Balloting ends at 12:00 noon PST on January 20, 2010.
LaVern Baker
Chuck Berry
James Brown
Ray Charles
The Coasters
Eddie Cochran
Sam Cooke
Fats Domino
Bo Diddley
The Drifters
The Everly Brothers
Bill Haley
Screamin' Jay Hawkins
Buddy Holly
Etta James
Jerry Lee Lewis
Little Richard
Roy Orbison
Carl Perkins
Elvis Presley
Smokey & The Miracles
Big Joe Turner
Gene Vincent
Jackie Wilson
Link Wray
51 comments:
I've already got a good idea of what my ballot will look like. To my mind, there's 8 that I simply have to vote for, no question. Then two spots to fill out of 12 more very qualified candidates.
I won't post it just yet, I'm still waffling a little on those last two spots.
OK, I know this isn't going to change for me, so I'll go ahead and post the first ballot, ten names:
Chuck Berry
James Brown
Ray Charles
Sam Cooke
Fats Domino
Buddy Holly & the Crickets
Jerry Lee Lewis
Little Richard
Elvis Presley
Smokey Robinson & the Miracles
So, boom! One ballot down, at least 19 to go.
All right, here's my 10. Boy this was tough to narrow down.
Chuck Berry
James Brown
Fats Domino
The Everly Brothers
Buddy Holly & The Crickets
Jerry Lee Lewis
Little Richard
Ray Charles
Carl Perkins
Elvis Presley
Thanks Nazz. No, this ain't easy. There's going to be a lot of tough ballots in our near future, should be fun!
Chuck Berry
James Brown
Little Richard
Sam Cooke
Buddy Holly & The Crickets
Jerry Lee Lewis
Roy Orbison
Elvis Presley
Very discriminating ballot there Greg. Thanks for voting!
My pleasure. And yeah, I'd like this to be the antithesis of the official R'n'R Hall of Fame, where they let any ol' Billy Joel in. Maybe not quite as stingy as Cooperstown, but close.
I had a hard time deciding whether Ray Charles and Bill Haley belonged in the first group. Brother Ray, to me, comes more from a jazz (and traditional Tin Pan Alley) singing tradition, which he molded into a unique R&B style that, IMO, isn't quite Rock and Roll in the classic sense. And Bill Haley, who of course is arguably the most important pioneer of early Rock and Roll, nevertheless loses points from me for too often being so damn cheesy -- an ominous early indicator that R'n'R couldn't survive as a commercial pop form without sacrificing some of its gritty, bluesy essence. So I'd vote for both them maybe on a second or third ballot, if there was open space to do so, but I left them off the first ballot, which I reserved for what I thought was the best of the best.
Agreed that Bill isn't a first ballot, not with this kind of competition anyway.
Naturally, the first year has a glut of worthy people...practically all of them will get in at some point. This was absolutely impossible...there's about 15 that look like worthy first balloters, so I'll just be strategic and try and lift as many over the 50% hurdle as I can.
My 10:
Ray Charles
Eddie Cochran
Sam Cooke
Fats Domino
Bo Diddley
Everly Brothers
Buddy Holly & The Crickets
Roy Orbison
Carl Perkins
Smokey Robinson & The Miracles
I hope this helps. I just increased our list of guys over 50% from six to nine.
I had a list I was paring down and then ran into some problems submitting it...I meant to remove Buddy Holly and replace him with Bill Haley & His Comets. Hoping you can change that for me. It won't have much of an effect on this election's results, but I'd like Bill Haley to receive some votes so that others will note his case for 1987.
Fats Domino is another close call, "for sure on a later ballot," choice for me. I like him and his best music, and recognize his historical importance -- but I've always found something a bit too one-dimensional about his brand of R'n'R. With this kind of competition, that's enough to keep him off the ballot -- but if I were to choose one more on my "first" list, it would likely be Fats.
This is stupid.If this is meant to be the peoples hall of fame,you should have been able to vote for any 10 artists,not some self important list of 25 chosen by another "panel".Theres no difference between this and the debacle in Cleveland.As Arlo Guthrie said when speaking for his father at the induction dinner,"if my father was alive today,I don't know where he'd be.But I can tell you where he wouldn't be.Here."
