re: THE MEMPHIS HALL OF FAME:
A couple of weeks ago we told you about the up-coming Memphis Hall Of Fame Inductions Ceremony. We now have the list of the inaugural inductees to share. Congratulations go out to ...
Estelle Axton and Jim Stewart, Bobby "Blue" Bland, Booker T. and the MG's, Lucie Campbell, George Coleman, Jim Dickinson, Al Green, W.C. Handy, Isaac Hayes, Howlin' Wolf, B.B. King, Jerry Lee Lewis, Jimmie Lunceford, Professor W.T. McDaniel, Memphis Minnie, Willie Mitchell, Dewey Phillips, Sam Phillips, Elvis Presley, Otis Redding, The Staple Singers, Rufus Thomas, Three 6 Mafia, Nat D. Williams and ZZ Top
The induction ceremony will take place on November 29th. The Memphis Rock 'n' Soul Museum is located at the corner of Third (legendary Highway 61, "Blues Highway") and 191 Beale Street at FedExForum, the city of Memphis' premier sports and entertainment complex. The museum's exhibition, "Rock 'n' Soul: Social Crossroads" was developed by the world famous Smithsonian Institution as part of its 150th anniversary celebration. The museum is open seven days a week from 10 a.m. until 7 p.m. Additional information is available at (901) 205 - 2533 or at www.memphisrocknsoul.org.
A couple of weeks ago we told you about the up-coming Memphis Hall Of Fame Inductions Ceremony. We now have the list of the inaugural inductees to share. Congratulations go out to ...
Estelle Axton and Jim Stewart, Bobby "Blue" Bland, Booker T. and the MG's, Lucie Campbell, George Coleman, Jim Dickinson, Al Green, W.C. Handy, Isaac Hayes, Howlin' Wolf, B.B. King, Jerry Lee Lewis, Jimmie Lunceford, Professor W.T. McDaniel, Memphis Minnie, Willie Mitchell, Dewey Phillips, Sam Phillips, Elvis Presley, Otis Redding, The Staple Singers, Rufus Thomas, Three 6 Mafia, Nat D. Williams and ZZ Top
The induction ceremony will take place on November 29th. The Memphis Rock 'n' Soul Museum is located at the corner of Third (legendary Highway 61, "Blues Highway") and 191 Beale Street at FedExForum, the city of Memphis' premier sports and entertainment complex. The museum's exhibition, "Rock 'n' Soul: Social Crossroads" was developed by the world famous Smithsonian Institution as part of its 150th anniversary celebration. The museum is open seven days a week from 10 a.m. until 7 p.m. Additional information is available at (901) 205 - 2533 or at www.memphisrocknsoul.org.
Here is the complete list of 2012 Memphis Music Hall of Fame (inaugural) inductees:
Estelle Axton & Jim Stewart (1) -The brother / sister duo
did everything necessary, including borrowing against a home and renting a South Memphis movie theatre, to transform Satellite Records into the one of the greatest soul labels in music history. Stewart and Axton, whose last names merged to form Stax Records saw equality in all people. That perspective, combined with their business acumen, led to the label which launched the legendary careers of Sam & Dave, Booker T. and the MGs, Otis Redding, Carla Thomas, Isaac Hayes and many others.
Bobby “Blue” Bland (1, 2) - Robert Calvin Bland has been inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Starting as an original member of The Beale Streeters, Bobby Blue Bland has had 23 top ten hits on the Billboard R&B charts, and ontinues to perform today. The Memphis Music Hall of Fame welcomes “The Lion of the Blues,” Bobby Blue Bland!
Booker T. and The MG’s (1) - Originally the house band at Stax Records, this band backed hundreds of recordings for the Stax roster, defined the label’s identifiable sound, and symbolized music’s power to unite. Originally Booker T. Jones, Steve Cropper, Al Jackson, Jr. and Lewie Steinberg, replaced by Duck Dunn upon his departure, the band became one of the most prolific, respected and imitated bands of the 60s, were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in ’92, and received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007.
Bobby “Blue” Bland (1, 2) - Robert Calvin Bland has been inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Starting as an original member of The Beale Streeters, Bobby Blue Bland has had 23 top ten hits on the Billboard R&B charts, and ontinues to perform today. The Memphis Music Hall of Fame welcomes “The Lion of the Blues,” Bobby Blue Bland!
