It was Christmas vacation, 1998/1999. It might have been the first Saturday of the new year, or one of the last ones of the old year. Either way, I was listening to the syndicated radio program, "American Gold," hosted by Dick Bartley. His programming format typically revolved around a highlighted artist that he would play two or three times per hour, or focus on the Billboard charts for that week from a specific year, and highlight that a couple times per hour. Not this particular week. This week, he spent the entire four hours playing, in alphabetical order, as many inductees into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame that could fit the oldies format ("American Gold" was an oldies program) and could fit in the four hours running time. From the Animals to the Yardbirds. He played almost exclusively Performer inductees, with one or two Non-Performers as well. No Early Influences, though they could have played "Hello, Dolly!" or "What A Wonderful World" from Louis Armstrong. The Sideman category was still non-existent. He ended the program by announcing some of the inductees for the next class, which included Del Shannon, Dusty Springfield, and Bruce Springsteen (though he didn't play any songs from any of them). That was the weekend I found out that the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame existed (I was still in high school, so cut me a little slack).
When I was in college at Michigan State University, I listened to the oldies station out there, and occasionally, for holiday weekends or other occasions, a particular air talent named John "Jukebox Johnny" Robinson would spend most of the day on Saturday playing songs or artists in a particular theme. For Independence Day, he'd play songs from American artists, with the songs in alphabetical order. One Thanksgiving weekend, he played what he called "turkeys," which in this case were either songs that charted in the top ten, but probably should not have, or songs that didn't make the top ten, but absolutely should have, in his opinion. Again, songs in alphabetical order. Every year, around the weekend that "I Want To Hold Your Hand" began its seven-week run on the top of the charts, he would play the Beatles' songs in alphabetical order. From "Across The Universe" to "Your Mother Should Know." He also included the Top 40 (but not all the Hot 100) hits, as well as several non-charted classics from the solo careers of the Fab Four, whether it was Ringo's "Only You," George's "All Things Must Pass," John's "Woman" or Paul's "Girls' School." Yes, it included "Free As A Bird" and "Real Love" too. Later, I interned for Jukebox Johnny, and pitched him the idea of doing a special program to highlight the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. Unfortunately, John never cared much for the idea. Partially because the Program Director of the station wouldn't allow us to break format to include inductees like U2 or AC/DC, and partly because John still doesn't have a lot of respect for the Hall because of certain acts he strongly believes should be in but still aren't, such as Jan And Dean, the Monkees, and Tommy James And The Shondells. But even despite that, I continued to create a playlist to salute every inductee because I was hoping one day I'd find a way to make it happen.
That never happened, but I adapted the dream to another medium in the meanwhile. I decided to put together my own homemade CD set. But that required acquiring all the songs that I wanted. I started really compiling this playlist in 2005. For those who remember a little bit about that time period, file sharing services were huge at the time. Napster had already been taken down, but Limewire and Kazaa were still running. It was hard to find decent copies via those methods, but coupled with my CD collection that I already had, I finally had a complete, homemade CD set by 2007. A year and a half later, I discovered the Future Rock Legends community. I found a community to share this hobby with, as well as a treasure trove of new information, including a list of all past nominees, and even names that have been brought up at the meetings of the Nominating Committee, but never made it to the final ballot. But I've never been really keen on sharing this playlist on burned CD's that I've created and listened to several times over. But that changes this year.
This year, I'm gonna invite you all to do what I have gone and done. You don't have to actually burn CD's for yourself, or even create a Spotify playlist, but each week, I'll be sharing my playlist for every year of inductions for the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. And I'd like all my readers and visitors to share their thoughts and songs they'd use too.
When I created the CD's, I called them "Songs Of Proof." Basically, if you have to pick one song to espouse, encapsulate, or otherwise demonstrate why that artist deserved enshrinement, what song would it be? And here on Rock Hall Monitors, this year, you'll also have the chance to say why you chose that song.
First off, I want to state very clearly what this is not. This is not an election or argument. This isn't like the Revisited, Projected, Song, or Album projects. We don't nominate or vote for songs, and the most popular choice isn't going to be the "official" song of proof for that inductee. The CD's have already been burnt, and I'm not going to change my playlist and burn new CD's, certainly not for people on the internet I'll probably never meet or have a chance to share those CD's with in person. What this will be is more like show and tell. Share and respect. Respectfully correct factual errors, but even so, respect others' choices.
That said, even a project like this has ground rules. Actually, they're not so much "rules," as they are "guidelines," as even I've violated most of them at one point or another. Still, I stuck to these pretty steadfastly for the most part, and I hope you'll try to at least as much as I did:
1. Every inducted act gets a song. No omitting ones you disagree with. Sorry, you have to give Percy Sledge and Laura Nyro a song too.