Elvis, Chuck, JB, Sam Cooke, Ray Charles, Smokey, Roy Orbison, Bo, Fats and Buddy.
PointedSticks has a good point...maybe the next election should simply list every eligible artist once 1987 rolled around. I for one was shocked that this ballot didn't include real-life performer inductee, Muddy Waters. Although you can argue him for Early Influence, so something will need to be done concerning having other categories.
Current results:
Chuck Berry/James Brown/Ray Charles/Sam Cooke/Fats Domino/Elvis Presley/Buddy Holly - 4 (80%)
Jerry Lee Lewis/Roy Orbison/Little Richard/Smokey Robinson - 3 (65%)
Everly Brothers/Bo Diddley/Carl Perkins - 2 (40%)
Eddie Cochran/Bill Haley & His Comets - 1 (20%)
Right now, we've jumped from nine potential inductees to eleven which is great. The less of a backlog the better and nobody here would disagree with any of the artists receiving votes at this point.
A ballot with votes for Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison, Little Richard and Smokey Robinson would help them all secure their place. Better, a ballot with the Everly Brothers, Bo Diddley and Carl Perkins would help move them to 50%. If the next two ballots include the seven that I just mentioned, we'll increase the potential election pool from eleven to FOURTEEN!
Thanks for helping with the tally ramblings. Muddy Waters is an artist that is clearly worthy of being honored based on his achievement and influence. Same with Howlin' Wolf and John Lee Hooker. One of the discussions I want to have here as we proceed is where the line is in terms of people like this who are just barely pre-rock 'n' roll. For if Muddy and the Wolf are nominated, perhaps Hank Williams should be too. I didn't want to put anyone like that on the ballot yet until we came to something of a consensus on what counts.
Pointed Sticks, I understand your position. Perhaps the nominee lists can be longer, but I think some kind of list is necessary just for managing the vote counting, especially if we begin to get A LOT of voters. One option is to allow for write-in votes, but they would have to meet the 25 year requirement. I
I want to get lots of feedback from everyone on who should be nominated and who shouldn't. Any such feedback will definitely carry a lot of weight on future ballots.
Why don't we just establish a cutoff? If you released your first record before 1955, you can be placed in the pre-rock category. There will be exceptions for those clearly of the rock-era that had a few relatively forgotten recordings before that year, but everyone else from jazz greats (Miles) to folk/country influences (Williams/Guthrie) to bluesmen (Johnson, Waters, etc.) will find themselves in our early influences category.
I was thinking something like that after we get things rolling here, requiring a separate vote. Let's keep the ideas comin'!
the Drifters
Buddy Holley
Eddie Cochran
Fats Domino
Chuck Berry
Sam Cooke
Roy Orbison
Etta James
the Coasters
the Everly Brothers
Gene Vincent
and if I could have said Hank Williams and Ike and Tina I would have switched a couple there...
Thanks Margaret. Just so you know, Ike and Tina are technically eligible and will probably be on the second ballot. This first ballot, being limited to 25 names, focused more on 50's rock 'n' rollers. There's some other eligible artists who, like Ike & Tina, made their marks in the 1960s, and they'll all be added very soon.
Hank Williams falls into the category we've been discussing - someone from the cusp of the rock 'n' roll era who was known primarily for non rock 'n' roll music but nonetheless very influential. Artists like Hank, as well as the titans of electric post-war blues will have to be addressed in some way, perhaps in a seperate "influences" category.
I'm looking at putting out a much bigger ballot for the second election. I might double the size of it, though that partially depends on how many from the first ballot get in.
LaVern Baker
Chuck Berry
James Brown
Eddie Cochran
Bo Diddley
Screamin' Jay Hawkins
Etta James
Little Richard
Big Joe Turner
Gene Vincent
If you are making 1955 as the cut-off date, you should note that Big Joe Turner, Ray Charles, Little Richard, Bill Haley and Screamin' Jay Hawkins all made records before then. Big Joe was making rockin' records in 1939!!!
Would like to see more women...Ruth Brown, comes to mind.
Ruth Brown is definitely on the next ballot. Thanks for chipping in, that's seven ballots in.
Hey, I'm for ANY system that recognizes these artists and allows the fans to vote. For whatever it's worth here are my ten: Chuck Berry, James Brown, Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, Fats Domino, The Drifters, The Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, Little Richard and Elvis Presley. Shame is there's no way to AWARD them this honor ... but believe me ... THEY know how much they all contributed to the overall music scene ... and their presence is still felt to this very day.