Booker T. and The MG’s (1) - Originally the house band at Stax Records, this band backed hundreds of recordings for the Stax roster, defined the label’s identifiable sound, and symbolized music’s power to unite. Originally Booker T. Jones, Steve Cropper, Al Jackson, Jr. and Lewie Steinberg, replaced by Duck Dunn upon his departure, the band became one of the most prolific, respected and imitated bands of the 60s, were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in ’92, and received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007.
Lucie Campbell - Born to a former slave in 1885, Campbell bridged gender and racial divides in the world of gospel music, and became one of the most regarded composers of African American religious song. She served as the acting music director for the National Baptist Convention for 47 years, and is credited with writing over 100 gospel songs before her death in 1963. Fifty years later, The Memphis Music Hall of Fame proudly honors 2012 inductee, Lucie Eddie Campbell Williams.
George Coleman - Jazz saxophonist, composer and bandleader born in Memphis in 1935, and still recording and performing today, based in New York City. Widely known for his work with B.B. King in the 1950s and Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock in the 60s. He’s also appeared in several movies, including “Freejack” with Mick Jagger and “The Preacher’s Wife” with Whitney Houston, and is involved in jazz music education for students. The Memphis Music Hall welcomes home jazz great George Coleman.
Jim Dickinson - Musician, songwriter, producer, Dickinson embodied the spirit of independence in Memphis music. He fronted Mudboy & the Neutrons, studied Sam Phillips and Furry Lewis, backed Aretha, Albert Collins and others, performed with Arlo Guthrie, Dylan, the Rolling Stones and others, and produced and inspired Big Star, The Replacements, Lucero, Mudhoney and many, many more. Inducting him, The Memphis Music Hall is proud to borrow from Jim’s own 2009 epitaph… “I’m just dead; I’m not gone!”
Al Green (1, 3) - The Reverend has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and has been included in Rolling Stone magazine’s “100 Artists of All Time.” He teamed with Willie Mitchell to spawn the golden era of Memphis’ legendary Hi Records, he has won 11 Grammys, and he has sold more than 20 million albums… and still counting. In 2002 he received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and in 2012, he enters the Memphis Music Hall of Fame.
W.C. Handy (2, 3) - The Father of the Blues, William Christopher Handy took the blues from a regional music style with limited audience to one of the dominant forces in American music. As a composer and orchestra leader, despite his death over 50 years ago at age 84, he is still considered one of America’s most influential songwriters. Countless posthumous awards include induction in the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Grammy Trustees Award.
Isaac Hayes (1, 3) - Isaac Lee Hayes, Jr. became the first African American to win Grammy’s “Best Original Song” for the theme from Shaft. Songwriter, musician, singer, and producer for Stax Records. Throughout his unequalled career, he also became a TV and big screen actor, a Grammy winner, a humanitarian, a cookbook author, a South Park cartoon character, and even a king in Ghana. This year he will become a Memphis Music Hall of Fame inductee… and he will forever be The Black Moses, Mr. Isaac Hayes.
Howlin’ Wolf (1, 2) - Chester Arthur Burnett with his booming voice and imposing appearance was one of the leading performers of electric blues, and one of the greatest blues artists of all time. He’s been inducted in the Blues Hall of Fame, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; his music has been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, and Rolling Stone ranked him in their Greatest Artists of All Time. The Memphis Music Hall of Fame welcomes the legendary Howlin’ Wolf.
B.B. King (1, 2) - Recording and performing for over 50 years, Riley B. King, the Beale Street Blues Boy has become the preeminent blues player of all time. A former WDIA deejay, he’s been honored as a Rock Hall inductee and as one of Rolling Stone’s greatest guitarists of all time. For most of his career, he performed live over 250 times annually, still performing 100 nights a year at age 87. The Memphis Music Hall of Fame is proud to honor “The King of the Blues,” Mr. B.B. King.
Jerry Lee Lewis (1) -A truly original pioneer of rock ‘n’ roll after auditioning at Sun Studio and setting his piano on fire… sometimes literally. He’s a noted member of the famed “Million Dollar Quartet,” one of the first Rock Hall inductees, is a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award recipient, has been named one of Rolling Stone’s Greatest Artists of All Time, and has been performing for over 60 years. And now, at 77, The Killer enters the Memphis Music Hall of Fame.
Jimmie Lunceford - Orginally in the 1920s, Jimmie Lunceford was one of Memphis’ very first high school band directors for African American students, organizing a student band at Manassas High School, which then received acclaim touring nationally and internationally as the Jimmie Lunceford Orchestra, recording in 1927 and 1930. The Lunceford orchestra fame skyrocketed after being booked at Harlem’s famed Cotton Club in 1934.
