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By MESFIN FEKADU -
Associated Press -
George Harrison, Marvin Gaye, Jimi Hendrix, Madonna, Tom Petty and John
Mellencamp are among the A-list contenders nominated for the 2016 Songwriters
Hall of Fame.
Blondie, Gloria Estefan, the Isley Brothers, Sly Stone and Nile Rodgers &
Bernard Edwards are also up for the top honor. Winners will be inducted next
June in New York City.
The Songwriters Hall of Fame gave The Associated Press a list of the nominees in
advance of the official announcement, set for Tuesday.
Nonperforming songwriters nominated for the honor include Kenneth “Babyface”
Edmonds, Berry Gordy, Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis and Max Martin, who has co-written
No.1 hits for Britney Spears, Katy Perry, the Weeknd and Taylor Swift.
Eligible members have until Dec. 11 to submit their votes for three
non-performing nominees, two performing nominees and one deceased nominee.
Not a member? To be able to vote in the election please join
HERE
Performing nominees also include Michael McDonald, Tom T. Hall, Jeff Lynne
and Steve Miller, while Lionel Bart, Bert Berns and Roger Miller are among the
deceased nominees.
Additional nonperforming nominees include Teddy Riley, Rudy Clark, Dallas
Frazier, John D. Loudermilk, Bob McDill, Chip Taylor, Curly Putman and Rod
Temperton, who wrote Michael Jackson’s “Thriller,” ”Rock With You” and “Off the
Wall.”
The 2016 Songwriters Hall of Fame Annual Induction and Awards Gala will take
place June 9, 2016.
OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE:
New York, NY – October 6, 2015 - The Songwriters Hall of Fame has announced
its slate of nominees to be elected for induction at its Annual Induction &
Awards Gala on June 9, 2016, in New York City.
The Songwriters Hall of Fame is dedicated to recognizing the work and lives of
those composers and lyricists who create music around the world. Eligible voting
members will have until December 11, 2015 to turn in ballots with their choices
of three nominees from a non-performing category, two from a performing category
and one from a deceased category.
For information with which to join or renew as a voting member before November 2
in order to participate in this election, please go to songhall.org/join.
And the nominees are: (please visit
songhall.org for all nominees in all categories. (*Note that the five songs
listed after each nominee are merely a representative sample of their extensive
catalogs)
Performing Songwriters
Gloria Estefan
Combined with her voice, Gloria Estefan’s songwriting has made her one of
the biggest Latin music crossover stars ever, and the embodiment of the “Miami
Sound.” She wrote the No. 1 pop hits “Don’t Wanna Lose You” (the Spanish
version, “Si Voy a Perderte,” topped the Hot Latin Songs charts) and “Anything
for You,” as well as the chart-topping Adult Contemporary hit “Words Get in the
Way.” She also had a hand in co-writing Hot Latin No. 1 hits including “Tradición,”
which despite being in Spanish, reached No. 1 on the U.S. Hot Dance Club Songs
chart.
Key songs in the Estefan catalog include: * Anything For You * Can’t Stay Away
From You * Don’t Wanna Lose You * Here We Are * Words Get In The Way
Tom T. Hall
Known as “The Storyteller,” Country Music and Nashville Songwriters Hall of
Famer Tom T. Hall typically told stories in songs such as the Grammy-winning
“Harper Valley PTA,” which allowed Jeannie C. Riley to top both the pop and
country singles charts in 1968, and Hall’s own No. 1 country hit “(Old Dogs,
Children and) Watermelon Wine,” which Rolling Stone has ranked in its list of
100 greatest country songs. Hall’s other hits include country classics “I Love,”
“Country Is,” “The Year Clayton Delaney Died,” “I Like Beer” and “Faster Horses
(the Cowboy and the Poet).” Other artists who have recorded Hall compositions
include Johnny Cash, George Jones, Loretta Lynn, Bobby Bare, Waylon Jennings and
Alan Jackson, who took his “Little Bitty” to No. 1 on the country charts in
1996.
