We say every year that the Songwriters Hall of Fame Induction ceremony is the music industry’s best-kept secret —an invite-only, insider combination of a superstar awards show and a family reunion for the tight-knit songwriting and music-publishing community that is in its 52nd year and has never been televised or livestreamed. In fact, we’ve said it so many times that longtime SHOF CEO Linda Moran quoted us in her opening remarks on Thursday night.
While the show has had honorees pull out in the past — Jay-Z due to the impending birth of his and Beyonce’s twins, less happily the Kinks’ Ray Davies due to the death of his sister —this year’s event was the first time two honorees canceled, deferring their inductions to next year: the reclusive Sade, who everyone figured had about a 40% chance of showing up, postponed several months ago due to a scheduling conflict, and Snoop Dogg, who pulled out abruptly for undisclosed reasons earlier in the week. But the SHOF is such a star-studded evening that the event was a rousing success filled with great music regardless —and the silver lining was the fact that it was over in a relatively tidy three hours (it often stretches toward five).
One of the greatest aspects of the show is seeing superstars like Billy Joel or Lionel Richie speak of people like Mickey Stevenson or Chip Taylor — who’d just walked the event’s red carpet virtually unrecognized —as equals and icons. And on Thursday night, we heard people speaking reverently of Liz Rose, who unexpectedly began her songwriting career as a single mom in her late 30s but has co-written multiple country hits for Taylor Swift and many other artists — and Tim Rice, who wrote the lyrics for “Jesus Christ Superstar,” “Evita,” “The Lion King,” “Aladdin” and was even knighted by Queen Elizabeth: songs that millions of people know even if they’d never recognize these two legendary songwriters if they passed them on the street. The Class of 2023 also includes Electric Light Orchestra mastermindJeff Lynne, Miami Sound Machine’s Gloria Estefan, Alanis Morrisette collaborator Glen Ballard, New Jack Swing icon Teddy Riley,a young-songwriter-themed award for rapper Post Malone, and a patron honor for CBS News’ Anthony Mason.
The show always starts off with a bang, and this year’s did not disappoint: Eagles guitarist and solo artist Joe Walsh playing a hard-edged version of ELO’s 1979 hit “Don’t Bring Me Down” — a very well-selected cover, as it’s one of the few songs in the group’s catalog in Walsh’s vocal range. After finishing the song he said, “I’ve always wanted to be in ELO, guess I just crossed that one off the list,” before following with an absolutely hilarious induction speech, delivered with the deadpan humor that is a trademark of so many of his solo songs: “I got a phone call saying that Jeff Lynne was being indicted in New York and I was the one who had to do it, so here’s the People versus Jeff Lynne! When ELO first came out, we thought, Who were these guys? How many were they? There must be 30 or so if they’re an orchestra… nope! I found out that they were pretty much one guy,” referring to Lynne, who wrote, produced and sang nearly all of the group’s material. “John Lennon called them the S.O.B.s — that means sons of the Beatles,” and after working with George Harrison in the ‘80s, Lynne went on to produce the two reunion songs the three surviving Beatles recorded for their “Anthology” series in the 1990s.
And with Paul McCartney announcing earlier in the week that he had used AI to clean up the sound quality of a rough Lennon demo that will be released as a Beatles song later this year, Walsh’s remarks then turned to AI, by far the main topic of conversation in the music industry in recent months. “So AI means that music will be shot from a digital beam at the speed of sound and all of us will become obsolete? PFFFFFFFT!,” he said, blowing a long raspberry. “You can’t program the soul of a songwriter or the gifts of an artist! And,” he added, “it can’t superglue furniture to a hotel ceiling or throw an air-conditioner into a pool — when it can do that, AI will be a true musician.”
After playing ELO’s 1977 hit “Mr. Blue Sky,” Lynne spoke of the magic the music on the radio brought to his childhood in rainy Birmingham, England, and told the the familiar story of how the song came about after a two-week period of writers’ block during “dark and rainy” weather in Switzerland, “And then one morning, suddenly it cleared up and I could see the Alps, and I wrote 14 songs in two weeks.”
Next up, singer-songwritersLori McKennaandHillary Lindsey staged a mini Love Junkies reunion to perform the Grammy-winning “Girl Crush,”which they wrote with Liz Rose and was a hit for Little Big Town. “It was our pleasure and privilege to write that song with our personal girl crush, Liz Rose,” they said, before introducing Liz’s daughter Caitlin, who sang her mother’s Taylor Swift collaboration “White Horse” beautifully despite some nerves (industry execs are one thing, but performing in front of your mom?). In her gracious acceptance speech, Rose thanked publisher Jody Williams, who signed her based on two songs and insisted that she was indeed a songwriter, despite her protestations (nice work, Jody). She thanked the Nashville songwriting community, Bart Herbison and Nashville Songwriters Assn. International “for giving me the privilege of standing up for songwriters and fighting the fight,” and many of the artists who have sung her songs — by name, but she especially singled out Swift, recalling “working with a 14-year-old and everybody laughed at me, but I said, ‘This is the easiest thing I do all week: Every day we write a song in an hour and a half.’” Who’s laughing now?
