The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame unveiled its latest 13 inductees Sunday, including Cyndi Lauper, OutKast and Warren Zevon but leaving out Mariah Carey and Oasis, who were among the nominees.
The inductees were announced live on ABC during “American Idol” but will be formally honored on Nov. 8 in Los Angeles.
Others include Bad Company, the seminal British hard rock band; Chubby Checker, an early-’60s star who popularized “The Twist” (and had another hit with “Let’s Twist Again”); British singer Joe Cocker, remembered for his “raw and powerful voice”; Soundgarden, the pioneering Seattle grunge stars; and the White Stripes, 2000s hitmakers who remade “minimalist garage and punk rock,” according to the Hall of Fame.
OutKast, which mixed funk, jazz and soul with hip-hop, was among those inducted on their first nomination, along with Bad Company, Checker and Cocker.
Lauper, the legendary artist known for her four-octave voice and ’80s hits such as “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” and “Time After Time,” was inducted on her second nomination.
Zevon, the late “Werewolves of London” singer-songwriter known for a series of oddball, literary rock albums (and for being a favorite of luminaries such as Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen), was inducted under the Musical Influence Award category. So were Salt-N-Pepa, the female rap group that flipped “the male-dominated genre on its head” after debuting in 1986.
End of carousel
Inductees in the Musical Excellence Award category included Thom Bell, the producer-songwriter who “laid the groundwork for the disco of the 1970s and R & B of the 1980s”; Nicky Hopkins, who helped craft songs for the Rolling Stones and the Beatles; and Carol Kaye, an educator and pioneering bassist whose career spans over 65 years.
To be inducted, artists must have released their first commercial recording at least 25 years before the year of nomination.
Lenny Waronker, a longtime executive who was president at Warner Bros., won the Ahmet Ertegun Award, which celebrates “non-performing industry professionals who have had a major influence on the creative development and growth of rock & roll and music.”