Key songs in the Hall catalog include: * Harper Valley PTA * I Love * Old Dogs
Children and Watermelon Wine * I’m Not Ready Yet * Little Bitty
Deborah Harry & Chris Stein p/k/a “Blondie”
The creative duo at the core of Blondie, lead singer Deborah Harry and
guitarist Chris Stein, artfully managed to span punk rock, disco, rap and
reggae. Their No. 1 hit compositions “Heart of Glass” and “Rapture” brought them
international popularity and made them by far the most commercially successful
group to emerge from New York’s thriving underground music scene of the late
1970s. With Blondie, they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in
2006.
Key songs in the Harry/Stein catalog include: * Dreaming * Heart Of Glass * In
The Flesh *Picture This * Rapture
Ernie, Marvin, O’Kelly, Ronald & Rudolph Isley & Chris Jasper p/k/a “The
Isley Brothers”
Initially a vocal trio made up of brothers O’Kelly Isley Jr., Rudolph Isley
and Ronald Isley, the Isley Brothers broke in 1959 with their first composition
“Shout,” also a big UK hit for Lulu. The first single for their own T-Neck
label, 1964’s “Testify,” also stands out for being one of Jimi Hendrix’s first
recordings, as Hendrix recorded and toured with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
vocal group. Following the Grammy-winning “It’s Your Thing” (1969), younger
brothers Ernie and Marvin Isley and brother-in-law Chris Jasper joined in 1971,
and the Isley Brothers, in varying configurations and incorporating different
styles, wrote and recorded such hits as “Pop That Thang,” “That Lady,” “Fight
the Power,” “For the Love of You” and “Caravan of Love,” with Ice Cube sampling
their song “Footsteps in the Dark” for his hit “It Was a Good Day” and Notorious
B.I.G. likewise sampling “Between the Sheets” for his hit “Big Poppa.”
Key songs in the Isley catalog include: * Fight The Power * It’s Your Thing
*Nobody But Me * Shout * That Lady
Jeff Lynne
English pop-rock luminary Jeff Lynne first found fame in The Move, then made
it big on both sides of the pond as leader of the Electric Light Orchestra. With
ELO, he wrote such hits as “Can’t Get It Out of My Head,” “Livin’ Thing,” “Mr.
Blue Sky” and “Don’t Bring Me Down.” He later co-founded the Traveling Wilburys
with George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison and Tom Petty, and had a writing
hand in their hits “Handle With Care” and “End of the Line”; he also wrote hits
for the likes of Orbison (“You Got It”) and Petty (“I Won’t Back Down” and “Free
Fallin’”).
Key songs in the Lynne catalog include: * Evil Woman * Do Ya * Don’t Bring Me
Down * Mr. Blue Sky * Strange Magic
Madonna
Madonna could never have become a music icon without songs, and she wrote
and produced most of them with estimable collaborators like Steve Bray, Patrick
Leonard, Shep Pettibone, Mirwais Ahmadzaï, Rick Nowels, Nate Hills, Justin
Timberlake and William Orbit—with whom she wrote the Grammy-winning—“Beautiful
Stranger” for the 1999 film Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me. Other hits
written or co-written by Madonna have become pop classics and include “Into the
Groove,” “Papa Don’t Preach,” “Like a Prayer,” “Vogue,” “Frozen,” “Music,” “Hung
Up” and “4 Minutes.” With themes spanning everything from love and relationships
to sexuality and AIDS, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee has been
recognized by Rolling Stone as “an exemplary songwriter with a gift for hooks
and indelible lyrics.”
Key songs in the Madonna catalog include: * Everybody * Into The Groove * Like A
Prayer * Material Girl * Vogue
Michael McDonald
After a stint with Steely Dan, Michael McDonald joined the Doobie Brothers
in 1975 and sang lead on some of their biggest hits, many of which—including “Takin’
It to the Streets,” “Minute by Minute” and the 1980 Grammy Song of the Year
“What a Fool Believes”—he wrote or co-wrote. Going solo, his 1982 debut album
featured his hit composition “I Keep Forgettin’ (Every Time You’re Near)”; his
1990 album title track hit “Take It to Heart” was co-written with Diane Warren.
