LINK: List of All Inductees/Honorees
HONOREE
Ed Sullivan
Ed Sullivan may not have any direct ties to the music industry as a musician writer, producer, or performer but he was very important to bringing rock n roll music into the homes of mainstream America. Sullivan hosted the highly popular variety program The Ed Sullivan Show from 1948 to 1971 and it was a staple of Sunday evening television for American families. Sullivan introduced many rock n roll acts to the American public, such as Elvis, The Beatles, and The Rolling Stones. His importance to "normalizing" the rock genre for the older generation can't be minimized as it paved the way for many young people to be impacted by the rising popularity of rock music and to make many artists and bands into household names.
INDUCTEE
The Rolling Stones
Like the Beatles, there isn't a lot that I am going to educate anyone on or information that I can pass on about the group that isn't already commonly known or hasn't been looked at exhaustively. My personal thoughts are, the Rolling Stones are the second greatest/influential band of all time, and I have probably listened to them more in my lifetime than all but 2 or 3 bands. The "yin" to the Beatles "yang", they were always a bit more raw and obviously more "bluesy" than the Fab Four. This lent a certain credibility to just playing music from the "balls" rather than labor over it. They are still going strong and I thought the recently released "Hackney Diamonds" was a fantastic record for a group that has stood up to time.
