Kiss, Genesis, ABBA, LL Cool J, Red Hot Chili Peppers lead Rock Hall nominees list for 2010 By John Soeder, The Plain Dealer September 23, 2009, 9:01AM
The latest Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ballot is sealed with a Kiss. The makeup-sporting, fire-breathing, blood-spitting hard-rock group is among a dozen acts in the running for enshrinement, along with other first-time nominees Jimmy Cliff, Genesis, the Hollies, LL Cool J, Laura Nyro and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Back on the ballot after failing to receive enough votes for induction in previous years are ABBA, the Chantels, Darlene Love, the Stooges and Donna Summer.
The contenders were announced Wednesday by the New York City-based Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation, which oversees the induction process.
The nomination was a long time coming for Kiss. The band has been eligible since 1999, but it was passed over by the Rock Hall’s nominating committee until now. The group’s fans - collectively known as the Kiss Army - staged a protest outside Cleveland’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in August 2006.
"We’ve been doing this a lot longer than the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has existed," Kiss co-founder Paul Stanley said, reached by phone at home in Los Angeles.
Kiss is set to kick off a North American tour Friday in Detroit. The band has a concert Monday at The Q in Cleveland.
"I’m really proud of all the people who fought to get us in, and I’m also really proud of all the people who fought to keep us out, you know?" Stanley said with a laugh.
"That’s what makes us Kiss. If we were to find ourselves being inducted, of course we’d accept it, because if we didn’t, it would be an insult to the people who want us in there and the people who are fighting to have us in there.
"I understand everybody’s got a different point of view, and so be it. In the end, things work out the way they should."
The Rock Hall has not announced specifically which members of the bands on the ballot would be ushered in with their respective groups.
Artists become eligible for nomination 25 years after the release of their first recording.
Ballots will be sent to more than 500 voters, including music-industry executives and previous inductees.
Five of the 12 nominees will be inducted during a gala ceremony Monday, March 15, 2010, at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in Manhattan. Honorees will be announced in January.
The 2009 induction gala was held in April at Cleveland’s Public Auditorium, where Metallica, Run-D.M.C. and Bobby Womack were among the honorees. Rock Hall officials have said they are open to having the ceremony in Cleveland every three years.
Regardless of how you feel about Kiss, the sheer longevity and popularity of their music means they should have been a first-ballot induction.
I'm not a music historian, but just the fact they are ten years late in getting their nomination while simultaneously existing on the same card as Laura Nyro (Who the HELL is she, anyway?!?! ) means they are getting jobbed.
Looks to me like the Hall is trying to put substance over form. Ironic, since the very foundation of the Hall is built on popularity throughout the world, which is about sales, not acoustical composition.
Rock and Roll Hall without Kiss is, IMHO, no different than the Pro Football Hall of Fame without someone like Thurmon Thomas: They weren't the greatest year in and year out, but when one looks at their body of work, nobody did it all better or for longer.
***Gordon, I really didn't think you could be this stOOpid, but you exceeded my expectations. Wussy. Manziel, see Josh Gordon. Dumbass.***
Acoustical composition? What's that mean with respect to KISS? They are overdue.... one of the greatest bands in U.S. rock history, in terms of impact *& longevity... catchy songs too... Strutter, Detroit Rock City, Do You Love Me?
Quote: Rock and Roll Hall without Kiss is, IMHO, no different than the Pro Football Hall of Fame without someone like Thurmon Thomas:
Comparing Thurman Thomas to KISS is insulting to KISS. FYI...
It has been a slap in the face of KISS to be left out of the hall for this long. At this point if I was KISS I would tell the RR hall of fame to kiss my behind! KISS does not need the HOF the HOF needs KISS. But as usual KISS will put the fans first and accept the nomination.
This band has pleased millions of fans for over 35 years and sell out every show that they do. They have more gold albums than any American act ever including Elvis and Mickel Jackson but still critics want to degrade what they have done.
Ask almost any heavy metal rock star what they think of KISS and they're influence on Rock and many will tell you that they are the reason they took that path.
Many want to say that KISS is just a money maker, well isn't that the thing that makes a band huge?