McDonald also co-wrote with Carly Simon her hit “You Belong to Me,” Van Halen’s
hit “I’ll Wait,” and his Grammy-winning R&B duet with James Ingram, “Yah Mo B
There.”
Key songs in the McDonald catalog include: * What a Fool Believes * Takin’ It to
the Streets * Minute by Minute * It Keeps You Runnin’ * Real Love
John Mellencamp
Finding fame first as rocker Johnny Cougar, John Mellencamp gradually
reclaimed his real name while staking out his own singular rock sound. Indeed,
songs like “Small Town” and “Cherry Bomb” embodied the genre of music now known
as roots rock, or Americana. Together with massive Top 40 hits like “Hurt So
Good” and “R.O.C.K. In The U.S.A.,” they propelled Mellencamp into the Rock and
Roll Hall of Fame—one of many honors bestowed on him during his venerable
career.
Key songs in the Mellencamp catalog include: * Jack And Diane * Lonely Ol’ Night
* Pink Houses * Small Town * The Authority Song
Steve Miller
Schooled in guitar by his father’s friend Les Paul, Steve Miller picked up a
heavy blues influence from the likes of T-Bone Walker, Muddy Waters and Buddy
Guy, eventually forming his own Steve Miller Blues Band—at one time including
pal Boz Scaggs. After removing “Blues” from the band’s name, he became an album
rock-era figurehead before breaking through to pop with the chart-topping
titletrack of his 1973 album “The Joker.” Other originals include “Rock ‘n Me”
and “Abracadabra,” both of which likewise went to No. 1.
Key songs in the Miller catalog include: * Abracadabra * Fly Like An Eagle *
Living In The USA * Take The Money And Run * The Joker
Tom Petty
Tom Petty led his band The Heartbreakers to a unique position in the rock
scene of the late 1970s and ‘80s with a distinctively rootsy sound and great
original songs like “Free Fallin’” and “Don’t Do Me Like That.” Such was his
stature that he joined Roy Orbison, Bob Dylan, George Harrison and Jeff Lynne in
the late ‘80s supergroup Traveling Wilburys. He was rewarded in 2002 with
induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Key songs in the Petty catalog include: * Don’t Come Around Here No More * I
Won’t Back Down * Free Fallin’ * Refugee * Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around
Nile Rodgers & Bernard Edwards (d)
With the late Bernard Edwards, fellow producer Nile Rodgers formed Chic--one
of the most important bands of the disco era. Both “Le Freak” and Good Times”
went to No. 1 on the pop charts, prompting Rodgers and Edwards to produce and
write for other artists on their Atlantic Records roster, including Sister
Sledge, whose “We Are Family” was a huge hit--and remade by Rodgers as a benefit
recording for his “We Are Family Foundation” after 9-11. But Rodgers and Edwards
also wrote and produced for other artists including Diana Ross (her hits “Upside
Down” and “I’m Coming Out”). Rodgers went on to compose soundtracks while
continuing his songwriting and production efforts, scoring a hit in 2014 with
the song “Get Lucky” on the Daft Punk album Random Access Memories.
Key songs on the Rodgers/Edwards catalog include: * Good Times * I’m Coming Out
* Le Freak * Upside Down * We Are Family
Sylvester Stewart p/k/a "Sly Stone"
Sylvester “Sly Stone” Stewart is up there with James Brown and Parliament-Funkadelic
as a pioneer of funk. A former disc jockey and producer of Bay Area bands
including The Beau Brummels and the Great Society, he formed the
boundary-breaking multi-racial, -gender and -genre group Sly & the Family Stone
in San Francisco in 1967. The group’s classic pop hits included “Dance to The
Music,” “Everyday People” and “Family Affair,” and their hugely influential
recordings have been sampled time and again.
Key songs in the Stone catalog include: * Dance To The Music * Everyday People *
Family Affair * Hot Fun In The Summertime * Thank You (Falettin’ Me Be Mice Elf
Again)
