The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame delivered another colossal, collective slap in the face to music fans everywhere (not to mention the artists they insulted in the process) when it overlooked the top two artists in this year’s fan vote, The Dave Matthews Band and Pat Benatar. In fact, they chose to ignore FOUR of the Top Five vote-getters this year … a first … which begs the obvious question “Why offer a fan vote at all”???
In all, 8.25 million votes were cast this year … 3.3 million of which (or 40%) were cast for the four Top Five artists that were then completely overlooked in favor of five artists who, between them, split 2.2 million votes. (I know the first group that I think of when somebody mentions rock and roll is Depeche Mode … remind me again, what was it exactly that these guys did to reinvent rock and roll??? I must have missed it!)
And let’s be honest … Pat Benatar NEVER rocked our world the way Whitney Houston did! (For the record, The Notorious B.I.G. and Nine Inch Nails who, combined, earned nearly 150,000 votes fewer than Benatar did all on her own!) also made the cut for 2020.
The one bright spot regarding this year's class is that The Doobie Brothers will FINALLY be inducted in 2020. (Prior to this, they had been ignored for 25 years of eligibility!!!) The only other new inductee that I can tip my hat to T. Rex. At least THEY did something to change the face of and advance the art form known as rock and roll. (I have to admit that I cast a few votes for them myself … let's face it, it was pretty slim pickings once again this year and you were, after all, allowed to vote for up to five artists … so consider this to be the lesser of twelve other evils!)
I’ve said before that I think sometimes The Rock Hall deliberately makes some of these selections just to piss off the music fans who cast over 8,000,000 votes with the false hope that their opinions actually mattered to anybody … but this year's selections just may be the most outrage I’ve seen and heard in many, many years.
Snubbing Benatar (eligible since
2004) is downright insulting … and exactly how do you justify ignoring over
1,000,000 votes for The Dave Matthews Band. A million votes!!!
I doubt that I’ll watch ANY of this
year’s ceremony … I’ll just wait for The Doobies to show up on YouTube a few
hours later and watch that instead! (HBO is actually
broadcasting the induction ceremony LIVE this year … another first.) Meanwhile, I’ll just continue to dwell in the
past when artists like The Guess Who and Jethro Tull and Tommy James and Paul Revere
and the Raiders and Chubby Checker and Freddy Cannon were out there helping to
invent … and improve … rock and roll ... and reflect in private once again about what The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame was SUPPOSED to be about.
(kk)
BY THE WAY, DIDJAHEAR?: The Rock Hall may have tipped their hand the day before yesterday’s official announcement …
Cleveland.com reported the day
before that a quick check of The Rock Hall’s website revealed that six brand
new potential pages had been created for this year’s new inductees … but they couldn’t
be accessed on the 14th. (The
official list wasn’t revealed until 8 am on Wednesday, the 15th.) As Cleveland.com described it (nearly eighteen hours before the big reveal), “Those six artists,
and quite possibly the Class of 2020, are The Doobie Brothers, Depeche Mode,
Nine Inch Nails, The Notorious B.I.G., T. Rex and Whitney Houston. As of early
Tuesday afternoon, searching the URL rockhall.com/inductees/
using their name yields an “Access
Denied” message for the page.”
Their
research went on to explain “Search any of the other of this year’s nominees
(i.e. Pat Benatar, Kraftwerk, Soundgarden, etc.) in the same way” and you’ll
find a broken URL and the words “Looks
like the page you are searching does not exist.” The web issue was brought to Cleveland.com’s
attention by a representative for Future
Rock Legends, a blog
not associated with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. As such, one could infer that the six
aforementioned artists would be The Class of 2020 Inductees, set to be honored
during a ceremony at the Public Hall in Cleveland on May 2nd. They went on to explain that if these results
were accurate, the Class of 2020 would not not feature the top two acts in this
year’s Fan Vote - Pat Benatar and Dave Matthews Band ... nor would it include
(as we pointed out) FOUR of the Top Five vote-getters this year. (In the past, all seven of the previous Fan
Vote Winners were inducted that same year.)
kk
kk …
WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE?!?!?
If I was forced to
pick one, I’d have to go with the Doobie Brothers.
Frank B.
