The HBO Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: 2012 Induction Ceremony: Tease #1 and 2

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fRk8oINHzA[/youtube][youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s002WeeeW4Q[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Slnq-_2SIgQ[/youtube]

They made a gaffe in teaser number 2. As they scroll down the previous inductees, you can clearly see Ella Fitzgerald's name when she hasn't even been inducted.

Someone at HBO wants Ella Fitzgerald to be inducted!

A nice story about Franny Beecher of the Comets finally getting inducted into the Rock Hall. http://t.co/7A2NLcCl #RockHall2012 about 5 hours ago

http://www.timesherald.com/article/2012 ... full_story

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame welcomes local guitar legend

Franny Beecher, member of the original Bill Haley & the Comets, will be inducted into Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame. Beecher, seen shown above Wednesday, March 21, stands with members of his family (from left): daughter Pauline Grinstead, son Bobby Beecher, Franny, granddaughters Patricia Cultrona and Jennifer Portello, great-granddaughter Camela Cutrona, wife Florence Beecher, and great-granddaughter Oliva Portella. Photo by Christine Reckner/Times Herald Staff

LOWER PROVIDENCE — The rocket scientists at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame have looked up and discovered the Comets.

While rock pioneer Bill Haley was enshrined as a lone asteroid in the R&R Hall of Fame in 1987, the remaining members of Bill Haley & His Comets, a band that helped jump-start rock ‘n’ roll in the early 1950s, were excluded from sharing his blazing orbit that year. Twenty-five years later that glaring oversight will be set straight with the Comets’ induction at the 27th annual awards ceremony in Cleveland next month. Franny Beecher, Danny Cedrone, Joey D’Ambrosio, Johnny Grande, Ralph Jones, Marshall Lytle, Rudy Pompilli, Al Rex, Dick Richards and Billy Williamson will be welcomed into the R&R Hall of Fame ranks at long last, along with half a dozen other groups that were similarly snubbed — the Crickets, the Blue Caps, the Famous Flames, the Midnighters and the Miracles. By the time Norristown native Franny Beecher began fusing jazz, blues and country-swing into exuberant rockabilly solos as lead guitarist for Haley’s band in 1954, he had already forged a reputation with the Benny Goodman Orchestra, which he’d joined six years earlier. His contributions to one of rock ‘n’ roll’s trailblazing outfits were as instrumental as its frontman’s in launching the new musical idiom from its underground status to worldwide adulation via such hits as “(We’re Gonna) Rock Around the Clock” and “See You Later Alligator.” Beecher and his Gibson guitar came on board following the untimely death of session player Danny Cedrone, whose axe soared on the original recorded version of “Rock Around the Clock.” But Beecher was the guy who played the now-iconic tune for the first time on national TV in the summer of 1955. In 1956, Beecher appeared with the group in the films “Rock Around the Clock” and “Don’t Knock the Rock,” performing his self-penned “Goofin’ Around” in the latter. He also composed the classics “Blue Comet Blues” and “Shaky.” “This induction was long overdue,” said Beecher’s daughter, Pauline Grinstead. “It should have been Bill Haley and His Comets inducted as a band in the first place. They’re righting a wrong is what they’re doing.” Even she doesn’t always grasp her father’s far-reaching legacy, she said. “How do you get from Pearl Street, where my father was born, and which was a very poor section of Norristown at one time, to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? When I talk to other musicians about him they’re just amazed by everything he has done.” Kevin Burk, lead singer of the Ribhouse Band, a popular mainstay at the Bridgeport Rib House, noted that the R&R Hall of Fame nod is belated validation for Beecher’s stunningly long career. “Bill Haley has been in forever, now his band is getting inducted and they’re giving credit where credit is due,” he said. “Everybody thinks that it should have been done before, including me. I guess it’s better late than never. “Franny is known as a guitar legend throughout the world. He has to be one of the last people walking the earth that has had Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley and the Beatles all as an opening act when he was with the Comets. That’s just insane. He was a jazz player who fused jazz with the new rock and roll beat at the time. Eric Clapton and George Harrison mentioned him as inspiration in Rolling Stone magazine. He set the precedent because there was no one playing like that before he did it.” Burk recalled a lost documentary that featured Bill Haley & His Comets and a reportedly less than stellar performance by a then-unknown Elvis Presley. “Elvis Presley had made a movie, the first movie he ever did, and Franny and the Comets were in that movie. When Elvis got big this movie disappeared and there are collectors who are still searching for it but it’s never going to be found. I have first-hand information that Colonel Tom Parker destroyed that film. He didn’t ever want anyone to see it. But I think it’s pretty cool that Franny and the Comets were in that movie. They were instrumental in marketing Elvis around the country.” Burk happily transitioned from being a Beecher fan to a bandmate a decade ago. “Franny came and played at my 40th birthday party and once I got to know him I asked him if he was interested in putting a band together,” Burk recalled. “At that time he was still touring with the original Comets and he said, ‘Yeah, sure, as long as it doesn’t interfere with the Comets.’ And we put the Heart and Soul band together and rehearsed in my basement. Franny kind of winded down his career playing with the Ribhouse Band every couple of months the last couple of years. And those gigs meant as much to him as when he played before the Queen of England many years ago. He was just so happy to play. It didn’t matter if he played in front of 70,000 or seven people, it was the same exact way.” To celebrate the formation of a new era of Comets, fronted by Bill Haley, Jr., Burk invited Beecher and a few of the original Comets to their show at the Rib House a few weeks ago. Beecher, now 90 and living in Trooper, eagerly sat in for a jam session. “The Rib House has now become kind of like a music mecca in the Philadelphia area, believe it or not. And Franny was a big part of the reason for that. If it wasn’t for Franny Beecher Bridgeport wouldn’t be known throughout the region as it is now.” Grinstead’s daughter, Jennifer Portela of Royersford, and Michelle Beecher, whose father is Francis Beecher, Jr., are heading out to the induction ceremony in Cleveland on April 14. “We are allowed two tickets and I’m letting them go instead because they’re younger and it’s so exciting for them,” Grinstead said. Portela had been to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum twice before, she noted. “I went with my husband and kids and was disappointed to see that with all the memorabilia there they only had one item of the Comets — a tour book,” she recalled. “Hopefully after this they will add something to the collection. It’s just amazing the company the Comets will be in now.” She’s always had a sense of awe surrounding the vitality of her grandfather’s music, Portela said. “We won’t actually be going on stage to accept for my grandfather because they’ll have one person doing that for all the groups,” she noted. “But it will be great to bring him home a trophy or certificate showing he’s been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.” Follow Gary Puleo on Twitter @Mustangman48.

