Waiting For The Hall Of Fame

I should laugh, but I cry,

Because your love has passed my by,

You took me by surprise,

You didn't realize but I was waiting.

                              Laughing by The Guess Who

Yes, I’m here to complain yet again. This time it is about rock and roll injustice. Many of you will likely agree with me. Some of you might have others you would insert ahead of my picks, but this is my blog and I’ll cry if I want to!

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (hereafter referred to as RRHF) inducts a new batch of artists, producers and other music biz folk each year. Frankly, some of the acts in the RRHF are real head-scratchers. The Blue Caps – seriously? Kiss?  C’mon! The Clash? The Ramones? Grand Master Flash? What the WHAT?

Missing from this list are two stellar groups with a slew of hit singles and albums. I am referring to The Guess Who and Three Dog Night.

Three Dog Night might be getting the snub from the self-appointed rock elite because they didn’t write their own songs. They just turned songs written by others into musical magic. They also furthered the careers of great song writers like Paul Williams, Hoyt Axton, Laura Nero, Randy Newman and others.

How many hit pop and rock hit songs does a band need to get the attention of the RRHF snobs? Here are Three Dog Night’s top 20 hits:

• Try a Little Tenderness
• One
• Easy To Be Hard
• Eli’s Coming
• Celebrate
• One Man Band
• Mama Told Me Not to Come
• Out in the Country
• Joy to the World (no, not the Christmas song!!)
• Liar
• Old Fashioned Love Song
• Never Been To Spain
• The Family of Man
• Black and White
• Pieces of April
• Shambala
• The Show Must Go On

Seriously, how many hits does a band need? What a body of work! Their snubbing is a disgrace to the entire RRHF!

The Guess Who, with vocalist Burton Cummings (later with solo hit Stand Tall) and guitarist Randy Bachman (front man with Bachman-Turner Overdrive) is another band painfully overlooked by the RRHF. Maybe they are discriminated against because they are Canadian, eh?

How about this list of hit singles….

• These Eyes
• Laughing
• Undun (a jazz-rock hit, which is kind of a rarity.)
• No Time
• American Woman
• No Sugar Tonight
• Laughing
• Hand Me Down World
• Share the Land

Again, another impressive list of hits.

There are acts in the RRHF that offer such a pitifully small contribution to pop/rock music, yet are enshrined in Cleveland. Meanwhile, great acts like these Three Dog Night and The Guess Who are on the outside looking in. How about groundbreaking acts like Emerson, Lake and Palmer? Maybe they are too cerebral for the RRHF crowd.

I am convinced that there is no justice in the halls of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.