Professor W.T. McDaniel - Transferring between two of Memphis’ blacks-only high schools, Booker T. Washington and Manassas, in the 1930s, music teacher W.T. McDaniel directed two of the leading high school bands of the day. “Mr. Mac” also mentored a class of future top-tier jazz performers and session musicians including Calvin and Phineas Newborn, Charles Lloyd, Fred Ford, Robert “Honeymoon” Garner, Maurice White, Emerson Able and others.
Memphis Minnie (2) - The “Queen of the County Blues,” Lizzie Douglas became the only female blues artist to compare with her male contemporaries. She ran away from home at 13, and headed for Beale Street. She helped form the roots of electric Chicago blues, R&B and rock ‘n’ roll. Her music and her legacy continues to inspire artists ranging from Bonnie Raitt, Maria Muldaur, and Led Zepplin. She died in Memphis in 1973, but today she rocks her way straight into the Memphis Music Hall of Fame.
Willie Mitchell - “Papa Willie” Mitchell was a trumpeter and band leader who recorded several singles for Hi Records in the 60s before taking over the reigns of the legendary Memphis studio in the 1970s and guiding it through its heyday with a roster of artists that included Anne Peebles, O.V. Wright, Syl Johnson and, of course, Al Green. He ran Royal Studios until his death in 2010, recording projects for Soloman Burke, Rod Stewart, John Meyer and others.
Dewey Phillips - “Daddy-O” Dewy Phillips was one of rock ‘n’ roll’s pioneering disc jockeys. Starting his career in 1949 at WHBQ Radio, Phillips was the first to simulcast his “Red, Hot and Blue” show on both radio and television. His manic personality, musical diversity and radio popularity helped launch the careers of many of rock ‘n’ roll’s greatest legends, becoming the first to play Elvis Presley. So when you see him inducted this November, “Tell ‘em Phillips sentcha!”
Sam Phillips (1, 2) - The man who invented rock ‘n’ roll! In 1950 he opened Memphis Recording Service on Union Avenue, believing if you weren’t doing something different, you weren’t doing anything. On his Sun Records label, he recorded Howlin’ Wolf, Rufus Thomas, Ike Turner, B.B. King, Bobby “Blue” Bland, Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, Charlie Rich … need we say more about the “Father of Rock ‘n’ Roll,” Sam Phillips.
Elvis Presley (1) - “The King of Rock ‘n’ Roll” exploded world culture, becoming arguably the greatest musician of all time. Starting at Memphis’ Sun Studios, his exposure to gospel, country and soulful African-American blues into a new musical genre which shook the planet. He holds the record for the most songs on Billboard’s charts, and his record sales to date have been estimated at one billion copies. I could go on and on, instead, I’ll simply welcome “The King” into the Memphis Music Hall of Fame.
Otis Redding (1, 3) - Otis Redding first entered Stax Records as a valet lugging someone else’s gear, but he left a star. He established his presence on the pop charts even as he reigned atop the R&B world. This “King of Soul” helped establish the Stax Sound, received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and induction into the Rock and Roll and Songwriters Hall of Fame. World music was changed by the 26 year lifetime of the legendary “Big O,” Mr. Otis Redding.
The Staple Singers (1) - This family of gospel singers from Chicago, under the paternal musical leadership of Roebuck “Pops” Staples, achieved mainstream appeal after recording with Stax and Ardent Studios. Their music expressed themes of equality and self-empowerment, and earned the family induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
Rufus Thomas - After recording the very first hit record for both Sun Records and Stax Records, the “World’s Oldest Teenager” taught the world how to walk the dog, do the push and pull, and do the funky chicken. Outside these recording studios, Rufus Thomas also impacted Beale Street’s Palace Theatre and legendary WDIA Radio where, as a deejay, he introduced white teens to black music when, according to Thomas “their parents wouldn’t let them listen,” thus paving the road to rock ‘n’ roll.
Three 6 Mafia - DJ Paul and Juicy J have generated 2 platinum records and sales exceeding 5.5 million albums, and together have brought Memphis’ thriving rap and hip hop recording industry to the world forefront. Formed in 1991, and earning notoriety with a “Best Orignal Song” Academy Award for 2005’s “It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp,” the first Oscar in the rap genre, Three 6 continues to record and has since invaded television.
