Shame on the Hall of Fame

For the past three weeks or so, I've been posting videos on my Facebook page of women who have not been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame but who deserve to be (in my opinion, at least). It's a astonishing list: Joan Baez, Pat Benatar, Cher, Petula Clark, Lesley Gore, Janet Jackson, Joan Jett, Carole King, Cyndi Lauper, Stevie Nicks, Laura Nyro, Linda Ronstadt, Buffy Sainte Marie, Carly Simon, Tina Turner, Mary Wells, the Chiffons, the Crystals, the Go-Gos, the Indigo Girls, the Marvelettes, and the Shangri-Las. All of these women have made significant and lasting contributions to rock and roll and to music in general, yet they have yet to be included among the august company of inductees. And I stopped before I could include other luminaries such as Judy Collins, Marianne Faithful, Lita Ford, Janis Ian, Rickie Lee Jones, Nico, Helen Reddy, Carla Thomas, the Dixie Cups, the Runaways, and the Slits (whose lead singer recently passed away).

When you see that list of names and then you look at some of the inductees into the Hall of Fame, you begin to wonder just how fairly women are treated in rock music. I'm not trying to quibble over some of the people who have already been honored, but I do think that if you could find room to include the Dave Clark Five and Gene Vincent and the Lovin' Spoonful and Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers, surely there must be room for Pat Benatar and Linda Ronstadt and the Go-Gos and Lesley Gore. If you can induct Bob Dylan and then later induct his band, The Band, then you can induct Joan Baez. If you can include James Taylor, then you can include his ex-wife Carly Simon and his current touring partner Carole King. If you can induct the Jackson Five and then later induct Michael Jackson, certainly you can make room for younger sister Janet Jackson.

It's true that Tina Turner is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame already, but as a part of a duo with her ex-husband, not for her solo career. Given the bad blood between them, Tina decided that she would skip the ceremony when they were inducted, leaving Ike Turner to enjoy an evening to revel in his success. Tina Turner has never had a chance to feel that same sense of pride. Yes, Stevie Nicks is also in the hall, but as a part of Fleetwood Mac, not for her solo career. Her time as a solo artist is almost equal to the time she's spent with the rest of Fleetwood Mac. Lest you think that it would be inappropriate to induct someone twice, just remember that Eric Clapton has been inducted three times already, for his solo work and as a part of the Yardbirds and as a member of Cream. And fifteen other men have been inducted twice, including three of the Beatles (no, not Ringo Starr--yet) and all of the members of Crosby, Stills, & Nash.  Tina Turner and Stevie Nicks and other female performers should get the same consideration.

Likewise, Carole King is included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but in the "non-performer" category that is now named after famed record producer Ahmet Ertegun. She's there with her songwriting partner, Gerry Goffin, but to consider King a non-performer is to miss the contributions of her overall career. Maybe none of the nominating committee has ever listened to Tapestry, at one time the biggest-selling album by a female artist.

By this point, you may be wondering just which women are already in the Hall of Fame. It is an impressive list of performers. The solo female artists in the hall are Aretha Franklin (inducted in 1987), LaVern Baker (1991), Ruth Brown (1993), Etta James (1993), Janis Jopin (1995), Joni Mitchell (1997), Dusty Springfield (1999), Bonnie Raitt (2000), Brenda Lee (2002), Patti Smith (2007), and Madonna (2008). That's eleven women out of the 82 solo artists who have been inducted, about 13 percent of the total. You may notice that not all of them are truly "rock and roll" singers, but they all have certainly influenced rock music throughout the years.

When it comes to duos and groups, the counting gets a bit trickier. Sixteen duos and groups with at least one female member have been inducted, among them the Supremes (inducted in 1988), Ike and Tina Turner (1991), Sly and the Family Stone (1993), Martha and the Vandellas (1995), Gladys Knight and the Pips (1996), Jefferson Airplane (1996), the Shirelles (1996), the Velvet Underground (1996), Fleetwood Mac (1998), the Mamas and the Papas (1998), the Staple Singers (1999), Talking Heads (2002), the Pretenders (2005), Blondie (2006), the Ronettes (2007), and ABBA (2010). A few of those, like the Pretenders and Blondie, are fronted by women, and others, like the Supremes and Martha and the Vandellas, are exclusively female groups, but no one would consider Sly and the Family Stone or the Talking Heads to be "female-centered." Still, if you're feeling generous, duos or groups with female members constitute 18 percent of the 87 duos and groups in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

(A quick note about the Velvet Underground: You may have noticed that I included Nico, who performed with the Underground quite often, as one of the women yet to be inducted. That's because she was omitted from the list of members when the group was honored in 1996. Maureen Tucker, the band's drummer, was included among the honorees, so that's why the Velvet Underground is included above.)

