The 1989 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony
The evening was like the Academy Awards ceremony, a rock & roll summit meeting and a Friars Club roast all rolled into one. A veritable pantheon of rock superstars and pop-music pioneers — their careers spanning half a century — convened at New York’s Waldorf-Astoria Hotel on January 18th for the fourth annual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction dinner. The dress was black tie, but there was nothing formal about the way the assembled celebrities saluted their mentors, toasted their peers and roared through one another’s biggest hits during the full-tilt jam session that climaxed the evening.
As in previous years, the roll call of inductees, inductors and big-name guests read like a pop Fortune 500: Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Stevie Wonder, Bruce Springsteen, Tina Turner, Lou Reed, Paul Simon, Dion DiMucci, Anita Baker, the Temptations, Al Green and the reclusive superproducer Phil Spector, among many others. But what set this bash apart from the glitter of previous ceremonies was the gusto and sheer unpredictability with which the stars paid their respects and received their honors. There was a lot more laughter; Pete Townshend inducted the Rolling Stones by slicing them up in his speech, Don Rickles style. And there was a lot more music; Little Richard inducted soul great Otis Redding by singing the Big O’s greatest hits, and Daryl Hall and John Oates paid tribute to the Temptations by breaking into a chorus of their 1965 hit “Don’t Look Back,” only to be joined by the Temps themselves.
On this Hall of Fame night, the emphasis was on the sound, spirit and humor of rock & roll itself. After all, as Mick Jagger aptly put it in his acceptance speech, “we’re being rewarded for 25 years of bad behavior.”
The evening commenced on a more solemn note. After the traditional opening medley of classic songs associated with the inductees — executed with relish by the Hall of Fame house band, Paul Shaffer and the World’s Most Dangerous Band — Rolling Stone editor and publisher Jann Wenner, comaster of ceremonies with Atlantic Records chairman Ahmet Ertegun, dedicated the event to the late Roy Orbison, who had been inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1987. “We’re very proud of the role we played in reestablishing Roy’s career,” Wenner said, noting that Orbison was the first Hall of Fame member to pass away since being inducted. The singer’s widow, Barbara, who was sitting at Springsteen’s table, took a bow to fervent applause.
Things took a soulful turn with the induction of artists in the forefather category: the highly influential black vocal group the Ink Spots, the legendary blues diva Bessie Smith and the gospel greats the Soul Stirrers. “There probably isn’t any music that we listen to today that isn’t in some way profoundly influenced by the gifts or imagination of what Bill Kenny, Ivory Watson, Charlie Fuqua and Jerry Daniels gave us,” declared jazz warbler Bobby McFerrin as he inducted the Ink Spots. Petite Anita Baker did the honors for Bessie Smith, the Empress of the Blues.
The Soul Stirrers — whose groundbreaking vocal fusion of spiritual zeal and secular heat set the stage for the pop and soul revolutions and whose succession of lead singers included Hall of Fame member Sam Cooke — were inducted by the Reverend Al Green, quite a soul stirrer himself. On hand to accept their statuettes were original Soul Stirrers R.H. Harris and S.R. Crain, along with the widow of J.J. Farley and the wife of E.A. Rundless.
It took the Howard Hughes of rock, producer Phil Spector, who was inducted in the nonperformer category, to swing the pendulum from the sublime to the ridiculous. In her induction of the man Tom Wolfe dubbed the First Tycoon of Teen, Tina Turner recalled going into the studio to record the classic “River Deep, Mountain High” in 1966. “It looked like there were about 50 musicians, 25 singers, and Phil was in the midst of tearing up what looked like an arrangement,” she said with a laugh. “I wish all of the people that I sing for could have seen Phil Spector in action, working there with all those people and getting that sound.”
In fact, what the Hall of Fame folks saw was the man who built the Wall of Sound looking pretty plastered himself. Spector hit the stage bopping madly to the strains of the Ronettes’ “Be My Baby,” flanked by three beefy bodyguards who practically elbowed Tina out of the way. He mumbled a few incoherent words about George Bush and the presidential inauguration, and then his bodyguards carried him away again. Unbeknown to Tina, Phil Spector had invited her ex-husband, Ike Turner, to the ceremonies. Earlier in the evening, Ike had in fact been under the mistaken impression that he was going to induct Spector. “I’m happy to be here,” Turner told Rolling Stone, “but it made me kind of nervous that she was going to be here.” No doubt the feeling was mutual.