Nat D. Williams - Initially a teacher at Memphis’ Booker T. Washington High School, “Nat D,” as he was known, became long-time host of Amateur Night at Beale’s legendary Palace Theatre, and the first editor of Memphis’ Tri-State Defender newspaper. He was also Memphis’, and one of America’s, very first black radio disc jockeys when, in 1948, he took to the microphone at WDIA radio.
ZZ Top (1) - Together for over 40 years, this American rock band from Houston is rooted in the blues, and bathed in the waters of Memphis music, having recorded numerous albums at Memphis’ Ardent Studios beginning in 1973. For the next 18 years, ZZ Top was essentially a local band, recording mostly at Ardent and Memphis Sound while living in Downtown penthouses and East Memphis homes.
NOTES:
(1) - Previously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
(2) - Previously inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame
(3) - Previously inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame
-- submitted by Bob Merlis
re: THE ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME:
Hi Kent:
I do not accept Madonna in to the R&R HOF. She didn’t take R&R in any direction because she never did any!She may have helped take “Disco” in a new direction, but not Rock. She is basically just doing a different phase of Disco Dance music. She does not belong. Remember not all Rock Music is dance music and not all dance music is Rock music! Otherwise let’s get Benny Goodman in their ASAP!
Ken
Kent ...
Kent ...
Do we care about this one ?
Frank B.
Click here: Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame And Museum VP Jim Henke Steps Down « WCBS-FM 101.1
Nope, not especially ... although Henke being accused of sexual harassment just may be the most exciting piece of news related to The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame to come out in the past twenty years!
While at one point I may have been half-inclined to interview him, I just don't see much of a story here ... however, in the same article I see that Terry Stewart is also stepping down next year as President of the Museum.
For those of you who don't already know, Terry backed out of an interview with Forgotten Hits several years ago when we criticized the Rock Hall for their random practices of nominating and inducting artists without any sense of rhyme or reason or criteria for the selection process. The whole thing fell apart right about the same time that Fox News broke the story that Jann Wenner tainted the vote and didn't allow The Dave Clark Five into The Rock Hall, even though they actually had scored more votes than Grandmaster Flash, because Wenner wanted to induct the first Rap Group instead.
Maybe once Stewart steps down he'll be more inclined to participate in a no-holds-barred interview. Terry, if you're reading this (and I've heard on more than one occasion that The Rock And Roll Hall of Fame has monitored our primarily negative comments ever since this incident), please pencil me in. I would love to talk to you once and for all ... but only if NO subject is "off limits" ... and you'll REALLY speak your mind regarding some of the recent candidates inducted at the expense of some of the biggest names in rock and roll history. What do you say??? You game??? (kk)
TODAY'S FORGOTTEN HIT:
In our on-going commitment to feature the songs that radio has forgotten all about, here is TODAY'S FORGOTTEN HIT:
Frank B.
Click here: Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame And Museum VP Jim Henke Steps Down « WCBS-FM 101.1
Nope, not especially ... although Henke being accused of sexual harassment just may be the most exciting piece of news related to The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame to come out in the past twenty years!
While at one point I may have been half-inclined to interview him, I just don't see much of a story here ... however, in the same article I see that Terry Stewart is also stepping down next year as President of the Museum.
For those of you who don't already know, Terry backed out of an interview with Forgotten Hits several years ago when we criticized the Rock Hall for their random practices of nominating and inducting artists without any sense of rhyme or reason or criteria for the selection process. The whole thing fell apart right about the same time that Fox News broke the story that Jann Wenner tainted the vote and didn't allow The Dave Clark Five into The Rock Hall, even though they actually had scored more votes than Grandmaster Flash, because Wenner wanted to induct the first Rap Group instead.
Maybe once Stewart steps down he'll be more inclined to participate in a no-holds-barred interview. Terry, if you're reading this (and I've heard on more than one occasion that The Rock And Roll Hall of Fame has monitored our primarily negative comments ever since this incident), please pencil me in. I would love to talk to you once and for all ... but only if NO subject is "off limits" ... and you'll REALLY speak your mind regarding some of the recent candidates inducted at the expense of some of the biggest names in rock and roll history. What do you say??? You game??? (kk)
TODAY'S FORGOTTEN HIT:
In our on-going commitment to feature the songs that radio has forgotten all about, here is TODAY'S FORGOTTEN HIT:
