Image via the Recording Academy’s official Facebook
After a year away, The Recording Academy has revived the Grammy Hall of Fame, and today makes a bold new stride to elevate the status of 50-year honorary tradition. Tomorrow, the Academy will hold the inaugural Grammy Hall of Fame Induction Gala at Los Angeles’ Novo Theater, marking the first time an event has spotlighted these music legends since the announcement of the first inductees during the 1974 Grammy Awards show. According to Grammy Museum President and CEO Michael Sticka, this prestigious celebration finds a counterpart in the organization’s plans to open a permanent posting for the Hall of Fame at the museum, which will take the form of an interactive exhibit expected to arrive early next year.
“The Hall of Fame and the Museum pretty much go hand-in-hand,” Sticka shared with Billboard. “When we first started talking about what this thing really could be, we talked about how the Hall of Fame should live in the Museum. It makes perfect sense.” This ready-made match provides the perfect solution for the Academy’s endeavor to re-vamp the Hall of Fame and “get away from simply doing a press release,” which has also inspired a shift to the selection guidelines; for 2024, annual inductees have been culled from 25 or more recordings to only 10, and a longstanding reserve for pre-1950 recordings has been removed. As of 2024, recordings must only be over 25 years old to be eligible candidates.
The latest class marks the 50th anniversary of the retrospective honor and is highlighted by four landmark full-length albums: Lauryn Hill’s The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, Guns N’ Roses’ Appetite for Destruction, Buena Vista Social Club’s self-titled release and De La Soul’s 3 Feet High and Rising, which celebrated its 35th anniversary on De La Day in February. The diverse cohort is given more depth by its six singles, comprising Donna Summer’s “I Feel Love,” Charley Pride’s “Kiss an Angel Good Mornin’,” Wanda Jackson’s “Let’s Have a Party,” Kid Ory’s Creole Orchestra’s “Ory’s Creole Trombone,” William Bell’s “You Don’t Miss Your Water” and The Doobie Brothers’ “What a Fool Believes.” With this latest class, GRAMMY Hall of Fame has immortalized a total of 1,152 legendary recordings since its inception.
Tuesday’s event will celebrate the inducted recordings with six live performances and four broadcast recordings, favoring covers to emphasize the enduring influence of the legacy selections. Andra Day will treat a selection from The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, The War and Treaty will revive Pride’s classic, Elle King will stage Jackson’s rockabilly forebearer and Hanson will broach the Doobie Brothers’ 1978 mega-hit. The show will also feature a performance from the great Bell, who will perform “You Don’t Miss Your Water” 65 years after its debut. “We really focused on the tribute performance, but William wanted to do [his own song] and we weren’t going to say no to that opportunity,” Sticka says.
This year’s gala will be filmed, but not televised. Clips from the show will be available after the fact on COLLECTION:live, the Grammy Museum’s streaming archive. For more information on the GRAMMY Hall of Fame, this year’s inductees and the complete list of treasured recordings, visit grammy.com/awards/hall-of-fame-award.
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