It's taken twenty-six years and a whole lot of lugging around of his baby grand, but ivory-tickling storyteller Billy Joel was finally chosen as an inductee into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame yesterday. The ceremony, scheduled for March 15 at New York's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, will also induct veterans Bruce Springsteen, Curtis Mayfield, Paul McCartney (his second entry), Del Shannon, Dusty Springfield, the Staples Singers, Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys, Charles Brown and, in the non-performer realm, George Martin, the anointed fifth Beatle. Criteria for induction includes a minimum of twenty-five years since the artist released his/her first album, as well as a weighty significance of his/her contribution to rock & roll. So we wonder, why didn't the Piano Man earn his stripes last year, the first year of his eligibility? The Innocent Man had only this to say: "I'm honored to be a member of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Class of '99. It's an absolutely amazing feeling to be placed in the company of some of my all-time heroes and influences" . . .

Funkster Rick James is still holed up in a Los Angeles hospital intensive care unit following his Nov. 9 stroke. In an informal statement to the Superfreak's publicist, Dr. William Young said that surgery has been ruled out, but James still has to undergo "an extensive battery of tests to determine the exact nature of the stroke," and "could be a long time in recovery." Needless to say, James' current national tour has been put on hold (he can't even walk at the moment, though he plans to resume his concert schedule ASAP). In the mean time, don't send flowers or cards, though, as James has requested that any donations be made to the Leukemia Foundation in the name of William "Head" Johnson, his younger brother who died of the disease last week . . .

If you had any doubts that Ol' Blue Eyes would be back sooner or later, the folks at New York's Hofstra University will dispel them this weekend when they host a three-day conference examining the cultural relevance of Frank Sinatra. Apparently, the sponsors of "Frank Sinatra: The Man, The Music, The Legend" will be sticking to Sinatra's music, rather than delving into his instrumental role in making the mafia cuddly enough for middle America to appreciate. The conference will dissect such topics as the obsessive love granted Sinatra in Belgium and the singer's groundbreaking gender-bending performances of songs --like "The Lady Is a Tramp" and "My Funny Valentine" -- that were initially intended to be sung by women. And since it is an intellectual conference -- unlike the Marilyn Manson symposium currently unfolding down in the Lone Star State -- there promises to be a fair amount of hot air wafting from the Long Island campus. One lecture will assert that Sinatra and Charles Dickens were, in fact, extraordinarily similar. Both, according to scholar Patricia Vinci, "got famous at twenty-four, both were slim with intense blue eyes, always fashionably dressed and ... both had fans that would swoon and claw at them in public." It's an interesting argument, but until Vinci demonstrates that Dickens spent his time hanging out with fellas named Johnny Eggs and Vinnie Pyro, we're not biting . . .

The RSN staff
(November 11,1998)