This is all about the category for "performers," by the way, but there are four other categories in which one could be inducted. There's one for "early influences, which includes thirty people, six of them women (Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, Dinah Washington, Mahalia Jackson, Billie Holiday, and Wanda Jackson). Jackson, of course, was a contemporary of performers like Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis, both of whom are inducted as performers. Early influences, according to the hall's website, are performers "whose music predated rock and roll but had an impact on the evolution of rock and roll and inspired rock's leading artists." Perhaps there's some logic at work here that would explain why Jackson (who was inducted in this category in 2009) wasn't just included among the performers, given that she was one of the few women playing rockabilly music in the 1950s, but it escapes me. The lifetime achievement category has seven inductees, all of them men, none of them performers. I've already mentioned the "non-performers" category above with respect to Carole King. Two other women, both songwriters, are included in this category: Ellie Greenwich and Cynthia Weil, both of them inducted with their male songwriting partners too. That category contains 41 individuals. Finally, there's the "sidemen" category, which includes fifteen men best known for performing as backup musicians.

The rules for how an artist is inducted, to be fair, are a bit bewildering. There's a committee that picks finalists each year from a list of artists who have had at least twenty-five years since the release of their first record. Who's on the committee is never quite clear. Neither is it clear who the 500 "rock experts" are who are given ballots of the finalists to select. An artist must be chosen by more than 50 percent of those "experts" in order to be inducted.

This year's nominees are Alice Cooper (the whole band, not just the individual), the Beastie Boys, Bon Jovi, Chic (which has female members), Neil Diamond, Donovan, Dr. John, the J. Geils Band, LL Cool J, Darlene Love, Laura Nyro, Donna Summer, Joe Tex, Tom Waits, and Chuck Willis. Love, Nyro, and Summer have all been finalists in the past; none of them are given good odds for induction this year, but who can tell what the "experts" might decide.

I'd like to make a case for one female artist, in particular. Pat Benatar released her first major studio album in 1979 although she had, technically, released a single ("Day Gig") five years earlier. That would mean that she has been eligible for induction at least since 2004. To my knowledge, she's never even been one of the finalists. Yet she has amassed nineteen Top 40 singles, numerous gold, platinum, and multi-platinum albums, and four consecutive Grammy Awards for the Best Female Rock Vocal Performance. That last honor is rather unprecedented (well, outside of the polka category). Benatar received her first Grammy for 1980's Crimes of Passion album, her second for "Fire and Ice," the third for "Shadows of the Night," and her final award for "Love Is a Battlefield." She was nominated an additional three times in the same category and once more in the Female Pop Vocal Performance.

She was a star from the release of the single "Heartbreaker" in 1979, and she was well established enough by the time that MTV arrived in 1981 that her video for "You Better Run" was the second video ever shown on the channel (after "Video Killed the Radio Star" by the Buggles--someone at MTV had a sense of humor). She was known for her live performances and her groundbreaking videos, and she's still performing today with her husband of twenty-eight years, guitarist Neil Giraldo, and the rest of her band. I myself saw her perform at Mississippi State University in the mid 1980s, and I can still recall how powerful a singer she was (and is) despite being so tiny. I regretted not going to her show this past summer at the Greek Theatre, but she was touring with REO Speedwagon, and I didn't think I could manage to sit through their segment in order to enjoy Benatar and her music.


Benatar took up causes in her music, including domestic violence, child abuse, and sexism. If you read her autobiography published earlier this year, Between a Heart and a Rock Place, you'll understand just how much of a pioneer she truly was. She was one of the few women to challenge the men who controlled the music business. While she didn't always succeed, she managed to get the last laugh sometimes. I think her video for "Sex as a Weapon" was clearly aimed at everyone who told her that she needed to look pretty for the stage.


I cannot imagine a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame that doesn't include someone like Pat Benatar. She defined what being a rock star was during the 1980s and beyond. There's a scene in Fast Times at Ridgemont High where some girls are talking about how much everyone is influenced by Benatar, and the camera then pans the school to show girls with that famous haircut and those outfits. I can even recall when the band Quarterflash was popular (briefly), and everyone was talking about how much the lead singer was copying Benatar's vocal style. Lots of other women in music did too, but it's too bad that the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame hasn't seen fit yet to honor her contributions.