That is only the “original” in the sense that Lowen and Navarro wrote the song. They only released their own version years after Benatar did. Hers is the original.
In case anyone wants to participate in the fan vote, the link is here (note that you have to give them a verified email address to vote):
The early leaders are:
- Pat Benatar
- Dolly Parton
- Duran Duran
- Eminem
- Eurythmics
I agree with every word of this (and with EinsteinHund’s reply).
Is there any Hall of Fame in any field in which the fans vote in the inductees? I can’t think of any. Even if they exist, they have to be rare.
In the broader picture, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame quite rightly expanded outside of 50s and 60s style performers. It’s never bothered me that rap artists get in or electronic groups or others who influenced the many-tentacled beast that modern music has become.
Even so, I have to admit that Dolly Parton is a stretch. There is a vibrant and long-lasting Country Music Hall of Fame. She’s clearly a country singer. Her songs, however, have been covered by a wide range of performers, probably most notably Whitney Houston, who is not a rock artist and is herself in the Rock Hall. Elvis, the Everly Brothers, and Johnny Cash are in both, so there’s precedent. (Ray Charles isn’t in the Country Music Hall. How can that be explained?)
Still, this feels wrong, a sop to her current popularity. She had a #1 hit with Kenny Rogers, who started out in rock, but is in the Country Music Hall. Should he be included in the Rock Hall now too? There’s a Bluegrass Hall of Fame, and very few of them are in the Country Music Hall, so lines are drawn there as well.
I feel somewhat hypocritical, because I’ve always been on the side of inclusion. But I wouldn’t consider Frank Sinatra for inclusion or Miles Davis or Bela Fleck or Michael Bublé or Ravi Shankar or a host of others who have tangential connections to the field. I would consider country rock outfits like Alabama, who are in the Country Music Hall. I’m not a fan of theirs, but their music is little different from a thousand country rock albums by groups who are genuine rockers.
But if Dolly Parton, then how do they not include Dionne Warwick, and then you have to induct Hal David and Burt Bacharach, who wrote all of Warwick’s songs and lots of other chart-toppers, but never considered themselves part of the rock world. I have no answers.
I never thought of Ray Charles as being a country singer at all. Do you have some examples of his country songs?
Thanks! I had no idea.
In addition, some of Ray’s releases from the 1980s, on Columbia Records, were specifically country-oriented; during that era, he had a number of top 40 country hits (many of them duets with established country artists).
They should just change the name to the Pop Music Hall of Fame.
The criteria is perplexing. Gangsta rap like N.W.A is considered Rock and Roll, but 1970s era progressive rock (e.g. Jethro Tull, King Crimson) is not.
There has (or at least, had) been a longstanding sentiment among progressive rock fans that the RRHOF was biased against progressive rock, at least in part because Jann Wenner (founder of Rolling Stone, and co-founder of the Hall) apparently had a documented history of disliking the genre.
But, that seems to be shifting. In the past few years, a number of prog and prog-influenced bands have made it into the Hall, including Rush, Yes, The Moody Blues, Genesis, and Electric Light Orchestra.
That said, there are still several influential progressive rock bands (the two you mention, as well as Emerson, Lake and Palmer) who aren’t in the Hall, and, from what I can tell, have never even been nominated.
Clearly progressive rock is considered eligible music, since Rush is in. Their exclusion is not some sort of eligibility thing, it’s that Jann Wenner doesn’t like them.
I think it’s pretty obvious the R&R Hall of Fame’s selections have not been at all logical or consistent.
On the fan poll, I picked Devo, New York Dolls, MC5 (all three of which are long overdue), Kate Bush and Pat Benatar. I agree that Dolly Parton is as close as we’re going to get to a sainted figure in pop culture currently, but 2020’s hipster cred doesn’t mean she’s rock 'n roll. Which isn’t to dismiss all of the country genre…Johnny Cash essentially emerged from the same record label, period of time, and crucible of influences as Elvis did, so I could see him qualifying despite banking further into country music.
I love visiting the Rock Hall, even as I recognize how much the whole enterprise is a Jann Wenner vanity project, and how iffy some of the inducted choices have been over the years. I wish there was much more of an underground (alternative? not sure what the right word would be here) presence. After the initial holy trinity of punk (Ramones, Pistols, Clash) and a couple more CBGBs stars (Talking Heads, Blondie, Patti Smith), there’s a big dropoff from that genre. A better case could be made for The Damned, Stiff Little Fingers, The Jam or countless others from the class of '77 than a few dozen of the current residents of the hall. I’m still miffed that it took so long for Roxy Music to get in; they were inarguably one of the top three or four most influential bands of the seventies. And where’s Richard Thompson? Most of all, considering you can practically see the Flats from the balcony at the RnRHoF, Pere Ubu has yet to be nominated, and while they’ve sold a pittance over the years, they have cast a pretty long shadow.
The closest thing the LA Punk scene has in the Hall are the recently inducted Go-Go’s.
I’m in the same boat, never heard of these two. Even looking them up on Wiki helps naught. It’s weird to see people up for this award that don’t even have a breakdown of their discography.
The Rock and Roll part is just there from inertia. Letting people in that had nothing to do with rock started a very long time ago and I don’t see that changing. However, fuck off to Parton and Beck.
Which of the 150 band members are going up onstage if they get voted in? 
And now I see that Dolly Parton is in the top five. If she gets in, they may as well combine Country & RR Halls of Fame into one award.
I don’t know what you’re alluding to, since you admitted to not knowing the MC5, but they had the same 5-piece outfit throughout their whole stint.
ETA: just checking their wiki page, I see that they had different band members after their recording career, so I correct my statement to “during their classical era”. And the discography is easy:
1968 - Kick Out The Jams
1970 - Back In The USA
1971 - High Time
Not according to their Wiki page. Looks closer to 20, so I may have been a little off on my number. It lists three dead members, although I think one was a replacement for an original member.
Yes, see my edit, I granted that, but never knew about it. But trust me, everything after 1971 really didn’t make much of an impression to the band’s history.
And if we discount bands with more than 150 members, Yes should be automatically out of the RRHOF 
. Heck, there were two outfits named Yes at the same time!
Just a quick google of these shows they’re not in the memory of many fans today. Kick Out seems to have peaked at #30. Without looking at more links than I care to, I don’t see a charting for Back In The USA. And High Times is way down the list after several links to High Times magazine.
I get that you like them, but for a band that was so influential, even their Wiki page sucks. Like I said, I don’t think I’ve ever looked up a singer or band on Wiki that didn’t have a separate discography page that broke down their album charted their songs. I guarantee that they are not the one getting the fan vote.
I’ll go along with that! Let’s get a petition going, I think it may be doable. 