorite singer of multiple superstars like Freddie Mercury, and the Doors recruited him after the death of Jim Morrison, etc.)
Emerson, Lake and Palmer
Jethro Tull
Kansas
Guess Who
Grand Funk Railroad
Turtles
Styx
Deep Purple
Ozzie Osborn
Iron Maiden
Ronnie James Dio
Warren Zevon
Badfinger
Sting (Police)
Joe Walsh
INXS
Blood Sweat and Tears
Lenny Kravits
Dianna Ross
Peter Frampton

[Bill Brown]

You have some valid points JBG. A good list too. I enjoyed several of those and some I've never listened to. I agree with Blood ,Sweat Tears but only the Al Kooper version.

Bill