Ask any newer band if they could have a career like KISS has had if they would be satisfied, I bet the answer would be I would take a third of they're success!
Long Live KISS!
Just wait till next season, I have heard that for over 40 years!
When I read this, I must say I was very surprised that KISS wasn't in the Hall already. I guess I took it for granted, but they were, are and will continue to be a lively group who makes music that people love to listen to.
This should be a no brainer.
KeysDawg
The fact that some geniuses were laughed at does not imply that all who are laughed at are geniuses. - Carl Sagan
j/c I was never a KISS fan, but I don't remember why. I used to watch the Gene Simmons Family Jewels show on A&E. His son Nick would crack about their lyrics on more than one occasion.....Anyway, they should be in. Love them or hate them, they deserve it.
Like them or hate them or don't give a rats behind about them. They are one of a handful of bands that have managed to maintain a decent level of success over several decades.
We don't have to agree with each other, to respect each others opinion.
Quote: ... Laura Nyro (Who the HELL is she, anyway?!?! ) .
I didn't knwo so I looked her up.
Quote: Laura Nyro (born Laura Nigro) (October 18, 1947 – April 8, 1997) was an American composer, lyricist, singer, and pianist. Her style was a hybrid of Brill Building-style New York pop, jazz, gospel, rhythm and blues, show tunes and rock.
She was best known, and enjoyed her most commercial success, as a composer and lyricist rather than as a performer. Between 1968 and 1970 a number of other singers had significant hits with her songs: The 5th Dimension with "Blowing Away", "Wedding Bell Blues", "Stoned Soul Picnic", "Sweet Blindness", "Save The Country" and "Black Patch"; Blood, Sweat & Tears and Peter, Paul & Mary with "And When I Die"; Three Dog Night with "Eli's Coming"; and Barbra Streisand with "Stoney End", "Time and Love", and "Hands off the Man (Flim Flam Man)". Nyro's best-selling single was her recording of Carole King and Gerry Goffin's "Up on the Roof."
Everybody that deserves to get in will get in. They just have to spread it all out. I feel like people want everybody who deserves it to be put in at once.
The thing about "Rock and Roll" is that it's COMPLETELY subjective, and not to mention very generational. One guy's "crap" is the next guy's "genius music" ... It's not like football where you can go straight to the stats and say this guy definitely needs to go in. Well I guess you COULD to a point with record sales and money generated ... but then you'd get guys like Los Def from the Macarana in there.
Quote: It's not like football where you can go straight to the stats and say this guy definitely needs to go in. Well I guess you COULD to a point with record sales and money generated ... but then you'd get guys like Los Def from the Macarana in there.
Personally one of my least favorite bands of all time. They dressed up like deamons and sang stooopid beer swill anthems. They looked like they should have sounded like Zepplin on crank and they sounded they should have looked like a weekend hack band in softball jerseys. And that Simmons character is SUCH a D-Bag, so self important. But they were popular for a long time. And for that I guess they should get a little dusty corner of the joint.
All together now! "Lick it up!, LIck it up, AHHH AHHH AHHH, Lick it up right now!"
"Team Chemistry No Match for Team Biology" (Onion Sports Headline)
As for Kiss,, it's about time.. I'm not a big Fan, but they are an act to be reckoned with in the whole scheme of things.. they should have been in in 1999. JMO
Peen,,, Yeah Rodgers belongs in.. no question
It's funny, I don't get it,, the Hall Committee is ok with having the event here every three years..
We (I mean the folks of NE Ohio) put up the money, we proved we had the right to have the hall in Cleveland, we have shown it nothing but support through the years....
JMO, but I think it should be the other way around... Maybe they should have it at the Waldorf every three years and here in Cleveland the rest of the time.,.,
Again, JMO
#GMSTRONG
“Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts.” Daniel Patrick Moynahan
"Alternative facts hurt us all. Think before you blindly believe." Damanshot
Wonder if Gene Simmons will still be a ... and insist on a percentage of the rockhall admission fee for their displayed artifacts if indeed KISS actually gets voted in??? Or will that arrogant SOB even give the rockhall any artifacts at all??? I guess we'll see.
