Kurtis Blow
Cheap Trick
Squeeze

Kurtis Blow
Cheap Trick
Dire Straits
Journey
Judas Priest
Roxy Music
Tina Turner

Rufus featuring Chaka Khan
Tina Turner

I'm surprised Rufus/Chaka Khan haven't gotten more votes in the two times they've been on these ballots. Even though I always thought the group name was one of the worst of all-time (I think a lot of people think Rufus is a guy, not the band) but Chaka's still got name recognition and she's widely considered one of the best female singers ever in rock. Maybe a good comparison would be Deep Purple (where Ian Gillan is a similarly acclaimed singer for a strong group with some big hits) and they got in here, so maybe DDD is just the wrong demographic for Rufus & Chaka. Strange though.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cm_cFzVAoo8[/youtube]

Their career was just a bit too short I think. Deep Purple had a much longer career and had much more world wide success.

There's also the thing that comes up with the baseball hall of fame. I was around for their whole career and I never thought of them as a hall of fame level act, the same way baseball people feel about guys with great career stats like Dwight Evans and Lou Whittaker. Both players are clearly hall of famers according to WAR, but people who saw their whole careers just never thought of them as being hall of fame level players.

Their revolving door membership doesn't help.

Besides Ian Gillan, Deep Purple boasts Ritchie Blackmore, Ian Paice, Jon Lord and Roger Glover. Glover is pretty replaceable, but the other three are hugely acclaimed rock musicians.

Meanwhile virtually nobody can name a second member of Rufus after Khan.

Yeah, I think Bruce has it right. They never seemed important. Also, outside of "Tell Me Something Good", do any of their songs really qualify as classics? Even the big hits such as "Once You Get Started" and "Sweet Thing" don't get played much these days and didn't have much impact, as far as I can tell. Chaka had a couple hits as a solo that have become classics ("I Feel For You", "I'm Every Woman", "Through The Fire"), and maybe those should count here. Including her solo career would definitely improve their case, but they're still borderline for me.

Kurtis Blow
Cheap Trick
Commodores
Devo
Dire Straits
Journey
Judas Priest
Roxy Music
Squeeze
Tina Turner

Kurtis Blow
Boston
Commodores
Journey

Bryan Adams
Pat Benatar
Kurtis Blow
Boston
Cheap Trick
Commodores
Devo
Dire Straits
Journey
Judas Priest
Roxy Music
Rufus feat Chaka Khan
Tina Turner

I think it would make more sense to give Chaka Khan credit for Rufus' records than give Rufus credit for Chaka Khan's solo records. So I probably would vote for Chaka Khan, but I think Rufus falls a little short. I think Lionel Richie is more deserving than The Commodores for similar reasons.

I was just thinking that today, that I would list her solo next time around.

Bryan Adams
Kurtis Blow
Dire Straits
Journey
Roxy Music
Tina Turner

Round 3 of the artists who released their first record between 1970 and 1979 is closed. There were 8 ballots turned in so a candidate needed 6 votes to be inducted. We have three new inductees.

Here we go:

INDUCTEES (votes)
Kurtis Blow (6)
Journey (6)
Tina Turner (6) (previously inducted as part of Ike & Tina Turner)

NON-INDUCTEES (votes)
Cheap Trick (4)
Commodores (4)
Dire Straits (4)
Roxy Music (4)
Judas Priest (3)
Squeeze (3)
Bryan Adams (2)
Pat Benetar (2)
Boston (2)
Devo (2)
Rufus feat Chaka Khan (2)
Jimmy Buffett (0)

Jimmy Buffett (0 votes) drops off the ballot, along with the Commodores and Rufus featuring Chaka Khan, who have now had their three rounds on the ballot.