2. Every inducted act gets ONE song. Again, I originally wanted to make a radio special program out of this. Now, in my playlist, one inductee has a two-song medley that most people think of as being a single song nowadays anyway, and one inductee does have two songs, for reasons that I will explain when we get to that class. But generally, no five-song-medley jam for James Brown. No entirety of Dark Side Of The Moon for Pink Floyd.
3. Performers and Early Influence inductees' songs should be ones where they are the only artist of credit on the song, unless impossible. This may be a tricky rule to enforce in the future with rap artists, as trying to find a rap song nowadays that doesn't have some kind of "with," "featuring," "introducing," or "and" credit is a bit difficult. Nevertheless, I try to make sure the inductee is the only artist of credit on their song of proof. So, no using "When Love Comes To Town" for B.B. King or U2. No using "I'm Gonna Make You Love Me" for either the Supremes or the Temptations. Uncredited guest appearances are okay, ("Mellow Yellow" by Donovan, e.g.), but not credited duets.
4. If a Non-Performer, Sideman, Lifetime Achievement, or Award For Musical Excellence inductee did record songs as a recording artist, you certainly may use a song they recorded for them, but it's not necessary. Don't feel too bound to do so. I originally tried to at first, since as a radio program, having to take an on-air break to explain a song for a Non-Performer or Sideman could just use up so much airtime.
5. If an artist was a big enough hitmaker, the Song Of Proof should have been a hit back in the day. It doesn't have to be the most popular, biggest hit for an artist, but if they had strong presence on the singles' chart, using an obscure album cut is a little disingenuous. Try to avoid using "Sleeping With The Television On" for Billy Joel, or the Platters' cover of "My Way" for them.
6. No using the same song for multiple inductees. You can use "Baby, I Love You," for either the Ronettes or for Sideman Hal Blaine, but not for both.
7. No using the same composition more than once. If you use "Runaway" for Del Shannon, no using Bonnie Raitt's cover for her Song Of Proof.
8. Christmas songs are not allowed. Use a little brainpower for Darlene Love, Charles Brown, and Brenda Lee.
9. Non-Performer teams are broken up into individuals, each getting their own song. I call this the Mort Shuman rule. When I first completed my compilation, Mort Shuman had not yet been inducted, but I broke up songwriting teams because I'd held out hope for him to be inducted one day as well. So Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller each have their own, as do Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier, and Eddie Holland. Same for Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff. However, I don't do five Beach Boys' songs with one for Brian, one for Al, one for Mike, one for Carl, and one for Dennis. The six groups that were selected for induction by special committee for 2012 do get their own songs separate from the inducted front men across previous years. Just wanted to clear that up. However, I will be understanding and lenient if you choose not to break up Non-Performer teams in your versions.
10. Above all else, have fun.
No seriously, have fun with this. Choose your songs wisely, but then once you've chosen them, don't second-guess them too much. It's not necessary that the song you choose have all of the inducted members from a band on it, or as many as humanly possible. You don't have to apply the same logic or methodology every time. Sometimes I chose a song for an inductee because it was the "most rocking" song by the artist. Sometimes I chose it because I felt that song best depicts what an inductee brought to the table. Sometimes I even chose a song because it's my favorite song by that artist. Sometimes, a Non-Performer's Song Of Proof is tied to a particular piece of lore or legend. Sometimes an Early Influence's song was chosen because it was the only one I could find on Limewire or Kazaa that was clear enough to use. And yes, sometimes I went for the obvious choice. But don't always do that, either. On the broadcast of "American Gold" that I listened to, when Dick Bartley got to Eddie Cochran, rather than using the ubiquitous "Summertime Blues," he switched it up and went with "C'mon Everybody," and it kept things interesting and exciting.
Two other little bits of housekeeping. First, as some of you know, I also followed the Vocal Group Hall Of Fame until it became defunct. I made a similar set for that Hall Of Fame too. If a Rock Hall inductee is also a Vocal Group Hall inductee, I'll include their Vocal Group Hall Of Fame Song Of Proof in parentheses. The no-reusing rules crossed over to this set too. So, for example, I refuse to use "Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin'" as both the Rock Hall and the Vocal Group Hall Song for Journey. It may be used for one or the other, but not both. Second, I said that I compiled this list with a lot of help from filesharing services. Well, those copies weren't always the best quality, so right from the start, it was a goal of mine to get legitimate copies of songs, either from iTunes, CD's from the local library, or just purchasing CD's for myself. I'm sure the statute of limitations has run out for those infractions, but just to be clear, my game's legit now. Took some doing, but both my pet project and I are better off for doing it right.
It can be intellectually stimulating, it can be imaginative, and hopefully it is. Start thinking about your Songs Of Proof for the Class Of 1986. We'll start sharing our lists next week!
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