I have mixed feelings about the musicians on this year's ballot. I used to like KISS...a lot...as a teenager. Why anyone would like their music that deals with partying and screwing underage girls is beyond me. And they've gotten by with lots of pyrotechnics to cover up their inability to be more creative with their music writing. However, if they get voted in and not LL Cool J, that would be fine by me. The hall doesn't need anymore token rappers, although I'm sure all of the homies in the hood will have a lot to say about that. If Genesis gets the nod over say ABBA or Donna Summer, great. Disco, like rap, has no place in the R&RHOF. Genesis should be there...the Peter Gabriel years were IMO paramount. The Hollies were part of the British Invasion and have more clout than the Red Hot Chili Peppers. I'm almost certain the Chantels and Darlene Love will make it as early influences. Happens almost every year.
Not a very good selection of bands this year. Who knows...the Stooges could shock everyone and finally make it into the hall instead of KISS. That would really ... off their beloved KISS Army.
Still waiting on the Guess Who, BTO, and Grand Funk Railroad. They are very deserving IMO to be in the rockhall.
Last edited by Molly Hatchet Dawg; 09/24/0906:30 PM.
"My opinions and feelings are mine and shall not be influenced by anyone....especially liberals."
Quote: The whole concept of the RRHOF is well ... iffy.
The thing about "Rock and Roll" is that it's COMPLETELY subjective, and not to mention very generational. One guy's "crap" is the next guy's "genius music" ... It's not like football where you can go straight to the stats and say this guy definitely needs to go in. Well I guess you COULD to a point with record sales and money generated ... but then you'd get guys like Los Def from the Macarana in there.
Have to agree there,...it's more like it should be "The Popular Music Hall Of Fame."
I knew that this thread could not get long enough with the KISS love before hearing you chime in. With each post, I'm grinning thinking, "MHD is melting down right now!"
Ah well, to each their own.
Love them (I'll be in full make up next week for the show) or hate them, they deserve to be in.
Yes they do deserve it. Although I agree with the poster who suggested KISS's lyrics are juvenile, moreso now that they're pushing 60. "Christine Sixteen" I hope they leave off their live set these days.
I learned something from a KISS biography, it surprised me a little: Ace Frehley didn't play on Destroyer and both he and Peter Criss were "benched" at various times while recording albums.
I saw Kiss at the Akron Civic Theater back in 75 right before they really took off and got huge....the opening act was Rush...who at that time had one album out...WMMS was crucial to their breaking out in the U.S.A. giving them tons of airplay at the time...Kiss deserves it but the real star,in that group of artists,in my opinion is Genesis...and I mean the version of Genesis with Peter Gabriel as the front man..a sterling example of English Progressive/Art rock.
i like alot of music that was made before i was born, but kiss is just not good music. they're the 70s rock version of britney spears, all style and no substance.
"All I know is, as long as I led the Southeastern Conference in scoring, my grades would be fine." - Charles Barkley
About that, there's been doubt thrown out there. I seem to recall people suspecting that Peter Criss was "drum synching" on their farewell tour... the one about 13 years ago. Maybe not though.
What an absolute joke that the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is. The entire concept is an embarrassment to the city of Cleveland and to music lovers worldwide. Absolutely no reason in the World how KISS gets shut out in front of these bands...no offense to Genesis (but the rest!).
If you're surprised to see ABBA among the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's next crop of inductees, join the club.
So is Bjorn Ulvaeus, co-founder of the Swedish pop group.
"It's pretty unexpected," Ulvaeus said, reached by phone at home in Stockholm.
"It's a wonderful thing, of course. I'm slightly overwhelmed, considering the other people in the Hall of Fame. It's a fantastic thing."
Besides ABBA, the Rock Hall's internationally flavored Class of 2010 includes the proto-punk Stooges from Ann Arbor, Mich., Jamaican reggae star Jimmy Cliff and a pair of British exports, the pop-rocking Hollies and prog-rocking Genesis.
The New York City-based Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation, which oversees the inductions, announced the honorees today.
They'll be enshrined during the Rock Hall's 25th annual induction ceremony Monday, March 15, at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in Manhattan.
