Throwing back to the week of Nov. 16, 1954, Eddie Fisher tops the Billboard hits chart with ‘I Need You Now.’ This was the song’s third straight week at #1, and its last, because it was about to be overtaken by the song at #2.
That was ‘Mr. Sandman’ by The Chordettes. This song would go on to spend seven weeks at #1, giving the vocal quartet their biggest hit (followed closely by ‘Lollipop’ four years later).
The next artist inducted into this year’s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in the Musical Excellence category is the hard rock band MC5. The Michigan-based band’s name is short for Motor City 5, a nod to their Detroit origins.
MC5 was nominated for the Rock Hall in six different years between 2003 and 2022 without making the cut, which must have prompted the Rock Hall’s leadership to bypass the voting process to include them.
Having covered the artists inducted into this year’s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in the Performers category, I’ll now turn my attention to those selected for Musical Excellence.
I only recently learned the major difference between these two classifications, and it turns out it’s a big one: inductees in Musical Excellence are selected by a committee rather than being voted in by the Hall’s larger membership.
The last 2023 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee in the Performers category is New York hip-hop band A Tribe Called Quest. Eligible since 2015, they were nominated in 2022 and 2023 before making the cut in this year’s class.
Releasing five celebrated albums during the 90s, Tribe was one of the most innovative and influential hip-hop acts, known for blending jazz into their rap compositions. The band split in 1998 but reunited in 2016 to record one last album, the critically-acclaimed We Got It from Here… Thank You 4 Your Service.
Ozzy Osbourne is the only two-time Hall of Famer in this year’s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame class, having previously been inducted as part of Black Sabbath. Osbourne has been eligible as a solo artist since 2006 and this was his first nomination.
Given that he has found more success as a solo artist than he did with Sabbath, this seems like an easy call. The hard rock wing of the Rock Hall wouldn’t be complete without Ozzy.
Meet Me In Montauk 