Top 8 looking like locks...a few more votes for The Everly Brothers & Roy Orbison should give them enough leeway to make it an even ten.
The four sitting at three votes need to sweep the next four ballots to be at 7 of 12 and over the line.
All right, here are my choices. It's not easy, and I can understand the limited selection due to the burdensome sifting that's necessary.
1. Sam Cooke
2. Etta James
3. Roy Orbison
4. Ray Charles
5. Jerry Lee Lewis
6. Link Wray
7. Carl Perkins
8. Chuck Berry
9. LaVern Baker
10. Screamin' Jay Hawkins
-The Rev
I would like to vote for the following artists:
1. Chuck Berry
2. Bo Diddley
3. Elvis Presley
4. Louis Jordan
5. Ray Charles
6. Sam Cooke
7. Robert Johnson
8. Buddy Holly
9. Professor Longhair
10. Howlin Wolf
You will get the chance to vote for Louis, Robert, the Professor, and the Wolf on the next ballot when we allow write-ins. Do you want to select four alternate artists from the list who you would like to lend your support to this time Johnny?
I'm assuming ballots have been posted on Facebook? Hmm.
Well, could somebody please vote for James Brown, The Everly Brothers and Carl Perkins? If someone posts a ballot with at least two of those names, we should call it a day since nobody else is likely to get over the line.
Yes, there's some ballots on FB too now. Three more for me to add today at least, so there'll be another update later this morning.
Bo Diddley, Link Wray, Jerry Lee Lewis, Screamin' Jay Hawkins...
Are you keeping your ballot to four Tex, or is it still under construction?
People We're Scheduled To Elect From RollingStone's Immortals List:
Elvis Presley - #3
Chuck Berry - #5
James Brown - #7
Little Richard - #8
Buddy Holly - #13
Sam Cooke - #16
Bo Diddley - #20
Jerry Lee Lewis - #24
List Members We Probably Won't Induct:
Ray Charles - #10
Fats Domino - #25
Smokey & The Miracles - #32
Everly Brothers - #33
Roy Orbison - #37
Etta James - #62
Jackie Wilson - #68
Carl Perkins - #69
The Drifters - #81
Inducted In The Rock Hall's First Class That We Won't Be Inducting:
Ray Charles, Fats Domino, Everlys
Inducted In Our First Class That The Rock Hall Didn't:
Bo Diddley
So, it looks like we'll have two less inductees than the other Hall at this point. In the next class, the Cleveland institution inducted a whopping 15 more, so we will remain further behind unless our ballot system changes.
Personally, I'd like to see a lengthy master list of every artist that was eligible for our next induction which would consist of all of the eligibles for 1987 listed on FutureRockHall along with all of the real life inductees that were eligible at that point. From there, I think our ballots should allow us to include as many names as possible as I'm sure plenty of us would vote for 30 artists at this point.
I definitely want to increase the size of the nominee lists, and also allow for "write-in" votes (which in essence would allow for anyone who meets the current cut-off year, even if they're not on the list).
I'm open to allowing for more than ten selections, though 30 is too many IMO. I don't think that being behind the Cleveland HOF in number of inductees is necessarily a bad thing, but if the nominee list doubles, it's reasonable to expect it to be even harder for us to elect more than a few acts each year. Maybe we increase it to 20. Let's keep tossing this around the next few days so we can have a good plan going into the February election.