"They represent a great cross-section of artists that define the broad spectrum and history of rock and roll and people that have contributed immeasurably to our business," Joel Peresman, president and CEO of the foundation, said in a statement.
ABBA sold 350 million records worldwide. The quartet scored 14 harmony-laden Top 40 hits in the '70s and early '80s, including "Dancing Queen." Its songs have remained popular in recent years, thanks largely to the smash musical "Mamma Mia!"
The Rock Hall recognition is a long time coming for the Stooges, nominated eight times. Fronted by the irrepressible Iggy Pop, the band embraced a no-frills approach summed up by the title of its 1973 album "Raw Power."
Cliff brought reggae to the masses with "The Harder They Come," the soundtrack to a 1972 film of the same name. He starred in the movie, too.
The Hollies had a Top 5 single in 1966 with "Bus Stop." Two years later, Graham Nash left to join Crosby, Stills and Nash (inducted in 1997), but the hits -- including "Long Cool Woman (In a Black Dress)" -- kept coming in the '70s for the Hollies.
"If the Hollies were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, my heart would just be full of good feeling for [Hollies co-founder] Allan Clarke, one of the most underrated rock 'n' roll singers," Nash said in an October interview, before the honor was official.
Genesis morphed from prog-rock mainstay in the '60s and '70s to Top 40 hit machine in the '80s and '90s. After frontman Peter Gabriel went solo in 1975, drummer Phil Collins took over lead vocals.
Artists become eligible for nomination 25 years after the release of their first recording.
Nominees on the latest ballot who were passed over include Kiss, Donna Summer, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Laura Nyro, Darlene Love, LL Cool J and the Chantels.
Ballots were sent to an international pool of 500 voters, including music-industry executives and previous inductees.
In addition to the performer inductees, the Rock Hall will usher in veteran record-company mogul David Geffen and several distinguished songwriters in one fell swoop, including Jesse Stone ("Shake, Rattle and Roll"), Mort Shuman ("This Magic Moment"), Otis Blackwell ("Great Balls of Fire") and two songwriting duos: Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil ("You've Lose that Lovin' Feelin' ") and Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich ("Be My Baby").
The cable-television network Fuse will broadcast the inductions live. Presenters and performers have not been announced.
ABBA's Ulvaeus said he and the other members of the group -- Anni-Frid "Frida" Lyngstad, Benny Andersson and Agnetha "Anna" Faltskog -- have not discussed plans to attend the ceremony.
"We haven't had time to do that yet," said Ulvaeus, 64. "We wanted it to be official, then we'll get together and we'll talk about what we'll do. . . . It's too early for me to say anything."
A consortium of concert promoters offered $1 billion to ABBA in 2000 for a 100-date reunion tour. The group declined.
Asked if there is a snowball's chance in hell that ABBA would perform at the Rock Hall gala, Ulvaeus laughed.
"I don't think so," he said. "I mean, we split up in '82, for heaven's sake. That's a long time ago.
"But as I say, we haven't talked yet, the four of us. So we'll see."
Poor KISS. Poor, pitiful KISS Army. I'm sure the always arrogant Paul Stanley will have plenty to say about this. It's always great comedy.
If they were more cooperative with the rockhall regarding displaying their artifacts freely instead of demanding a portion of the admission fee to do so, they might have had a chance...but I'm sure there are plenty more reasons why. Kudos to the rockhall voters for doing the right thing and NOT allowing KISS to be inducted. Keep them from ever getting in.
Last edited by Molly Hatchet Dawg; 12/15/0908:42 PM.
"My opinions and feelings are mine and shall not be influenced by anyone....especially liberals."
Quote: About that, there's been doubt thrown out there. I seem to recall people suspecting that Peter Criss was "drum synching" on their farewell tour... the one about 13 years ago. Maybe not though.
I'm a drummer; that would be hard to do, methinks.
I agree, Genesis definitely deserves to be there but I haven't even heard of some of these other groups. KISS just as much of an obvious choice as Genesis was.
In other news, Red Hot Chili Peppers have been around for 25 years now? Damn I feel old.