This might be the worst Hall Of Fame class ever! The Doobie Brothers deserve to be in.
That is long overdue.
I have always liked T-Rex but I don't know if I would agree
that they are Hall material. It must be on the influence on glam/glitter
rockers.
My listeners gave the Guess Who the vote as most deserving
during my morning poll.
You need to start the Forgotten Hits Hall Of Fame.
With your connections, you could rent out a concert hall and have a big bash!
Phil Nee – WRCO
Actually, discussions have come up
several times over the past twenty years about doing something to better
commemorate the worthy artists long overlooked … and I still have some very
solid ideas on this subject.
Stick around … I just may surprise you
with an announcement before too long!
Meanwhile, it may be time to update our Deserving And Denied List ... the more time that passes, the less likely it seems that ANY of these artists will be duly recognized. (kk)
OK, so The Dave Mathews Band
wins popular vote. Of course, the electoral college of musical knowledge
laughed at the fans again.
Whitney Houston in the RNR
Hall? HAHAHA. What a joke! She didn't even do the best
version of her biggest hit -- and did not write it. I don't think she
WROTE any hit, did she?
The Doobies and MAYBE
T. Rex deserve entry of the bunch. The rest are not necessary before the
FH stars mentioned previously are in.
Clark Besch
We got some very sad news on Tuesday
Night that Ron Smith, long time contributor to Forgotten Hits and proprietor of
the tremendously popular oldiesmusic.com
website, had passed away suddenly on Saturday, January 11th.
Ron’s Oldies Music site, which ran for decades, was a pioneer of this kind with nearly daily oldies news updates and a well-visited oldies music posting board that brought responses from all over the world … a place where people could share their love of the genre and open nearly any related topic to discussion. (It was also one of the coolest … and most coveted domain names out there!!! Can you even imagine owning the rights to oldiesmusic.com?!?!? EVERY Google Search for "oldies music" would send traffic your way!)
I’d known Ron for over twenty years and we have been regularly quoting statistics from his WLS and WCFL Chart Books as well as his “Eight Days A Week” rock and roll calendar book for every bit as long here in Forgotten Hits.
He also did his fair share of radio work, most notably as Dick Biondi’s right-hand man in the studio at WJMK and then as program director and late evening host on Real Oldies 1690. He also programmed the decades channels for Slacker Radio in the early days of Internet Radio.
Over the course of time, he also became affectionately known as Forgotten Hits’ official Grim Reaper … which I think Ron accepted with a bit of clenched teeth … he told me that one of the reasons he decided to shut down his long-running website was because all there seemed to be lately to report was the death of yet another music icon from our past … there just seemed to be far more bad news than good news as our musical heroes grew older … as did we. (Truth be told, I was disappointed that he didn’t talk to me first before pulling the plug because I have to believe there could have been some way to merge his efforts with our own and create a SUPER oldies website that offered the best of both worlds.) His bi-annual Labor Day Top 500 Countdowns drew tens if not hundreds of thousands of votes, despite always seeming to come up with essentially the same Top Five Favorite Oldies Tunes. Lol!
We shared a number of broadcasting acquaintances, many of whom I know will be saddened by this loss. (Far too many of them have already passed before him … and Ron and I were both touched by those losses as well.)
I’ve still got a copy of my well-worn first WLS Chart Book, which Ron signed for me at one of our local Record Collector Shows many, many years ago. (I’ve bought a couple of copies since for, as you can imagine, these are heavily-traveled and regularly visited volumes in my world!) We talked for YEARS about doing a final, all encompassing book combining the stats of ALL of the published Chicago radio charts … including the ‘50’s charts from WJJD, WGN and WIND … The Top Tunes Of Greater Chicagoland charts that carried us through early 1966 … and the short-lived WBBM and WMET charts (along with assorted others) that kept us up to date in the ‘70’s and ‘80’s. I know we were both building databases chock full of this chart information but sadly the final volume (which would have also encompassed his previous work documenting the charts of WLS and WCFL into one master volume) never came to pass. (Sadly, Ron never made ANY money from the sale of his books ... his efforts, too, were an extensive labor of love, just wanting to get the information out there that he was so passionate about.) With the recent passing of Bill Hengels and long-time survey collector and dealer Jack Levin now looking to liquidate his own massive survey collection (more on this in tomorrow's post), I feel like an era has passed and a major chapter of my own life is closing as well. (Sure, there are still a lot of other obsessed survey freaks out there like me, but this was all part of our tight little family!)
I wasn’t aware that Ron had a twin brother. I am hoping that as news of this post circulates, perhaps he will get in touch with me. I would love to gain access to Ron’s work and database to combine with my own and finally be able to complete the definitive book on The Chicagoland Charts we both dreamed of, getting it published once and for all, if only as an eternal testament and keepsake documenting all of Ron’s efforts over the years. If anybody out there has the connections to help make this happen, please let me know … as this work … and these statistics deserve to be documented so that all interested parties can share in them as well. (kk)
Ron’s Oldies Music site, which ran for decades, was a pioneer of this kind with nearly daily oldies news updates and a well-visited oldies music posting board that brought responses from all over the world … a place where people could share their love of the genre and open nearly any related topic to discussion. (It was also one of the coolest … and most coveted domain names out there!!! Can you even imagine owning the rights to oldiesmusic.com?!?!? EVERY Google Search for "oldies music" would send traffic your way!)
I’d known Ron for over twenty years and we have been regularly quoting statistics from his WLS and WCFL Chart Books as well as his “Eight Days A Week” rock and roll calendar book for every bit as long here in Forgotten Hits.
He also did his fair share of radio work, most notably as Dick Biondi’s right-hand man in the studio at WJMK and then as program director and late evening host on Real Oldies 1690. He also programmed the decades channels for Slacker Radio in the early days of Internet Radio.
Over the course of time, he also became affectionately known as Forgotten Hits’ official Grim Reaper … which I think Ron accepted with a bit of clenched teeth … he told me that one of the reasons he decided to shut down his long-running website was because all there seemed to be lately to report was the death of yet another music icon from our past … there just seemed to be far more bad news than good news as our musical heroes grew older … as did we. (Truth be told, I was disappointed that he didn’t talk to me first before pulling the plug because I have to believe there could have been some way to merge his efforts with our own and create a SUPER oldies website that offered the best of both worlds.) His bi-annual Labor Day Top 500 Countdowns drew tens if not hundreds of thousands of votes, despite always seeming to come up with essentially the same Top Five Favorite Oldies Tunes. Lol!
We shared a number of broadcasting acquaintances, many of whom I know will be saddened by this loss. (Far too many of them have already passed before him … and Ron and I were both touched by those losses as well.)
I’ve still got a copy of my well-worn first WLS Chart Book, which Ron signed for me at one of our local Record Collector Shows many, many years ago. (I’ve bought a couple of copies since for, as you can imagine, these are heavily-traveled and regularly visited volumes in my world!) We talked for YEARS about doing a final, all encompassing book combining the stats of ALL of the published Chicago radio charts … including the ‘50’s charts from WJJD, WGN and WIND … The Top Tunes Of Greater Chicagoland charts that carried us through early 1966 … and the short-lived WBBM and WMET charts (along with assorted others) that kept us up to date in the ‘70’s and ‘80’s. I know we were both building databases chock full of this chart information but sadly the final volume (which would have also encompassed his previous work documenting the charts of WLS and WCFL into one master volume) never came to pass. (Sadly, Ron never made ANY money from the sale of his books ... his efforts, too, were an extensive labor of love, just wanting to get the information out there that he was so passionate about.) With the recent passing of Bill Hengels and long-time survey collector and dealer Jack Levin now looking to liquidate his own massive survey collection (more on this in tomorrow's post), I feel like an era has passed and a major chapter of my own life is closing as well. (Sure, there are still a lot of other obsessed survey freaks out there like me, but this was all part of our tight little family!)
I wasn’t aware that Ron had a twin brother. I am hoping that as news of this post circulates, perhaps he will get in touch with me. I would love to gain access to Ron’s work and database to combine with my own and finally be able to complete the definitive book on The Chicagoland Charts we both dreamed of, getting it published once and for all, if only as an eternal testament and keepsake documenting all of Ron’s efforts over the years. If anybody out there has the connections to help make this happen, please let me know … as this work … and these statistics deserve to be documented so that all interested parties can share in them as well. (kk)
R.I.P. Ron Smith … I still use his book (8 Days A Week) every day.
