20 egregious Rock and Roll Hall of Fame snubs

SINGLES

I’ll admit I have no idea what the Hall is planning on doing with the recently created Singles category. Between 2018 and 2020, they honored 17 songs with this special designation. These were supposed to be for singles by artists who were not yet in the Hall in any other capacity.

The songs themselves were deemed to be of such significance that they merited recognition. Then, after 2020, the category disappeared. No mention of it at all. The seventeen songs that were recognized between 2018 and 2020 are still prominently featured, but there is no indication the Hall plans to continue the award. I think they should because I think it’s a good idea. “Louie Louie” is appropriately in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame because of this category. Lord knows The Kingsmen wouldn’t get in in any other way. Besides, I have a suggestion for an entry in this category next year.

“Joy to the World” by Three Dog Night

You could make the case that Three Dog Night deserves to be inducted as Performers. For a five-year period in the early 1970s, they put nine singles into the top five on the US charts. That’s an impressive run. The problem is, they didn’t do much else.

They did show that a band could employ multiple lead singers and use complex harmonies in a rock song, but their peak was just a little too short to elevate their profile. Still, at the end of 1970, they sang what they considered to be a nonsense song on their album Naturally. It wasn’t initially released as a single. But it took off nonetheless. It stayed at number one for six weeks and finished the year as Billboard’s top song of 1971.

It also has the most iconic opening lyric in all of rock music. The story goes that songwriter Hoyt Axton wrote “Jeremiah was a bullfrog” as a placeholder until he could come up with something better. Turns out, there was nothing better. “Joy to the World” is despised by some critics because it really is a goofy song. But that’s exactly why it should be in the Hall. Rock and Roll should never lose sight of its goofiness – of how much fun pop music can be. There are countless rock songs that are better than “Joy to the World.” There are precious few that are more representative.

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