Throwing back to the week of March 21, 1956, we find a host of repeats atop the Billboard singles chart — five songs I’ve already covered during Throwback Weekends and won’t bother listing now.
That brings us to #6, where Pat Boone’s ‘I’ll Be Home’ sat on its way to a peak at #5 the following week. Boone released this song a year after it was written by Ferdinand Washington and Stan Lewis, and a few months after doo-wop band The Flamingos dropped their own version.
Outkast has been eligible for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame since 2019 and it’s kind of a surprise they didn’t receive their first nomination until 2025. The Atlanta duo is one of the most acclaimed and influential hip-hop acts in history.
Big Boi and André 3000 had a relatively short run before splitting in 2007 — 15 years in total — but that was enough time to release six Platinum or multi-Platinum albums, place two #1 hits on the Hot 100, and win only the second Album of the Year Grammy for a rap album (following The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill).
Six years ago, during a Decades series on the year 1983, I asked this about Cyndi Lauper: “So when will she make it into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame?”
Well, the answer was 2025. Lauper was eligible since 2009 and was nominated once before, in 2023, before making the cut last year. Her long absence is indicative of the problem the Hall had (and still has, to a lesser degree) acknowledging the contributions of women.
Our next Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Class of 2025 inductee is another who made it in on his first nomination — English singer Joe Cocker. That nomination came 31 years after he became eligible.
Most of Cocker’s best-known and best-loved songs were covers of other artists’ music, but he made those songs completely his own. Just listen to his soulful rendition of The Beatles’ ‘With a Little Help From My Friends’ and it’s hard to believe it’s the same song Ringo Starr delivered so earnestly on Sgt. Peppers.
The next inductee into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Class of 2025 — Chubby Checker — arguably made it on the strength of just one song.
But what a song! Checker’s ‘The Twist’ was considered the #1 Billboard song of all-time for more than 60 years based on its strength and longevity on the Hot 100. It was only recently eclipsed by The Weeknd’s ‘Blinding Lights.’
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