My vote:
James Brown
Ray Charles
Eddie Cochran
Sam Cooke
Fats Domino
Bo Diddley
Buddy Holly & The Crickets
Carl Perkins
Elvis Presley
Gene Vincent
Chuck Berry
Ray Charles
Everly Bros
Fats Domino
Buddy Holly
Jerry Lee Lewis
Little Richard
Carl Perkins
Elvis Presley
Bo Diddley
Some people have said that they haven't been able to post here in the blog comments. Not sure what the cause of that could be, but if you're having any trouble doing it, you can also post your ballot over at our Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/pages/The-Peoples-Rock-n-Roll-Hall-of-Fame/423099115077?v=wall&ref=ts
My vote:
1. Roy Orbison
2. Link Wray
3. Gene Vincent
4. Chuck Berry
5. Same Cooke
6. Bo Diddley
7. Big Joe Turner
8. Eddie Cochran
9.Screamin' Jay Hawkins
10. Jackie Wilson
In order of importance:
Link Wray
Etta James
Fats Domino
Chuck Berry
Bo Diddley
Little Richard
Elvis
James Brown
Buddy Holly
Everly Brothers
Update with 48 ballots in:
Chuck Berry - 40
Buddy Holly - 36
Bo Diddley - 34
Elvis Presley - 32
Little Richard - 31
James Brown - 29
Jerry Lee Lewis - 28
Sam Cooke - 23
Everly Brothers - 20
Ray Charles/Carl Perkins -19
Fats Domino - 18
Gene Vincent - 17
Roy Orbison - 15
Eddie Cochran - 13
Link Wray - 11
Bill Haley/Screamin' Jay Hawkins - 10
Big Joe Turner - 8
The Coasters/The Drifters/Etta James/Smokey & the Miracles - 7
Jackie Wilson - 5
Lavern Baker - 3
Chuck Berry
James Brown
Buddy Holly
Bo Diddley
Little Richard
Roy Orbison
Elvis Presley
Jerry Lee Lewis
Ray Charles
Fats Domino
Sam Cooke
Jackie Wilson
Chuck Berry
James Brown
Ray Charles
Bill Haley & The Comets
Jerry Lee Lewis
Roy Orbison
Smokey Robinson & The Miracles
The Drifters
(Elvis should be Automatic, No Vote Required...It would be Silly if He didn't get in after this First Vote. He is the King because he Sparked the powder keg that exploded Rock & Roll to the World).
update with 52 ballots in:
Chuck Berry - 44
Buddy Holly - 39
Bo Diddley - 37
Elvis Presley - 35
James Brown/Little Richard - 33
Jerry Lee Lewis - 31
Sam Cooke - 25
Ray Charles - 22
Everly Brothers - 21
Fats Domino - 20
Carl Perkins -19
Roy Orbison - 18
Gene Vincent - 17
Eddie Cochran - 13
Link Wray - 12
Bill Haley - 11
Screamin' Jay Hawkins - 10
Big Joe Turner - 9
The Drifters/Etta James/Smokey & the Miracles - 8
The Coasters - 7
Jackie Wilson - 6
Lavern Baker - 3
Sam Cooke is 1 vote shy at the moment, but he would need to be named on the next three ballots to get back over the line. Balloting ends tomorrow at noon PST.
Pretty much everyone on that list should be in a rock 'n' roll hall of fame. But if I have to pare it down to ten names ...
Chuck Berry
Ray Charles
The Coasters
Sam Cooke
Fats Domino
Bo Diddley
Buddy Holly & The Crickets
Jerry Lee Lewis
Little Richard
Big Joe Turner
Gene Vincent
Link Wray
And there are a few left off this list only because I know they'll get enough votes from others to make the cut (and their contribution stretched past this initial period, so they could make the list again).
1. Chuck Berry
2. James Brown
3. Eddie Cochran
4. Sam Cooke
5. Bill Haley & His Comets
6. Screamin' Jay Hawkins
7. Buddy Holly & The Crickets
8. Jerry Lee Lewis
9. Carl Perkins
10. Elvis Presley
11. Link Wray
@Mark - there's 12 names on that ballot, can't count it since I don't know which two you would cut.
@eemi - same problem. You've got them alphabetical, so I can't delete anyone and can't count the ballot.
balloting officially closed
results coming up...
FINAL TALLY (61 ballots counted)
Chuck Berry - 53
Buddy Holly - 48
Elvis Presley - 44
Bo Diddley/Little Richard - 40
Jerry Lee Lewis - 39
James Brown - 35
Sam Cooke - 30
Ray Charles - 27
Carl Perkins - 25
Everly Brothers - 24
Fats Domino - 23
Roy Orbison - 21
Gene Vincent - 19
Eddie Cochran/Bill Haley/Link Wray - 14
Screamin' Jay Hawkins - 10
Big Joe Turner - 9
The Drifters/Etta James/Smokey & the Miracles - 8
The Coasters - 7
Jackie Wilson - 6
Lavern Baker - 3
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