The Rock Hall Singles Category is still a thing

November 21, 2020 07:51 PM Filed in: 2020 Ceremony | Induction Categories | Singles Category

The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inducted five more songs into their Singles Category this year, despite not mentioning them in a press release or the televised induction special. The lack of information about the category prompted reporter Troy Smith to ask the Foundation about it in October. When asked specifically about the category, the Rock Hall Foundation said, "it is something that we preferred to have done live, so we are skipping it this year with the plan to return it next year.” The Foundation seemed to have forgotten that it had in fact selected five songs for induction in 2020 (they were printed in the souvenir book), and shortly after their denial added the singles to their website without any official announcement, beyond a wordless Tweet from one of the Museum's Vice Presidents.

The five songs selected are:

  • Irma Thomas - "Time Is on My Side" (1964)
  • Junior Walker & the All-Stars - "Shotgun" (1965)
  • Sam the Sham & the Pharaohs - "Wooly Bully" (1965)
  • The Troggs - "Wild Thing" (1966)
  • The Box Tops - "The Letter" (1967)

On a recent episode of the podcast Who Cares About the Rock Hall? ceremony director/producer Joel Gallen was asked about the Singles Category's exclusion from the 2020 HBO induction special. He said that he had initially planned to include a short segment during a live ceremony, but after that was canceled, he was never asked to include it in the shortened induction special. Gallen was surprised to learn that the only premise of the category had been undermined in 2019:

The Rock Hall has already said they are continuing with the category in 2021, but by the way they continue to treat it, they make it easy to forget.

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