The next honoree is literally a “Sir”: Tim Rice, who was honored with an absolutely stunning performance of “I Don’t Know How to Love Him” (from “Jesus Christ Superstar”) by Grammy- and Tony Award-winningsinger Heather Headley. She delivered the song at first a cappella and almost interpretively, in a murmur that opened up into emphatic verses as the house band gently accompanied her and belting on the chorus, showing off her staggering range. She was joined by Rice’s cowriter, EGOT Alan Mencken, on piano as well as actorMichael Maliakelfor a powerful version of “A Whole New World”from “Aladdin,” and finally by “Lion King”cast memberBrandon McCall for a choir-backed performance of Elton John’s“Can You Feel the Love Tonight.”Rice, who has attended many SHOF ceremonies in the past, accepted his award with familiar — and very British — humility, saying that he primarily received the award “because they knew I would show up,” but spoke movingly of his primary collaborators, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Mencken and Elton John, saying that “it’s almost impossible not to have a hit” when working with such talents.
Next, Grammy-winning singer-songwriterSiedah Garrettand “MJ” musical star Myles Frostperformed a killer version of Michael Jackson’s1987 hit “Man in the Mirror,”which Garrett wrote with honoree Glen Ballard, who was written hits for everyone from Alanis Morissette to Wilson-Phillips and Aerosmith. Ballard seemed seemed almost giddy at his induction, saying “This honor tells me that I haven’t been wasting my time” and then introduced his own solo performance of a brief medley of his hits like “Hold On,” “Ironic,” “You Look So Good in Love,” “Believe” and“Open to Persuasion” by saying, “You’re about to hear why we have artists.”
The energy level jacked back up when R&B singer Keith Sweatand “Human Beat Box”Doug E. Freshintroduced their teenaged friend, collaborator and fellow Harlem native Teddy Riley, who is widely credited with launching the early ‘90s “New Jack Swing” sound.“We used to cut school and play music at his mom’s house,” Fresh recalled, “We knew he was that special guy from the neighborhood who had a gift,” although, “We’re kids from Harlem. We never thought we would be at the Songwriters Hall ofFame, baby!” Riley seemed to feel the people in the audience “don’t even know my songs, but that’s okay as long as they make you dance.” He recalled his father leaving instruments in the family living room when he was a child, just to see if his son would take to them (he did), and remembered being pulled onstage with Gladys Knight at the Apollo when he was 5. “I knew right then I wanted to be a star!” Still, he said, “I’ve got a Hollywood star, but this is the greatest honor.” He thanked record executive Clarence Avant for introducing him to Quincy Jones, who then introduced his music to Michael Jackson. The trio then brought the crowd to its feet with an electrifying melody of Riley’s greatest hits including“The Show,” “I Want Her”and“No Diggity/ Rump Shaker.”
As the show wound to its close, producer-songwriterLouis Belltook the stage to honor his longtime collaborator and friendPost Malonewith theHal David Starlight Award,which is presented to young songwriters. He recalled first hearing Malone’s music and its “magical quality —that it was a voice I’d be hearing 40 years from now in the middle of nowhere.” He balanced praise with humor, calling him and “old soul” who sounded like “an angelic goat,” to an uproarious laughter from the crowd. Malone, clad in a sleek black suit, white shirt and tie, took the stage and gave his friend a long hug, then explained he was uncomfortable with public speaking but was effusive in his thanks, saying “It’s so epic to be up here” and drew laughs when he said, “I’m 27 —I’m getting old now,” before adding, “I’ve been touring for eight years, I’m just about done with this!” He then picked up an acoustic guitar and played a solo version of “Feeling Whitney”from his debut album“Stoney.”
Finally, legendary Motown songwriter, member of Ashford & Simpson and Songwriters Hall ofFamer Valerie Simpsonintroduced Gloria Estefan,calling her a “pop music force of nature, creating songs that touch fans of all backgrounds around the globe.”
Estefan gave a lovely acceptance speech that focused on her fans and family: She met her “one and only,” husband and bandmate Emilio Estefan, when she was 17, and “48 years later, here we are.” She recalled her rough early years with her parents and siblings as immigrants from Cuba, remembering a song her mother sang her as a baby, singing along with favorite Cuban singers as a child, and when she was first asked by Estefan to sit in with his band. “Ever since I can remember, music has saved my life.” She then said, “My fans may know me better than some of my closest friends. That is the beauty and danger of being a songwriter: We lay ourselves bare.”
She and the Hall’s ace house band then tore through a powerful medley of “Reach,” “Words Get in the Way,” “Anything for You,” “Can’t Stay Away from You,” “Don’t Wanna Lose You,” “Con Los Años Que Me Quedan”and“Let’s Get Loud,”which became a family affair as Emilio (on congas) and grandsonSasha (duetting) joined her for a finale of Gloria Estefan and Miami Sound Machine’s “Rhythm Is Gonna Get You”— which was definitely the song in the heads of most of the audience members as they exited, unexpectedly early.