Secret Emails Show How Laura Nyro's Son Got Shafted by the Rock Hall

http://www.forbes.com/sites/rogerfriedm ... rock-hall/

HBO removed their teaser that showed Ella Fitzgerald as an inductee and uploaded a new one.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1BHI-qTsZ4[/youtube]

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Loses Lemmy Kilmister's 'Ace of Spades' Jacket http://t.co/GuTULpVw

Green Day (the whole band) not Liam Gallagher, will be inducting Guns N' Roses

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/ ... e-20120403

THE 2012 ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME PRESENTERS:

Chuck D for Beastie Boys
John Mellencamp for Donovan
Green Day for Guns N' Roses
Bette Midler for Laura Nyro
Chris Rock for Red Hot Chili Peppers
Steven Van Zandt for The Small Faces / The Faces
Billy Gibbons and Dusty Hill for Freddie King
Carole King for Don Kirshner
Robbie Robertson for Tom Dowd
Robbie Robertson for Cosimo Matassa
Robbie Robertson for Glyn Johns
Smokey Robinson for The Blue Caps
Smokey Robinson for The Comets
Smokey Robinson for The Crickets
Smokey Robinson for The Famous Flames
Smokey Robinson for The Midnighters
Smokey Robinson for The Miracles

http://wcbsfm.radio.com/2012/04/02/slas ... h-up-with/

Come listen to this snippet of Slash's interview with WCBS.FM, where he says that because certain bands are NOT in the R&RHoF, it isn't as exciting being inducted. He then names the bands: Deep Purple, KISS, Rush, Cheap Trick and. . . Chicago. Yes, Slash said Chicago.

It seems he's using popularity as the main criteria, though, along with a narrow definition of "rock" that doesn't jibe with the original definition of rock. The snippet is long enough to get the list, but not long enough to show Slash giving his reasoning as to what type of act should be in the R&RHoF.

Slash says he wasn't hugely fond of Chicago, but they were a major band in the '70's and should be inducted.

That's just weird.

Future Rock Legends Hall of Fame Pyramid

http://www.futurerocklegends.com/Images ... yramid.jpg
http://www.futurerocklegends.com/Rock_Hall_Pyramid.php

Not as weird as Chris Rock for RHCP.

If anyone's interested, I've added over thirty new candidates to the HOF pages - starting here http://www.digitaldreamdoor.com/pages/b ... me_x1.html - and continuing over the next few pages following that. The new names aren't singled out though, you'll have to read through all 150 to find them. Mostly more recent eligible artists (I originally did those pages in 2006 I think), but a few of older vintage were thrown in too.