Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble, Lou Reed, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, Green Day and the Paul Butterfield Blues Band have been elected into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s class of 2015.
Beatles drummer Ringo Starr also will be honored as the recipient of the hall’s “Award for Musical Excellence.”
Vaughan, who died in August 1990, was the runaway winner of this year’s “fan’s ballot” voting, as 18 million music lovers insisted the time for him to join the Hall of Fame had arrived.
Although Starr was already inducted into the hall in 1988 was a member of the Beatles, he has been the only "solo Beatle" to have thus far been ignored by the hall. John Lennon was inducted in 1994, Paul McCartney in 1999 and George Harrison in 2004. That'll change in the spring.
If you don't think Starr deserves it, check out his string of early Seventies hits (a string of hits that rivaled—if not bested—his solo-Beatles buddies), not to mention the quality of his early Seventies and Eighties work ("It Don't Come Easy," "Back Off Boogaloo," "I'm the Greatest" and the rest of the brilliant and fun Ringo album).
Reed, who died last year, is also a two-time honoree, having joined the Hall of Fame in 1996 as a member of the Velvet Underground.
Stay tuned for updates, plus a whole lot of Vaughan content that we've been saving for occasion. (We knew it would happen eventually!)
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony will take place at the Public Hall in Cleveland, Ohio, April 18.
