This week I’ll highlight the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees from the Class of 2010 as part of my ongoing Hall of Fame series.
2010 boasted a relatively modest lineup, size-wise, with only five acts entering the Hall. Six non-performers received the Ahmet Ertegun Award that year for behind-the-scenes contributions (including Otis Blackwell, who wrote Elvis Presley’s ‘Don’t Be Cruel’ and ‘All Shook Up,’ among other 50s classics).
The week of October 18, 1966, found a trio of repeats atop the Billboard Hot 100, plus one band that I’m planning to explore further, so I’m setting that one aside for now.
That brings us to #5, where the California garage band Count Five peaked with their only hit, ‘Psychotic Reaction.’ The quintet formed in high school and released this single the day two of its members graduated.
Throwing back to the week of October 17, 1956, we find Elvis Presley hanging on to the #1 spot with ‘Don’t Be Cruel,’ in the final week of its record-setting 11-week run in the top spot. It’s no ‘Choosin’ Texas,’ but that’s not bad!
In the #2 spot was Johnnie Ray’s ‘Walkin’ in the Rain,’ one of three hits to reach #1 or #2 for Ray. It’s a song with a very interesting back story.
The final six albums of Dolly Parton’s career epitomized her playfulness, versatility, and desire to experiment.
Those releases include a stripped-down country collection (2016’s Pure & Simple), a children’s album (2017’s I Believe in You), another Christmas album (2020’s A Holly Dolly Christmas), and a companion record to a suspense novel she co-wrote with James Patterson (2022’s Run, Rose, Run). Yes, you read that last one correctly.
By her standards, Dolly Parton was unproductive in the 2000s, releasing just five studio albums.
She followed up her bluegrass trilogy with a pair of albums that approached American politics from two different directions. In 2003, For God and Country was a collection of patriotic songs (some traditional, some original) recorded as a response to the September 11 terror attacks. Two years later, Those Were the Day featured covers of 60s and 70s folk songs, most of them anti-war anthems.
