Rock and Roll Hall of Fame - The Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll

The Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's "The Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll" is an unordered list of 660 songs (initially 500) that they believe have been most influential in shaping the course of rock and roll. It was organized by Hall of Fame museum curator James Henke who, according to the hall, "compiled the list with input from the museum’s curatorial staff and numerous rock critics and music experts." The list is part of a permanent exhibit at the museum, and was envisioned as part of the museum from its opening in 1995. The list contains songs recorded from the 1920s through the 1990s. The Beatles and The Rolling Stones are the most represented on the list, with eight songs each. Elvis Presley has seven songs, while The Beach Boys, Bob Dylan, Led Zeppelin, Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Wonder and Chuck Berry each have five.

Read more about this topic:  Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame

Famous quotes containing the words rock and roll, songs, shaped, rock and/or roll:

    When we were at school we were taught to sing the songs of the Europeans. How many of us were taught the songs of the Wanyamwezi or of the Wahehe? Many of us have learnt to dance the rumba, or the cha cha, to rock and roll and to twist and even to dance the waltz and foxtrot. But how many of us can dance, or have even heard of the gombe sugu, the mangala, nyang’umumi, kiduo, or lele mama?
    Julius K. Nyerere (b. 1922)

    On a cloud I saw a child,
    And he laughing said to me,

    “Pipe a song about a Lamb”;
    So I piped with merry chear.
    “Piper pipe that song again”—
    So I piped, he wept to hear.

    “Drop thy pipe thy happy pipe
    Sing thy songs of happy chear”;
    So I sung the same again
    While he wept with joy to hear.
    William Blake (1757–1827)

    And hiving wisdom with each studious year,
    In meditation dwelt, with learning wrought,
    And shaped his weapon with an edge severe,
    Sapping a solemn creed with solemn sneer.
    George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)

    All the junk that goes with being human
    Drops away, hard rock wavers
    Even the heavy present seems to fail
    This bubble of a heart.
    Gary Snyder (b. 1930)

    “Courage!” he said, and pointed toward the land,
    “This mounting wave will roll us shoreward soon.”
    In the afternoon they came unto a land
    In which it seemed always afternoon.
    Alfred Tennyson (1809–1892)