Mark Robertson

Mark Robertson

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It's the 31st anniversary of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame

It was 31 years ago tonight (January 23rd, 1986) that the first inductees entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in a ceremony held at New York City's Waldorf-Astoria. The inaugural class of the Hall of Fame featured rock's forefathers: Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley, Little Richard, Fats Domino, Buddy Holly, the Everly Brothers, Ray Charles, James Brown, Sam Cooke and Jerry Lee Lewis. Included in the Non-Performer category were Sun Records founder Sam Phillips and seminal disc jockey Alan Freed, whom many credit for actually coining the phrase "Rock And Roll."

Also inducted that night in the Early Influence category were blues icon Robert Johnson, country's Jimmie Rogers, and boogie-woogie pianist Jimmy Yancey. Columbia Records' legendary A&R man John Hammond, who was responsible for discovering Billie Holiday, Aretha Franklin, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, and many others, received the Hall's first Lifetime Achievement Award.

The emotional inductions included Keith Richards' speech inducting Chuck Berry and John Lennon's sons Julian and Sean Lennon inducting their father's hero, Elvis Presley.

  • The ceremony featured the first all-star jam, which closed the night's festivities. Among the stars joining the inductees onstage were Steve Winwood, John Fogerty, Billy Joel, and ZZ Top. The musicians, backed by Late Night With David Letterman's house band -- the World's Most Dangerous Band, lead by Paul Shaffer -- rocked into the early hours on classics such as Berry's "Roll Over Beethoven," "Little Queenie," and "Johnny B. Goode"; Lewis' "Great Balls Of Fire" and "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On"; Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Proud Mary"; Chubby Checker's "The Twist"; and the Spencer Davis Group's "Gimme Some Lovin'," among others.
  • The 2017 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame will be held on April 7th at Brooklyn, New York's Barclays Center. This year's inductees are: Journey, Yes, Electric Light Orchestra (ELO), Pearl Jam, Joan Baez, Tupac Shakur, with Chic's Nile Rodgers tapped for the Award for Musical Excellence.

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