The grunge era that started in the mid 1980s and peaked in the early 1990s was epitomized by four Seattle bands: Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, and Alice in Chains. Nirvana and Pearl Jam are first ballot Rock & Roll Hall of Famers, inducted in 2014 and 2017, respectively. Alice in Chains has been eligible since 2016 but has yet to be nominated.
Soundgarden, eligible since 2012, was nominated three times before making it into the Rock Hall last year.
The next inductee from the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Class of 2025 has been eligible for a little over a decade and made it in on its first nomination. The rap trio Salt-N-Pepa is the latest in a growing contingent of hip-hop artists in the Hall.
Made up of Salt (Cheryl James), Pepa (Sandra Denton), and DJ Spinderella (Deidra Roper), Salt-N-Pepa was a pioneer for women rap artists. It was the first female rap group to have a Gold and Platinum album and the first to win a Grammy, and for awhile held the record for top-selling album by a woman or women in rap.
The week of March 22, 1966, found the Vietnam era hit ‘The Ballad of the Green Berets‘ hanging on the #1 spot of the Billboard Hot 100. The British Invasion was hot on its heels, with the next two slots going to The Rolling Stones and The Beatles.
The Stones’ ’19th Nervous Breakdown’ sat at #2, where it would peak, held out of the top spot by the Green Berets. This was the band’s third top five single on the U.S. chart in nine months, after ‘(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction’ and ‘Get Off of My Cloud’ became their first #1 hits in the States the previous summer.
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).
Meet Me In Montauk 