Frank B.
Thanks to Ron Smith and his Real Oldies radio station, I
was inspired to search for the music that I remember from my school days.
He has always been helpful. I talked to him recently and I had no idea he
wasn't doing well.
It's the end of an era …
Rest In Peace, Ron. You are missed.
Ed Erxleben
Hi Kent,
OMG, no, I just heard! This is sad news.
Pam Pulice
Fittingly his funeral/wake comes on the eve of a record
show. From what I gather, he died suddenly, as opposed to some long illness. I
didn't know of any siblings, not that I ever talked to him about his personal
life.
Jack Levin
Ron and I never really talked about anything but music … this was our common ground, I guess and, as such, we never really got to know each on a more "personal" basis. I feel bad about that now in hindsight ... but ours was a shared passion for the charts and the radio we grew up listening to. (I remember meeting him once for dinner at Portillo’s shortly after Frannie first moved here … had to be early 2000 … I can’t believe that was twenty years ago already.)
Ron and I never really talked about anything but music … this was our common ground, I guess and, as such, we never really got to know each on a more "personal" basis. I feel bad about that now in hindsight ... but ours was a shared passion for the charts and the radio we grew up listening to. (I remember meeting him once for dinner at Portillo’s shortly after Frannie first moved here … had to be early 2000 … I can’t believe that was twenty years ago already.)
I would also see him at the record shows from time to time, the few times I still went to these over the past several years, but we would often talk on the
phone about what this or that radio station was doing, often comparing notes
about the jocks we both kept in contact with.
(He always had some great stories to tell about Dick Biondi, Tommy
Edwards, Larry Lujack, John Rook, Scott Shannon and several others.) I know he sent copies of his Chicagoland Chart
Books to Me-TV-FM when they first signed on the air (almost five years ago
now!!!), which I also know Programming Director Rick O’Dell studied religiously
for local programming ideas.
Robert Feder said in his column yesterday that nobody knew
more about oldies music in Chicago than Ron Smith … and Tommy Edwards echoed
those sentiments. I remember that if Larry Lujack wanted
to play a particular record on the air, Ron would dub that tune for him the very same
night while he was doing his own radio shift so that Lujack could feature it
the next morning. He was also
instrumental in putting me in touch with Dick Biondi twenty years ago when we
first put together our “Who Played The First Beatles Record In America” series.
A good guy … loyal to his church and
his fellow music aficionados … and, like I said, creative enough to found
oldiesmusic.com way back when many of us were just first discovering the
internet. He will be missed. (kk)
So sad to hear about
Ron's passing. His WLS book is right here beside me and his other books
directly behind for easy access.
We used to email a lot
during his book days and I always got cool Christmas cards from him, too.
He changed emails a
lot when he left radio and it was a bit hard to email then. I had a
feeling he may not have been doing well economically, but hoped all was well
health-wise.
He did the books we
wish WE would have done. I did lots of the research myself back in the
80's when I finally secured every chart (some xeroxes) of 60-70 WLS and ‘CFL
charts (except the 2nd WLS one), but never even dreamed of doing a Whitburn
type book to SELL.
Ron was always great
to me. He autographed his books to me and gave me free copies of each
when released, knowing how much the stations meant to me.
Rest in Peace, Ron.
Clark Besch
Joel Whitburn’s books were certainly
the role model for Ron’s research … might as well follow the footprint of the
best … but it sure was great to have the history of our Chicago charts right at
our fingertips whenever we needed them.
(kk)
Here's his obituary: https://www.curleyfuneralhome.com/obituaries/Ronald-P-Smith?obId=10529311#/obituaryInfo
You can click on the
tribute wall to leave condolences.
Clark
*****
1970: January 16th - Outfielder Curt Flood files a landmark civil lawsuit in protest of his trade from The St. Louis Cardinals to The Philadelphia Phillies. Flood contends that baseball reserve clause “violates federal antitrust laws.” The case will change baseball rules forever.
Also on this date: Scotland Yard confiscates
eight John Lennon lithographs from a London art gallery for “being obscene”
